MH434 Breitling Fighters

[Discus]

Hi All,

 

Have been reading this forum a lot recently after picking up my old childhood hobby again, and already gained so much useful information to improve my modeling. Now I came upon a hurdle that I haven't been able to clear so far. I'm replicating Spitfire MH434 1/72 as it was when I got the chance to sit in it as a boy. This was during the time it was part of the Breitling Fighters team featuring the yellow nose cone.

 

 

I would like to add the team badge as featured in front of the cockpit but so far have not yet found any commercially available decals for this. Presently I'm trying to produce them myself however as my skills with any photo editing software severely lack the results are far from satisfying. Is anybody aware of available decals and or is willing to share their own attempt at these?

 

 

Regards

 

 

[JackG]

There is actually a decal maker in the Netherlands that do custom work.  If you have a good image of what you want they might be able to help.  If you try to design it yourself, it has to be done with a vector program like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator.   I've never tried them, but you can see some of their work on their site, contact info also can be found there.

 

http://www.blackliondecals.nl/

 

regards,

Jack

[Discus]

Thanks for the link Jack! I've dropped them an email to see what they can do. Their site says they need a Corel Draw file so we'll see, might need to teach myself new digital skills then!

 

Regards,

Jan

Edited December 18, 2017 by Discus

[JackG]

Yeah, I've been creating some of my own decals from time to time using a photo paint program.  Recently though, I needed white which my printer is not capable of, so had to source out a decal maker.

 

They all appear to want files in vector mode, so it is a bit of a steep learning  curve as you learn how to deal with nodes, manipulating shapes, layers,  etc.  I spent well over two weeks designing my sheet, mind you the artwork was created for four subjects.

 

regards,

Jack

[Smithy]

I made some decals for my A-4K Kahu using Paint Shop Pro which I was very happy with. Saying that they were only black and printed onto clear decal sheet but they turned out much better than expected. It took a couple of hours fiddling around but was actually quite a fun process and I was mighty pleased with myself at the end! I used this webpage for the instructions on how to do it:

 

http://imansolas.freeservers.com/Creating_My_Own_Decals.html

 

You could definitely make the Breitling Fighters badge yourself using Paint Shop Pro and white decal sheet.

 

Cheers,

 

Tim

Edited December 18, 2017 by Smithy

[JackG]

 

Certainly can try printing this yourself without white ink. 

 

Only problem I see is printing this on a white decal:

1 - you will have to trim the decal afterwards right up to the outer red, which in turn can lead to bleeding of the inks when you soak into water

or

2 -  leave excess decal white around the the badge and print the dark green of the aircraft around it, but it can be a problem matching ink to paint.  You can also paint this by hand after the decal is set on the model, but requires a steady hand.  Above all, you will likely see the decal edge since the eye more readily detects this as opposed to when the edge is on the image.

 

Another option is,  if you were to print this on clear decal film, you can try cutting a mask of the badge shape and spray down the background white, this ensures you have nice bright colours.  Or even another option is to print out just the shape of the badge on white decal paper, trim that out and apply to the model followed by the coloured clear decal on top - essentially a 2-part decal.

 

regards,

Jack

[Discus]

I'm experimenting with printing them myself. Got some white and clear decal paper to see what works best. So far using white decal paper has proven quite difficult to trim properly mainly due to the size (well, lack of it). I'm gonna try the second option you mention Jack, that might actually work better as probable excess white paint can more easily be corrected with dark green paint. Keep you informed