Revell London Country 480 Routemaster - the old school bus!

[wagoneer]

Ah, I see what you mean. I've got the same issues on my build with the internal lettering. It might be possible to print the body colour on the decal as well if you can match it to the paint. This is something I'm going to experiment with myself having been asked to produce white transfers to go over colour.

Rather than trying to print heavier ink coverage, why not print a couple of copies of the text then over lay one on the other to increase the density.

[Kallisti]

tried that and it works to a limited extent but then you get a thick and visible block of decal film sitting on the surface of the model

[wagoneer]

Something else I've thought about is doing it like this: A bit of white decal film to make the text show up then the red part with the text out of it fading to nothing on some clear decal film.

[roymattblack]

WOW!!!

What a scruffy old bus!

Love the weathering and the dents.

I have this kit and I'm getting more and more tempted to make mine 'tatty' when the time comes.

Brilliant.

Roy.

[roymattblack]

I don't have access to an Alps printer and I will be printing the large advert and black routing labels on white decal film, but the yellow "London Country" lables are the ones causing the problem which are too fiddly to print on white and trim round the letters. I'm going to try printing on the highest quality and on "transparency" mode which should lay down more ink than normal...

It won't work.....

Sorry.

I've been printing waterslide decals as part of my Garden rail business for the past 8 years.

Inkjet on clear film ONLY works with VERY dark colours.

The problem is that inkjet ink is transparent too.

The only option is to experiment by printing loads of little blocks of your background colour in varying shades, noting the RGB components in each block.

Print onto photo paper and look at the printed samples against the model. You only need 1 sheet of paper - all the different shade blocks side-by-side.

When you get a good match (maybe even exact?) use that as your b/g colour on white decal paper.

It's time consuming, but it works.

I've done it countless times.

Roy.

[ukmodeller]

Amazing build. Very impressed with the high detail

[Kallisti]

Thanks

Not sure why this doesn't have a link to the RFI, so here it is... http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234946275-revell-routemaster-london-country-480-mid-70s/

Edited May 29, 2016 by Kallisti

[Tzulscha]

Dang Kallisti, you are a prolific wee bugger aren't you?

(I didn't see the date at first but still...)

The bus looks terrific by the way. Anything dirty and worn. Me likey!

I have solved the opacity problem on occasion by simply stacking images.

What I mean is multiple copies of each image stacked one atop the other.

Even three layers of decal film is still pretty thin.

How are the real graphics done anyway? Paint, stickers?

[Kallisti]

Back then I think the posters were on paper that was glued onto the panels, hence why I have lots of paint loss where they would have been scraped off later. Nowadays these tend to be vinyl panels that stick on and can be peeled off again after the campaign is over.