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Royal Navy Sea King HAS.6 - XV711 - Advice wanted


MarkdipXV711

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Folks,

A little elf told me that Santa is bringing me the 1:48 Hasegawa Mk5 limited edition Sea King for Christmas. This kit comes with the barn door FOD shield and larger radome but not sure about the starboard extended sponson.

I intend to make it a long term build and build it is a HAS6, airframe number XV711, callsign 09, as shown below. I will be sourcing the various after market PE etc as well as some scratch building.. but I am wondering what's the best way to go, in order to obtain the decals ??

It must be the aircraft shown below, as it was the last Sea King I crewed back in 96 and the picture below shows us at Old Warden back in July 1996

XV71107071996b_zpsbba71a98.jpg

XV71107071996_zps392d6556.jpg

Is it best to TRY and make my own decals in order to supplement what's in the kit, for example the serial numbers and the claymore etc.. or are there companies/experts who can make 1:48 scale decals to order ??

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank You

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Hi,

You could try Parkers decals who are on BM in the traders/Vendors section, I've used him before and he's good for bespoke decals or contact Whirlybird decals and see if they can help, you never know they might produce a sheet of your cab for general sale. I'd buy a set.

I think the MAD bird sponson is in that kit as a throwback to the SH3 base kit if not let me know and I can sort it.

Cheers the Woo

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Hi,

You could try Parkers decals who are on BM in the traders/Vendors section, I've used him before and he's good for bespoke decals or contact Whirlybird decals and see if they can help, you never know they might produce a sheet of your cab for general sale. I'd buy a set.

I think the MAD bird sponson is in that kit as a throwback to the SH3 base kit if not let me know and I can sort it.

Cheers the Woo

Will do mate. .. will check the kit on the 25th 😄

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Model Art did a sheet in 1/72 with the Claymore design and nose Saltire - don't think they did a 1/48 version, though....

Cheers Andy .. got that one a week ago from another member. Couldn't find a model art 1:48 set though. Appreciate you yaking time to reply. Thank you

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can see a lot of white there, inkjets and lasers don't print white so the best option is to try and use commercial decals as much as you can. Letters and serial numbers can come from generic sheets of white UK postwar letters/numbers. This would leave the individual markings only to deal with

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

You could try Parkers decals who are on BM in the traders/Vendors section, I've used him before and he's good for bespoke decals or contact Whirlybird decals and see if they can help, you never know they might produce a sheet of your cab for general sale. I'd buy a set.

I think the MAD bird sponson is in that kit as a throwback to the SH3 base kit if not let me know and I can sort it.

.... unique decals sorted and will try printing at home. Only need a couple now 😂

Edited by MarkdipXV711
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Hi,

Managed to scan this from one of my zippo lighters and then mucked about with microsoft "paint" to zoom in and remove as much of the background that I could pixel by pixel !!

claymore819_zps2bf64baa.jpg

Have since resized it to about 15mm in height which is roughly in scale for the 1:48 Sea King. I've printed a test on paper and it looks as if it will be good enough. The image itself is actually mostly light grey and not white so I've ordered some clear waterslide decal paper. Is it really as simple as printing this image onto the decal paper and then sealing the resultant printed image with some acrylic clear coat ?? and when required just affixing as per any other commercial decal ??

As always, advice always welcome.

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Unfortunately it's not as simple as just printing and applying the decal..

Now you say that the artwork is mainly light grey, this unfortunately is lighter than the medium sea grey of the model. For this reason, the lighter areas will not show on the underlying darker paint.

I would first try on a scrap bit of plastic painted in the same colour you'll use on the model. I believe the problem mentioned above will force you to use white decal paper and carefully cut the artwork.. it's worth trying with the clear paper anyway.

Another alternative is to print on white paper not only the artwork but also an edge in the final colour. This will help blending in the decal with the paint

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Unfortunately it's not as simple as just printing and applying the decal..

Now you say that the artwork is mainly light grey, this unfortunately is lighter than the medium sea grey of the model. For this reason, the lighter areas will not show on the underlying darker paint.

I would first try on a scrap bit of plastic painted in the same colour you'll use on the model. I believe the problem mentioned above will force you to use white decal paper and carefully cut the artwork.. it's worth trying with the clear paper anyway.

Another alternative is to print on white paper not only the artwork but also an edge in the final colour. This will help blending in the decal with the paint

Great idea to check it out on a scrap bit of plastic first. ..knew there was a reason I kept the airfix ASaC 7 model!!

If the clear decal paper doesn't work..I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point.

Will give it a try..many thanks 👍😆

Edited by MarkdipXV711
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The clear paper will sure come handy ! You will see that once you've got your first customised decal job done, you'll start looking for other markings that are otherwise not available

There is also another way of approaching a similar job: print the contour of the artwork only on white paper, cut from the sheet and apply to the model. Then print the complete artwork on clear paper and apply this on top of the white background.

The reason to do so is that often the artwork printed on white paper is hard to cut without the ink/toner breaking in small bits where it's cut. This results in a very bad lookng jagged edge. Using a separate background in white only avoids the problem.

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Cheers fellas ... flipped the image on the computer to produce the handed image. I think I've opened a can of worms here but looking forward to the challenge !!

I will try both methods, white painted base and white decal underlay on a scrap bit of painted plastic.

Will also need to print the correct scale Royal Navy and number 709 and airframe number XV711. Do you guys know the correct style/font/size for these. 😉

Nose Saltire will be done as per my recent 1:72 builds... Spray paint and masking

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Cheers fellas ... flipped the image on the computer to produce the handed image. I think I've opened a can of worms here but looking forward to the challenge !!

I will try both methods, white painted base and white decal underlay on a scrap bit of painted plastic.

Will also need to print the correct scale Royal Navy and number 709 and airframe number XV711. Do you guys know the correct style/font/size for these.

Nose Saltire will be done as per my recent 1:72 builds... Spray paint and masking

There is a font available on the web for postwar British numbers and letters. They are not always perfect as there have been variations, but overall it works for over 90% of the codes and letters I've seen. You can find the link to download the font and a discussion with some examples here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/9256-rafrn-serial-font/

That's for the good news, now the bad news... since the Royal Navy titles and the codes are white on your subject, you can't print these as most printers don't print white. You have two options here:

- have them printed by a decal company that can offer this service. For example Parkes682 can print white on a special inkjet and can be contacted through Britmodeller (they have a section in the vendor area)

- buy a generic sheet with white letters and numbers. Modeldecal used to do sets in 1/72 scales that included both letters and numbers and various titling, including the RN ones. These can also be used in 1/48 scale if the size you need is there...

There may be other suppliers, I'd have a look at Fantasy Printshop as they have a number of generic sheets of this type

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There is a font available on the web for postwar British numbers and letters. They are not always perfect as there have been variations, but overall it works for over 90% of the codes and letters I've seen. You can find the link to download the font and a discussion with some examples here:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/9256-rafrn-serial-font/

That's for the good news, now the bad news... since the Royal Navy titles and the codes are white on your subject, you can't print these as most printers don't print white. You have two options here:

- have them printed by a decal company that can offer this service. For example Parkes682 can print white on a special inkjet and can be contacted through Britmodeller (they have a section in the vendor area)

- buy a generic sheet with white letters and numbers. Modeldecal used to do sets in 1/72 scales that included both letters and numbers and various titling, including the RN ones. These can also be used in 1/48 scale if the size you need is there...

There may be other suppliers, I'd have a look at Fantasy Printshop as they have a number of generic sheets of this type

Thank you ..will get searching on the web.Appreciate all your assistance 👍 Edited by MarkdipXV711
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I do so love Christmas and New Year - absolute bargains to be had on a well-known auction site....

Picked up a colour laser printer complete with toner cartridges yesterday for the princely sum of (wait for it).....

Six quid. Even with delivery cost, still under twenty - £19.06, to be precise!

Our inkjet one is OK, but laser tends to be sharper, and also no need to 'seal' with varnish afterwards....

So assuming that it does actually work, my Sea Kings for the GB should feature some custom finishes too!

Already did all the black artwork for a few of them some time ago, just need to use up the space on the sheet....

.... love a bargain, looking forward to your work 👍

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