Jabba Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share Posted July 24, 2019 23 hours ago, helios16v said: Oh deary me. Make sure you have a pint w/ you to keep your nerves calm. Not too much though, otherwise it'll be a bugger to keep the paint where you need it. Hopefully my newly bought super strength visual aids will help with this. Last night I started to apply the decals and all went well with the first few around the nose. As I looked at my watch I still had 20 mins of modelling time for the evening and so I thought that I would apply the main starting point of the wing walks, so that I could carryon tonight. I cut out the decals, put into water as normal put on my usual setting solution and then started to apply the one on the right of the photos. When applied to the model I found it very difficult to move, I even applied more setting solution to wet the decal to hopefully to get it to move and after a struggle got it looking as it does now. Not brilliant, but may do. But when I applied the left one I really could not move the decal and eventually it turned into a crumpled mess and was removed. I have also damaged the paint finish in some areas here. I do not know what has happened as this had never happened to me when using Caracal decals, before, even when applying wing walk type ones. I have bought another set of these decal from Hannants, but I do not think that I will now get this one finished before the end of this GB. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 Oh damnitalltohell! I hate those long thin decals. Most of the time I would rather mask & spray...I can get straighter lines that way. That's what I ended up doing on my RF-4 for the red vertical line on the aft fuselage after I scrapped the kit decals. Another option to possibly consider for the future (since you've already ordered another set) is a pen or marker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 On 24/07/2019 at 20:16, helios16v said: Oh damnitalltohell! I hate those long thin decals. Most of the time I would rather mask & spray...I can get straighter lines that way. That's what I ended up doing on my RF-4 for the red vertical line on the aft fuselage after I scrapped the kit decals. Another option to possibly consider for the future (since you've already ordered another set) is a pen or marker. I thank you for your options, but with my eye sight that is rather difficult even with my super strength add ons. I have tried to mask invasion stripes on aircraft with no luck. I also have ruled out the pen as some of the walkways are not on the wings but are also on the top of the fuselage, which may prove difficult. Still never say never, I may have to practice what you have mentioned on something and see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 1 minute ago, Jabba said: I thank you for your options, but with my eye sight that is rather difficult even with my super strength add ons. I have tried to mask invasion stripes on aircraft with no luck. I also have ruled out the pen as some of the walkways are not on the wings but are also on the top of the fuselage, which may prove difficult. Still never say never, I may have to practice what you have mentioned on something and see how it goes. For the fuselage bits you could also use some tape to act as a straight edge for the pen/marker. Looking forward for your decals to arrive so you can see this through. We used to have those beasts fly over our house in Vermont (based out of Massachusetts) on occasion back in the day.....along w/ almost weekly low level overflights by A-10s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted July 30, 2019 Author Share Posted July 30, 2019 With the arrival of a newer decal sheet I started to apply the walkways again. To start with I began on the tailplanes as these were smaller and would hopefully give my confidence a bit of a boost (see second photo). Unfortunately yet again things did not go to plan as again whilst using my usual setting solution the decals begrudgingly moved and also the way the decals were joined together meant that when I had to cut them to get the spacing right I had a lot more problems as the decals then started to melt and set in position. Having used Caracal decals before I am sure that the problems that I have been having are more than likely down to me, the setting solution and possibly the heat in the UK at the moment. I also may not have put them in exactly the correct position, and this is why the decals required to be cut so that they fitted the space as shown. So last night I started on the fuselage and wing box decals, but this time with a slightly different approach. In stead of using the setting solution I used just good old plain water and the results can be seen below. The decal moved about much more freely, and I actually only intended to fit the wing box ones, but thought that I might as well fit the ones that run fore and aft on the fuselage so the I then had the wing box decal spacing correct. I am pleased with the result, and will go one with the inner wing ones tonight. As a slide show I have also been painting the wheels, but I does take about an hour to apply the paint so I have only done one coat so far. 5 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted July 31, 2019 Share Posted July 31, 2019 Looking good. Decal setting solutions can always be hit or miss. I've got a few different ones, and try to start off on the conservative side...gradually moving up to "hotter" solutions as needed. I've made the mistake before going straight for the red bottle of Micro-Sol...then watching the decal shrivel and melt in a matter of seconds (and I have a bottle of hotter stuff for those thick stubborn decals). Whoops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted August 3, 2019 Author Share Posted August 3, 2019 Thank you for your comments, I have never had any problems with the solutions that I use and these decals before. I think that it may have been a combination of the heat that we have had over here in the UK, the amount of setting solution that I applied and just a little bit of bad luck. Decalling all done now, and I have also painted black around the flight deck glazing as I found some photos from the time period that I am building and most of the C-5s had this applied, so this is why did it. A few coats of matt varnish to apply then it is on with painting the wheels, and then the slats before fitting these and the rest of the parts. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex77 Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 Looking very good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted August 20, 2019 Author Share Posted August 20, 2019 I finally got this one finished a week after the dead line, I just had not got around to taking any pictures of it. So here it is. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 Nicely done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Good afternoon Jabba Very good job All the best Patrice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 Thank you both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 very nice! but we NEED better pictures!! please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted August 22, 2019 Author Share Posted August 22, 2019 These were taken with SWMBO's point and shoot camera as I normally use, but not in the usual place that I photograph my models as it is too big for that. I will try again and try and do better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaracalModels Posted August 25, 2019 Share Posted August 25, 2019 Very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted September 1, 2019 Author Share Posted September 1, 2019 Hopefully some better pictures. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 That is impressive! Good job on that monster! Regards, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaracalModels Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 Very nice - it looks like it was worth all the effort! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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