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On 28/05/2020 at 01:05, hendie said:

@perdu is the resident home-brew-decals-with-Word genius around here.  if you speak nicely to him, he can probably guide you through the process

He talks too much!

 

We should send the boys round, but if you would like a small consultation I will be happy to share a few tips and hints.

 

I have had that pixelation problem occasionally, normally that is solved by changing printer settings

 

Print text images as photographs usually sorts that out, the actual colour is a different kettle of poisson

 

When I was making the decals for the Wasp I had the 'print white without a white tank on the printer problem' and the 'what colour is RAF Blue Grey' one too

 

I was also not very good at using the graphics program, which ended up with me losing huge quantities of decal paper by printing in the centre


After spending hours agonising over the proper way to solve both questions I struck on using the headings/text box and small margins in Word to do most of the trick.

 

I used the colour background setting to set the background colour of the text box and the letter colour setting to print in white (or any other colour if I needed to, yellow or red need a white backing too.

 

This picture is of a spare decal sheet I made for my Sikorsky H-19B from last year, the background colour is Sea Blue Gloss which I used Model Air 71.300 Glossy Sea Blue.

P1010659.jpg

 

Add flash

P1010660.jpg

As with RAFBG the colour I was getting on the colour wheel in Word  was always too bright a blue which didnt suit so this is what I did to get the text box background colour right

 

Back a few months (ish) when Ex-FAAWAFU was building his Sea King he printed the colour mix he was using for RAFBG and it gave me a shock

 

A bit of Blue, a bit of Black and a chunk of Green which I realised was why I had been having difficulty getting close to the real colour on printed transfers

 

I picked the colour mix tool again for the text box and when I got a dark enough blue moved the selector off into the green/yellow part of the spectrum and there was a replica of Sea Blue Gloss

 

I printed a few test sheets and shifted the colour about until I was happy with it

 

Selecting the print settings for the 'printing as photos' gave me colour strength to take away any pixelation and of course using the font of choice made the letters I needed

 

This is only a rough guide because each time I do it I have to re-learn how to make text boxes and smaller custom margins but it did help me get the colours of letters and background reasonably accurate

 

This is a pic of a series of colour attempts I made for the Wasp

P1120332.jpg

 

That was a right royal pain, that 'un.

P1120433.jpg

 

True confession time

 

I didnt have the 'Green in RAFBG' hint when I did her and the background didn't quite work, please keep that to ourselves OK?

 

(Oh yes another hint, try not to lay decals over strakes. They are hell to fit.)

 

I hope this helps you, that Sea King is a brilliant build.

 

PM me if you like, I will help all I can.

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I should perhaps clarify, the text box I fill with colour is the header box used on leaflets, pamphlets and such.

 

Took me a while to find it in Word 2010, it was easier in Word 2007 but it is in there if you know your way round the program.

 

Reduce margins in custom settings, colour the box and print in white.

 

I suppose that was all I needed first time, sorry if it wasted your time.

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On 6/2/2020 at 11:07 AM, perdu said:

suppose that was all I needed first time, sorry if it wasted your time.

Never Bill, never. I thank you for taking the time to write such an in depth and long response, I was going to contact you as @hendie  suggested but I wanted to get some movement on the other builds first.

 

It sounds like I was on the right track to start with, like you I am using word but as you suggested it is a big and powerful programme and has lots of corners to investigate but your reply points me in the right direction and with some priceless tips too.

Some of your suggestions seem so obvious it seems mad that I did not think of them but now I shall go and have a play and hopefully I can stick with my trusty MP490 printer.

 

Cheers

 

Gary

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By the way, this is the white Marines decalling in use on the model.

 

Shows that adding green to the background (adjust to taste) does the trick.

 

P1010151.jpg

Remember what I said about strakes and decals?  (wasn't kidding)

P1010164-1.jpg

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I think part of the 'problem' is that the white sheets are thicker than clear ones - as seen below, on the UH-3A the rivet detail barely shows beneath the white lettering, and edges to the decals are visible; in comparison, look carefully at the UH-3H's black lettering and the rivet lines underneath can be seen. All home-printed, and applied in exactly the same way:

spacer.png

spacer.png

Edited by andyf117
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On 6/4/2020 at 9:33 AM, perdu said:

Shows that adding green to the background (adjust to taste) does the trick

Your not wrong Bill, that looks superb, green it is.

 

Strakes are now on the avoid list.

 

On 6/4/2020 at 11:35 AM, andyf117 said:

is that the white sheets are thicker than clear ones

I thought the same  Andy, if you look at the pic I posted with the decal sat on the airframe it looked thicker even to my eye, is it down to decal paper or is it common to all white decal paper?

 

Your pic certainly seems to suggest it is thicker. On balance though I would be happy to accept a thicker decal for the right colour match.

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Though Bill is kindly giving me some credit for the green in RAFBG, the real credit should go to the iModelkit app; I was having similar issues (in my case getting a convincing home brew paint mix rather than stickers, but same difference), but when I sampled several photos whose colour looked good to me, and followed it up with the HAS5 at the FAA Museum in the flesh, the app consistently said it needed a bit of green... and it works.

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2 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

the app consistently said it needed a bit of green... and it works.

When technology works it can be very pleasing and surprising in equal measure. Is the app available as an open source or is it to be purchased, it sounds like a very useful tool?

 

Take the credit you never know when the next plaudit may come😊

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14 hours ago, Head in the clouds. said:

I thought the same  Andy, if you look at the pic I posted with the decal sat on the airframe it looked thicker even to my eye, is it down to decal paper or is it common to all white decal paper?

 

Your pic certainly seems to suggest it is thicker. On balance though I would be happy to accept a thicker decal for the right colour match.

As I mentioned in the UH-3A's RFI, the 'flaws' are more evident in the photos than on the model itself sitting in the display case - some can be mitigated by careful trimming, such as avoiding long straight edges where possible, although you'll struggle there as I did with the 'NAS Point Mugu' titles...

....one trick I've discovered when cutting out the decals is to angle towards, rather than vertically or away from the design, to help avoid leaving a white edge...

Edited by andyf117
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15 minutes ago, perdu said:

have sometimes used the finest of brushes to almost dry brush edges away

Braver man than I, once that decal is in place I don't even breath on it.

 

I will have to give it a go though Bill, I have some old carpet thickness decals to practice on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good evening one and all.

A small update tonight, and it is all to do with precious metal. Brass to be precise.

 

Having made the sponson rear mounting brackets it was now time to mount them. I can't remember if I mentioned it in my last previous posts but I intentionally left the side plates long so as I can cut slots into the airframe and slide them home. After several measurements being taken and checked and I made my move and made the first incision, well, a hole to be precise. A  small hole was drilled on the mark;

20200530_152046

 

20200530_153054

 

Next, I needed to elongate the holes and for this I used a very small broach that I purchased when I took up modelling about 5 years ago, can't for the life of me remember where I purchased them and to be fair they do not come out very often but for this job they are perfect;

20200530_153217

 

The only problem with them is that they are very thin and to get a precise,straight line is very hard indeed so I put my micro saw to good use;

20200530_153354

 

Next stage was to widen the slot as it still was not wide enough to accept the bracket. This time I used a slightly bigger saw to finish the job;

20200530_153828

 

Now with 4 nice slots it was time to see if I got my measurements right and blow me,they slotted in lovely. After a little manoeuvring into place I fixed them with thin CA;

20200530_162126

 

And to'ther side;

20200530_155019

 

A little filler here and there and job done.

 

Now for the tricky bit; mounting these slabs of brass onto the model in a way that looks true to the real thing but strong enough to be handled. Hmmm!

On the 1/1 model there are two small bars that come down at 45 degrees from the underside of the bracket to the bottom corners of the sponsons. For me this would be too weak as the bars could only be made of very thin rod and connecting them to the bottom corners of the sponsons would be problematic so a new approach was needed.

After some head scratching( this is why I am bald) I decided to do the following;

Make L shaped plate.

Drill 2 small holes in said plate and rear ofsponson.

Make 2 pins

Insert into plate.

And then into sponson.

And glue with Super Thin Hot CA (This stuff is the work of the devil, it goes everywhere like some alien blob) ( and it burns!)

Here are a few pics;

20200613_144116

 

20200613_144244

 

20200613_163605 20200613_145919

The idea for the L shaped bracket is for the short leg of the L to sit on the inside of the front face of the bracket and then be soldered in place.....hopefully. This will give a much stronger fix.

 

 

Next up was the bracket at the front which holds the mounting body for the large camera, it can be seen here at the front of the sponson;

SK B8182.14  28.3.90

Copyright FAST.

 

For this I used a similar approach as i did for the rear brackets but for now I have omitted the web plate at the bottom of the housing. More pics;

20200614_104837

 

20200614_104106

 

20200614_105807

 

20200614_121441

 

Also added are a plate on each sponson, no idea of it's purpose but it is there so it is going on.

 

Here they are together;

20200614_133829

 

The holes are for the mounting pin that will sit in the camera mounting box in the earlier pic.

 

Offered up to the mothership for comparison;

20200614_134122

 

That sorts out the back and the front, now for the middle which will be the other support point for the sponson. This consists of what looks like a damper as can be seen here, sitting at about 30 deg fixed to the top of the sponson, the starboard is easier to see than port;

SK B8182.12  28.3.90

Copyright FAST

 

Not sure what to do here. It needs  to be solid but again to scale (damned 1/72 kits....just kidding).

I could drill straight into the fuselage and dress it up after or I could make a brass mounting with hole in bottom to accept damper and hole in front to fix to fuselage. That is a lot of holes in a very small item.... I shall remove some more hair from my scalp and come back to this later.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

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22 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I hope you have some hair left by the morning!

Cheers Pete.

As luck would have it it still grows on the sides so some reserves still left😜

19 hours ago, andyf117 said:

Tis sheer witchcraft, all this brass malarkey....

....personally, I can't wait to see how you tackle that big all-seeing eye and its visible innards

Thanks Andy.

I am hoping  a picture turns up showing the lens with some sort of in flight shield in place to protect the lens then problem solved. Not putting my house on it though.

I first need an appropriate globe that is hollow and then my nightmares can start...😉 already sweating just typing this.🥴

 

18 hours ago, hendie said:

looking really good with all that brasswork going on.

Thank you hendie, it does look nice when it all comes together, alas, it will be covered in paint and everyone will be non the wiser. A nice material to work with though, strong for modelling easy to work and the option to solder it all together.🛠️

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15 minutes ago, Head in the clouds. said:

I first need an appropriate globe that is hollow and then my nightmares can start...😉 already sweating just typing this.🥴

Jewellery beads, as used for necklaces/bracelets? Hobbycraft or eBay would be your best bet...

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  • 2 months later...

It has been a long time since I posted here so I thought it only right to correct this oversight. Life has been incredibly busy and I for one am thankful for that so lets make it a little more busy by updating this post.

 

Last time I posted it was with regard to the sponsons that will ultimately support the camera and it's mounting box. One of the issues that I have to get my head around is how to mount the rather substantial  sponsons onto the fuselage, this was spoken of earlier so I shall not repeat myself now, suffice to say I am still pondering.

 

While I was waiting on some Evergreen material to construct the camera mounting box I did a little playing with the printer for XV371 after @perdu kindly gave me a nudge in the right direction. It was all to do with getting white lettering decals printed on a background to match the airframe colour. After a couple of hours of experimentation I had several samples to choose from but I am still not there.

20200616_185232

 

About this time the door mat received a direct hit from the' Postie' and my Evergreen had arrived; ZB506 was a 'go'

20200616_184732

 

Time to get to work.

 

I didn't have any written plans to build this, basically planing as I build, dangerous I know, I did have the odd misfire but we got there in the end. Rather than waffle on about every cut and measurement I will let the pictures do the talking.

20200621_103615

 

20200621_102720

 

20200621_103848

 

20200621_122100

 

20200621_124204

 

20200621_190653

 

20200623_180807

 

20200628_160928

 

20200628_161749

 

20200629_185624

 

The rivet detail is prominent so it was replicated here with a rivet wheel.

 

Next is the semi-circular unit to which is attached the camera ball but that is for another day, for now this too is put to one side.

 

It was about this time I really had to tackle the problem of fixing the sponsons. My plan is a simple one, a compromise, that will see me fit a small 0.7mm bar into the side of the sponson and drill a corresponding hole in the fuselage. It has to be accurate otherwise they will sit at different hieghts so a bit of a tense moment.

First up is to mark a line where the sponson will sit;

20200730_201724

 

This is now my all important datum.

 

Two holes have now been drilled in the sponsons, their position is not so critical, as long as it is between the hull/fuselage bottom line and my pencil line and forward of the U/C stub wing;

20200730_202755

 

0.7mm piano wire fixed in place;

20200730_203616

 

And cut to size;

20200809_091448

 

Next, using a marker pen place some ink on end of wire and press onto airframe using pencil datum line as guide. This was done several times until I was happy and hole drilled;

20200809_095933

 

Now the obligatory test fitting;

20200809_100000

 

 Looking good. The trade off with this method is that the rod does not exist on the real thing but is hidden unless picked up so is worth the trade off for the extra strength, they are large chunks of brass that need supporting. If I am lucky once everything is in place I may be able to cut them off and touch up, we will see.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

More later.

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12 hours ago, basket said:

Superb job again.

Thank you @basket for that warm response now that I have finally returned to my cave. Hopefully this shall continue as more time becomes available. Next up is some work on XV651 and 'that nose!' having only had chances to do half an hour here and there this and the next post is basically a catch up exercise.

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