Brandy Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 I can't wait to see the final incarnation of this one. BB has proven her versatility and adaptability to build beautiful models, I'm with the others in looking forward to seeing what she brings to us next! (with or without shoes!) Ian 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murdo Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 Quite seriously impressed with her work so far! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted April 11, 2021 Author Share Posted April 11, 2021 4 hours ago, Brandy said: (with or without shoes!) Ian Thanks Ian, I’m more of a Roxy Music man myself. But if we must quote U2 I guess that’s one of their better efforts! Steve 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted April 18, 2021 Author Share Posted April 18, 2021 Homemade Decals As far as I know it's basically impossible to get Hogwarts Express Decals. There might be some available somewhere but I've never heard or seen them and even if they did exist I would need to get them in 1/48 scale. Fortunately, a few months back, my local Hobby shop had some of this stuff in stock, and so for a 'mere' $25 I bought one set of five sheets. The astute among you will have noticed that that equals $5 per sheet! 😱 So these had better work! I've never made or used home-made decals before, so let's see what's involved... Green Stuff is the manufacturer of these and it turns out that they make two types of sheets each with quite different characteristics. The first kind they make is for laser printers and apparently they produce a result very much like a conventional waterslide decal something like what one might find in a kitset. In particular the backing film onto which the image is printed is clear. The second type is for inkjet printers and that is the kind of printer our household owns. So inkjet it is. The key difference is that with the inkjet paper the decal film is white and opaque so you either have to trim your decal very accurately or try to match the decal's background color with the color on the model. Here's on of the five sheets from within the package. Note it's shiny slippery-looking surface. Here is Teen-Bandsaw editing some images found on an internet search. I'm very concerned that you will never respect me again if I say that these images came from designs for leggo stickers - so I won't. Here Teen-Bandsaw is running a test print on everyday printing paper to check that the sizing and layout of the designed print is OK. With only five sheets available and each one costing $5.00 there is good reason to do plenty of check prints. Now comes the big moment. Note how in the case of our printer the back of the decal sheet points upward - we tested that too before hitting the 'print' button. Here's the result - I must say I was well impressed. The color saturation and the sharpness of the print was better than I had expected. On the sheet this looks first-class. No instructions come with the sheet - I'm guessing you are supposed to photograph the QQ code on the decal envelope and view the instructions on you-tube or something but, after letting the ink dry for 15 minutes, we just waded in. The first round was a disaster, after immersing the decal in water the ink went very soft and would smear terribly at the slightest touch with anything. Soon all of the ink washed off leaving us with a blank decal. At that point I recalled something that I'd read somewhere about using varnish to hold the ink in place and so, after a couple of test runs, here you can see me spraying Tamiya Semi-Gloss finishing varnish all over the decal sheet. I gave it two layers to be sure. And now we were off. Initially the process is very similar to a kitset's decals - cut them out and dip them in tepid water for about 30 seconds. Position them in place, slide the backing paper out from underneath and press down with a cotton bud. Ta-dah! To be honest though, those pictures made it look much easier than it actually was. Even with two layers of varnish the ink and the decal paper is very fragile and the handling and application of these things is a bit nightmarish. The decal damages more easily than a commercial one and the gossamer film likes to crinkle and wrap back on itself at any opportunity. Worse, where-ever the cut-out of the decal is made the ink tends to be damaged and you get a white film boundary around the outside of the cutout. Here's BB applying the iconic '5972' registration to the front of the locomotive's smokebox. Not a bad result, but you make out the fine white boundary that I was talking about above. BB found this one very difficult to apply and declared this 'not fun' and went off instead to... perfect the art of applying home-made decals to her finger-nails. Which she definitely found 'fun' and has now stated that she want's to do for a profession. Anyway - with her effectively abandoning her post, I soldiered on and did the best I could as shown below... See the white boundary around the outside! Most of that could be dealt with with a bit of judicious scalpel work. Straight after application I hit each decal with a burst of semi-gloss Tamiya varnish and now each are firmly in place. So - that's my first ever experience with home-made decals. I may have sounded a bit scathing of them in the text above but actually I must say - overall - they are good and a useful product. We certainly would have had problems getting this result without them and I will certainly keep them in mind for future use. I strongly suspect that a laser printer would be a better option though. Anyway, here's how the thing looks now. A few more bits and pieces to go, but not far now. Bandsaw Steve 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niall Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 On home made decals - using film like the one you used I've tried matt, satin and gloss varnish and found that gloss gives the best results and matt does not work at all. A coat of gloss and then 1 of matt does work though. I also cut the designs as close as possibe to the edge before placing them in water. There is a also a clear film available but it only works with black, othe colours are not dense enough. I bought mine for here(don't know how much P&P to Australian would be) - https://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/9-best-water-slide-decal-sheets-reviewed/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted April 18, 2021 Author Share Posted April 18, 2021 Thanks @Niall good info that! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted April 25, 2021 Author Share Posted April 25, 2021 Building Anticipation... Since the photo below was taken BB and I have been working consistently on this project. This evening I asked her if she thinks it will be finished by tomorrow evening. 'Yes' she replied 'assuming all goes well.' So there you have it folks - the countdown is on. By this time tomorrow this should be ready for inspection. I have decided to hold off on publishing any further photos of this project right now to try to get maximum 'reveal impact' on the RFI thread. In the meantime we hope that anticipation is building... In the meantime I'm happy to list everything that we have done so far: Added gold boiler bands - and they look fantastic! They really have a major visual impact Added a 'Hogwarts Express' name board to the front of the smokebox (didn't use decals but another method that I'm quite keen on sharing later on this thread once the RFI is done) Painted the leading edge of the 'running board?' red. Painted the ends of the bumpers raw metal. Added the driver. Added a whistle. BB was confused by the whistle, she asked 'Did Olton Hall actually have that little siren there dad?' To which I replied - 'No BB, but that's an understandable mistake. Olton Hall never had a Siren; that was Jerry Hall.' Anywaayyyy..... The countdown is on and 'assuming all goes well' we will have an RFI for you in 24 hours. See you then, Bandsaw Steve 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 Gidday Both, thanks to you I won't be able to sleep tonight now, in antici . . . . pation. 😁 Looking forward to seeing it. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 (edited) 16 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said: Gidday Both, thanks to you I won't be able to sleep tonight now, in antici . . . . pation. 😁 Looking forward to seeing it. Regards, Jeff. Don’t know about Jerry Hall, think you have gone a bit Rocky Horror there Jeff! Sounds like BB just needs to quarter the buffers and she is good to go Looking great - both dio and the loco. Edited April 26, 2021 by bar side 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted April 26, 2021 Author Share Posted April 26, 2021 DONE! 😀 Taking RFI photos now! 📸 RFI in... let’s say... 90 minutes. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted April 26, 2021 Share Posted April 26, 2021 Gidday, and hurry up. I'm holding my breath. 😁 Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted April 26, 2021 Author Share Posted April 26, 2021 About 45 minutes I should think... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted April 26, 2021 Author Share Posted April 26, 2021 RFI - Posted Hi folks, She's all done! Try this link for the RFI. I will continue with a handful of WIP posts over the next week or so just to document how the project was completed. But I'm happy to say.... The Hogwarts Express Project is complete! Bandsaw Steve 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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