Real life silvering

[DeepSea]

If you look at the 3rd photo in this tweet you can see that you might be able to pass silvering off as realistic now 

 

[PZRGREN]

I have been doing right all these years!! 😜  Nice photos

[Paws4thot]

I don't have a digital copy, but I've seen decal silvering on a Brough Superior motorcycle, so it's not "just aircraft".

[spruecutter96]

I wonder if "Furious Flight" is a large vinyl "sticker" and not painted on?

 

Chris.   

[emvar]

On 5/14/2021 at 10:52 PM, spruecutter96 said:

I wonder if "Furious Flight" is a large vinyl "sticker" and not painted on?

 

Chris.   

Looks as though they are added vinyl stickers, on airliners which I'm familiar with the edges or whole decal is treated so they do not peel off in flight.

 

Cheers

Emil

[Giorgio N]

I remember an issue of IIRC SAM from a few years ago where they described the use from the British Army of vinyl stickers on a number of types, showing the effect of the clear carrier on the original matt finish. The article mentioned Spandex for these stickers, can't remember if it was just used as a general name for that kind of things or they meant that this was the company actually supplying the materials

Not that "decals" on aircraft are a new thing: the USAF used them in the past, even for large types like the C-135 and even earlier the Italian Regia Aeronautica used decals for the fuselage fasces and the crest on the white tail cross.

[Murph]

Once, when I was doing a preflight on an F-15C in the Ghost Gray scheme with the full color TAC/wing/squadron badges (they are essentially large, thick decals with a semi-gloss finish) the light caught it just right and they stood out like a sore thumb on the dead matte paint scheme.  I can remember thinking that if you built an accurate model of that it would get you laughed out of any modeling contest.

 

Regards,

Murph

[ACDC]

As Georgio said above, the letters are 'Spandex' vinyl stickers locally made in the dope shop. The 'silvering' is a clear lacquer (intended for use on tool colour coding) applied to seal the edges and prevent them lifting due to constant exposure to salt water.

[Blimpyboy]

On 7/12/2021 at 7:30 PM, Giorgio N said:

even earlier the Italian Regia Aeronautica used decals for the fuselage fasces and the crest on the white tail cross.

 

One of your decals, do you think?

 

 

[Finn]

A Mirage 2000D:

 

 

Jari

[Giorgio N]

21 hours ago, Blimpyboy said:

 

One of your decals, do you think?

 

 

 

 

Yes, most likely. Notice how elaborate the design is, down to the grain in the individual wooden rods of the fasces. Such a design would have been a pain to reproduce on every individual aircraft, while with a printed decal it was very easy to achieve this. There were also a small number of simplified fuselage fasces, that were painted on but the decals were the most common by a wide margin. That picture also shows a detail that model and decal companies often miss, the lion head just above the blade. This could also be a boar head but it was always present.

If I understand their history right, these decals were however not applied as stickers, like the ones seen in the original post but they were made to transfer the design on the surface while the support was discarded, a bit like rub-on transfers or the iron-on stickers made for fabrics

Edited July 14, 2021 by Giorgio N