B-24 Decal/Photoshop help please

[s1chris]

Hello, a longshot really but is there anybody who would fancy the challenge of helping turn the following rather poor quality photo into a decal for my 1/72 B-24? Pretty please.

For information the nose art is of the quite famous Milton Coniff's Dragon Lady.

Much appreciated.

Chris

 

[Airframes]

The impossible we can do - miracles take a little longer!!!
Given you know the colours Chris, it would probably be easier to re-draw it. Making the actual decal might be a bit tricky though, as the density of ink-jet or laser printing, onto clear decal sheet, isn't very good once applied. Two or more decals can be overlayed of course, but then in this scale, the thickness of the multiple carrier film might be quite noticeable.

 

[s1chris]

Hi Terry, thanks for the quick response.
I can only make out from the photograph the change between two colours on the lower dress. So a bit of artistic licence may need to be applied. That or I produce it in black/grey. From looking at original artworks, she appears in many different dresses and not your typical "super hero" type clobber. I may be wrong though.
I tried to manually trace it yesterday and can piece together a wine type glass in her right hand and a cigarette in the other. The face is where I have become stuck as you can only just make out the outline of her nose.

Also I have drawing skills equivalent to my 4yr old!

I guess when applying the actual decal it may need a bit of attention with a brush and paint to help with the definition?

Cheers Chris

 

[T Bolt]

I made a nose art decal from an original photo for a B-24 that I'm currently building. You can see how I colorized it here:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/18-heavy-hitters-ii/1-72-b-24h-booby-trap-heavy-hitters-ii-gb-36935.html
I made mutable copies of it tinting each one a different color then cut out the areas of particular color in Gimp and pasted them over an un-tinted copy of the picture. I then carefully erased everything outside the decal and then inserted it into a word doc multiple times sizeing eack one a little different. I then printed it out and used the one that best matched the right size. I printed it with an ink jet printer on Bare Betal Foil ink jet decal sheets (which are very thin), one on white and one on clear to overlay the one on white which worked out good. Just remember to trim the one on white film very close or else you'll get a white border around the picture.
You're picture is not nearly as good as the one I had to work with, but maybe you can use it as a start and add some detail for mouth and eyes by drawing them in Gimp. At 1/72 scale just the impression of eyes and mouth might be enough.

 

[Airframes]

That's the way to go about it, but the decal has to go on to a 'bare metal' background, so the use of white decal sheet as a 'backing' is probably not viable.
I think I would make a single decal, apply it, and then paint-in the 'lost' density etc.
Ink jet decal papers are fairly thin, but the carrier film can still be seen on certain surfaces, and against the 'silver' background, overlayed decals would possibly show the edges, and would probably show even more clear film after aging, as yellowing occurs, not normally as noticeable on a 'coloured' background.
I use decal sheets from a computer papers supplier, which is exactly the same as the material supplied under the 'Bare Metal Foil' and 'Testors' labels, among others,with the same back-printing and packaging, but about a quarter of the price of the stuff re-packaged for those other companies !

 

[destrozas]

if we knew a little more of the plane we could get some more and maybe you could do something, you know the serial number?, which belonged squad?, or Nose art had besides the woman?, which had or was painted colors? I have the woman of my adoptive brother and graphic designer could do it or explain to me how to do it, I like these things too.

basis of this we can not do.

P.D: by dragon lady I found this page but that figure does not appear,

http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/title-dragon.htm

 

[s1chris]

Thanks so far, all.

Glenn - I've been following your B-24 build and "inspirational" is the first word that pops into my head. Great job with the decals and that's what got me focusing on Dragon Lady now I know that producing a very good realistic art type decal at home is achievable.

Terry - thanks for the advice again. Could you PM the details of where you get your decal sheet from please?

Destrozas - I have plenty more details and have been searching for close to two years for more. Ill post a link to a thread I put the details about her in.

Cheers Chris

 

[Airframes]

Will do Chris.

 

[s1chris]

Thanks Terry.

 

[Airframes]

Done !

 

[s1chris]

Here are the full details -

Was stationed at St146 Seething, England.
B-24J "Dragon Lady" 42-50457. 715th BS 448th BG
MACR 15896

Any photographs of 715th b-24's would also be welcome.

Thanks Chris

 

[N4521U]

It is too bad you don't have a clear picture. It would be really easy to do a tracing in Corel.

 

[s1chris]

Yeah I'm gutted its not of better quality. Still glad I have this to go off though.
I can manually trace the body ok, but I can't draw faces to save my life and there isn't enough detail on the photograph to go off.

I still need to find out the call sign letter somehow.

Cheers Chris