Need help making a decal.

[j.lightning]

Hello,

I am going to model my great uncles's P-38J, and I was wondering if anyone new how to turn this noseart image into a 1/48 scale decal? I am not very good at image editing.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6218/6313059999_8efc88d544_z.jpg

Thanks

 

[Catch22]

Well, Testor's make a decal making set that you use your printer to print on special paper, and then apply a spray. As for actually recreating the image, I could probably do that if you'd like, since I have the required programs. That said, I have no idea what colours it should be which poses a problem.

 

[Crimea_River]

Cory is basically correct but this will be tricky. An ink or laserjet printer will not print white so if there is any white in the artwork, it will be an issue unless white decal paper is used. However, this nose art is painted onto natural aluminum so the option needs to be limited to using clear decal paper which introduces another issue - colour density. Printing colours onto clear paper does not create a solid colour. Black works OK though.

The best option would be to print the decals on an ALPS printer which I assume you don't have (otherwise you wouldn't be asking) or find someone who can. Someone like Cory would need to create the artwork in an imaging software. SPEKTRE76 is also creating personal crests and could help with that. The issue will be the printing though

 

[j.lightning]

I did some research, and her hair was a dark brown/black color, and the hat and top of her uniform were olive drab.

I would be most appreciative if you could edit that for me. As for the cloud, would making it a light gray color work?

 

[Catch22]

It would help, yes. It would the more you limit the white by using clear paper, the less you have to worry about properly trimming the edges as well. You would then have to paint in anything that would be white with a fine brush. But like Andy said, opacity can and will be an issue. Hopefully some more people will chime in.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Here is my little chime.

To achieve a good depth of colour from a dot-matrix print, I print two or three copies of the required decal and when positioning it on the model, I then overlay it with a second decal to get a better depth of colour. If white is involved, then I use white backed decal sheet, but then the overlays are printed on clear, therefore only the one white backed decal has to be neatly trimmed and if you do by chance nick a bit out of the white backed decal, the full clear backed overlay decal will cover this glitch.

 

[j.lightning]

How bad would the opacity be on clear paper?

@ Vic B: that's a good idea! I'll do just that!

 

[Wurger]

Here you are an enlarged part of the pic with the art in. There can be seen more details. I don't think there was the white used.

 

[j.lightning]

Looking closer, it really doesn't look like there's white there. Maybe just kind of a black outline.

 

[Wurger]

Yep.. there migh have been some of a blue-grey one for these clouds and black for contour lines. ALso there was some of the skin colour for the face and neck. The neck seems to be of a little bit lighter one. Possible, the red for lips. Letters seem to be of yellow.

 

[j.lightning]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Following on from my dot-matrix decal printing.

A couple of things I forgot to mention. When the decals are printed the ink will still be wet so handle with care and place them someplace safe to thoroughly dry, I usually leave them in a box for 48 hours.

Next you have to protect the decals from running when in contact with liquid. Paint them or spray them with a liquid decal film, I use Microscale. Again place them somewhere safe to dry, on a warm day this would be about one hour. Give them a second coat of the same liquid decal film and again let them dry thoroughly for 24 hours.

This liquid decal film can also be used to restore old decals and hopefully prevent cracking or fracturing when being applied to the model.

Hope this helps.

 

[j.lightning]

Thanks for the info.

If someone could make a 1/48 scale copy of that for me, I would be most thankful.

 

[Catch22]

I'll try and start on one this weekend!

 

[j.lightning]

Thanks a lot, man!

 

[al49]

Hi,
if none of the above works for any reason, I know a firm that will be able to produce your decals
Hobbyshop.cz - Decals
I ordered mine last year, they are a bit expensive but, as I said above, if no other option is available...
They require to receive the artwork already done in colour with a software like Corel Draw, not PaintShop or similar.
The sheet I received was high quaity.
Cheers
Alberto

 

[j.lightning]

Might be an option. Thanks.

 

[Catch22]

I unfortunately was unable to start it this weekend, I'll try tomorrow. If they need specifically Corel, I cannot help you as I don't have it.

 

[j.lightning]

Whatever you got is ok, I went out and got a Testors set today. Thanks again for doing this for me.

 

[Crimea_River]

I have a trick for you when you go to print on the decal paper. I have found it best to do a test on plain paper. Then cut a piece of decal paper to cover over where the test printed the shape and tape it all around, then refeed the paper the same way it printed the first time and reprint the decal so that this time it goes straight onto the paper. The reason for this is that you will need to experiment with your printer settings to get the optimum paper selection. If you experiment on a full decal sheet, you could mess up an entire sheet (as I have done) and this gets expensive.

Let the ink dry completely before you apply the sealer (the longer the better) but allow at least a few hours.