Douglas DC-3 1/72 Scale .................................(Completed 6 Nov 2012)

[lastvautour]

Thanks Cliff. They are all 1/72 scale. The paint jobs are Krylon white primer with gloss white sprayed on after and then the top is masked with Tamiya/Green Masking tape. I then spray the red areas and then mask those. The leading edge de-icer booths were masked over primer and painted by hand after the silver was sprayed. The control surfaces are Testor brushed aluminum outlined with decal lines made on my PC. The windows are all decals. The lightning stripe on the Dak is from my spare box and everything else is home made decals.

Lou

[cliff strachan]

Thanks Lou. Your description is about as informative as you can get. But any time you feel like imparting further info concerning decal production I for one will be greatly appreciative. I've finally got a laptop and printer and with a Printshop Elements programme and, of course with a lot of help, hope to attempt some decals myself.
Cliff.

[lastvautour]

Cliff, have a look at this post http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/SMF/index.php?topic=725.0 There are other posts in the technique section so look at those also.

Lou

[buccfan]

Another cracking build Lou, it looks great. They look excellent together as a group. I am just experimenting with decal production for lettering by using the rub off letters on a clear decal film sealed with acrylic varnish, that way you don't have to apply the individual letters to the build,and the ink doesn't run, also just in case they don't stick properly.Regards Paul J.

[lastvautour]

Thank you Paul.  I have used those rub on decals before. They need to be used with a somewhat sorter timeframe than normal decals as they do dry out somewhat. I purchased all my rub on decals around 1970 and they are nice to look at but useless to use. I have also used the lettering sheets to good effect before inkjet decals became available.

Lou

[cliff strachan]

Thanks Lou. This will be a preliminary response to your suggestion. I've looked again at your well described tutorial regarding making decals. In fact I've even taken to printing out the posting - albeit without the diagrams. (So this should at least be of interest to other members even though it may show a certain degree of denseness on my part.) The individual, who incidentally is a computer whiz, made one decal for me. But has so far explained the process in terms of "layers". That is, to accommodate a "bottom layer" and the need for transparency he speaks of layers. As you seem to have not spoken of this approach and as I'm still in the process of setting up my computer stuff I hope to get back to you later on this very intriguing matter.

Cliff

[lastvautour]

What your friend speaks of, is actually constructing an image using layers of colour to attain the desire image. I don't do that at all. I just copy an image from on line and place that image in my MS word program, scale it to the size I want and print it. I wish I could do the layer thing because you can attain some fancy art with it. You will notice that the majority of my models do not have nose art unless it can be duplicated from an image on line.
Regardless good luck on your decal making project.

Lou

[cliff strachan]

Thanks Lou. If nothing else I don't feel quite so dumb. But with everything else I've got lots to do. Anyway tomorrow they're forecasting a doozer of a snowstorm so between what I should do and at least thinking of decals if I don't spend the day sleeping I should get  something done  .  .   .

Cliff.