Super Stretch DC8

[PR19_Kit]

Heavens, it's getting VERY philosophical on here! 

Here's the Super Stretch in its half painted state. The creases where the inserts go aren't all that wonderful, but with luck the MONSTER decals will hide most of that. (You can't see them in the pic, just believe me, ok?)

[TheChronicOne]

You ain't seen nothin' yet, just wait til the Jameson is unleashed!      Nothing like some good whiskey to get one to bloviating all over the place. 

Ahhhhh yes, the old "decals hiding the multitude of sins" trick. Reminds me of these used car dealers when they slap a bumper sticker over bullet holes to hide them. 

[zenrat]

That's a car modellers trick.  Flaw in the paint?  Put a decal over it.

...Someone once said that an imperfect, yet finished, model is far greater than one striving to be perfect but takes way too long to complete or winds up NOT being completed. 

Yep.  I've got one in particular that springs to mind.

[NARSES2]

Looks fine to me Kit.

I also find you can hide tiny flaws by moving an intended demarcation line between two colours slightly one way or the other 

[PR19_Kit]

I've got the underside grey on now too, but I'll wait till I've sprayed the wings and tail before I post pics.

The forward fuselage joint is only too obvious from above when the light strikes it, but I'm not changing anything now. If it was the Calder 8 I might have done.

[PR19_Kit]

99% of the paint job's done now, just a few bits and bobs to add really. So it's decal time to make it come alive, or it will be once I've printed them anyway. 



I just LOVE that Halfords Ford Stratos Silver, it sprays wonderfully, looks great and dries really fast too. 

I've just noticed that you can see the joints on the forward fuselage insert on that pic above.    Well you can if you look carefully anyway.

[PR19_Kit]

I've finished all the decal artwork using mostly self drawn items but some scanned a re-printed stuff too. It certainly makes for a well filled sheet!



I'll start applying them in Friday, got too much RW stuff on tomorrow really.

[kerick]

Can't wait to see it all done up!

[strobez]

Kit, I'm curious what's your system for creating those decals.  Do you print them yourself, if so what products do you use?  I've tried couple of decal printing paper types and haven't quite found something satisfactory yet.

[PR19_Kit]

Yes Greg, I do print them right here at home, and I've been doing it for some years now.

I use an inkjet printer, now an Epson but used to be a Hewlett-Packard one (the H-P was MUCH easier to use....) with the inkjet decal paper originally from a UK supplier called 'Crafty Computer Paper Co', but they seem to have gone out of business, so I'm looking for another supplier right now. Lots of people make the stuff, but as you've discovered some are more equal than others!

I've found two, or maybe three, problems doing things this way. 1) You can't print white 2) Calibrating the software settings so that the printed image that comes out of the printer is the correct size and 3) Getting the colours correct.

There used to be a printer called an ALPS that could print white using their special ribbons but they're no longer made and no-one seems to have re-entered the market.

You can use laser printers using paper designed for them too, but I've never been able to afford one......

The image size calibration takes a while first time around but once you've done it you just need to remember the conversion factor to use, mine ended up at 7.85 pixels/mm. 

The colour setting is always difficult I find, and you may have  noticed the small row of colour blocks along the top edge of my sample above. They are setup with the root  colour in the centre with different brightness levels on each side, -10%, -5%, 0%, +5% and +10% left to right. Then I print out a sample, without the rest of the artwork and compare the printed blocks with the colour I want. It's not easy but it doesn't cost much.

I'm told there are software tools that will calibrate your printer colours to match what you see on the screen but they cost a fortune apparently.

[zenrat]

I use an HP Photosmart C309a multifunction device (colour inkjet printer).
I don't bother trying to calibrate my colours accurately.
I design my decals in micro$oft powerpoint.

I print on Papilio Inkjet Water Slide Decal Paper which I buy on line from the US.
https://www.papilio.com/water_slide_decal_paper.htm
I've tried others but since having this recommended to me I have used nothing else.

After printing I seal my decals with Testors decal bonder aerosol.  I'm open to suggestions for an alternative to this.

[PR19_Kit]

Ooops, I forgot the sealing step. 

I seal mine with Keen Crystal Clear acrylic spray varnish which I used to get from the Crafty people, but I found the last lot on Amazon and it was cheaper too.

I'll give that Papilio paper a try Fred, thanks for the tip.

[Later] Ah, they don't do A4 sheets, only 8" x 11" and that'd mean I'd have to re-calibrate the PC <> printer, and I'm not going to do THAT again!

[zenrat]

Ah yes.  American "Letter" size.
I forgot that.
Powerpoint page setup has Letter as an option.  I print mostly onto 1/4 letter or 1/2 letter.

[PR19_Kit]

I use PaintShoPro 4 for my graphic software, even though I have 5 and 7 installed as well. I find 4 is faster, simpler, and I KNOW it better. Sometimes I use 5 in order to rotate images for fractions of a degree though, 4 only handles whole degrees.

It has a handy 'Format page' setting that lets you decide what paper size to use and how much of it to use, down to fractions of mm. which I find very useful, thus the 7.85 px = 1 mm factor.

Primered the CFM56 engines of the Super Stretch today, in the gaps when I'm not doing RW stuff.

[rickshaw]

I'm told there are software tools that will calibrate your printer colours to match what you see on the screen but they cost a fortune apparently.

They used to - I say that 'cause I last used one back in the 1980s - use a small sensor and some software.  You placed the sensor against your VDU where you had placed a "block" of colour and calibrated the two until you got what you desired.   I have no idea what they do nowadays with LCD monitors.  That BTW was how Pantone calibrated screen versus real colours.  It was a bugger of a job too, I can tell you.  There were so many settings that had to be perfect to get a VDU to display exactly what would be printed out.  Then you had to use a Pantone modified printer driver, to run your colour printer.  You could send the file off to a Pantone qualified printer as well, and they'd print what every you wanted - at a cost of course.