The English Electric Dalgety, the 'Just in case' project.

[PR19_Kit]

It's sitting beside me right now, wings, fuselage and tail all assembled, but not glued, and really does look the BUSINESS!

Of course I may be a tad biased. 

[Wardukw]

         ..and why not good Sir 😏

[PR19_Kit]

Got a problem with the Dalgety's serials.

To look like the Canberra prototype it has to have white serials, which I can't print myself, as I'd normally do.  While I can find 2-3 different manufacturer's sheets for the 8" fuselage serials I can't find anyone who does the massive 52" underwing serials.

Xtradecal do some 48" ones that might do at a pinch but for some bizarre reason they don't include zeros! And the Dalgety's serial will be VN800 of course, one more than the #1 Canberra, VN799.   

Anyone got any ideas about how I can get round that problem please?

[Gondor]

Got a problem with the Dalgety's serials.

To look like the Canberra prototype it has to have white serials, which I can't print myself, as I'd normally do.  While I can find 2-3 different manufacturer's sheets for the 8" fuselage serials I can't find anyone who does the massive 52" underwing serials.

Xtradecal do some 48" ones that might do at a pinch but for some bizarre reason they don't include zeros! And the Dalgety's serial will be VN800 of course, one more than the #1 Canberra, VN799.   

Anyone got any ideas about how I can get round that problem please?

I will have a look in my Decal Bank as I think I have a sheet of White Canberra serials.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Oooooh, that would be very handy Alastair, thanks.

[Gondor]

Oooooh, that would be very handy Alastair, thanks.

Found them, only they don't get as big as 54" I'm afraid 

How about doing a negative decal. That is draw up a larger area than you need for your serial, put your serial in the middle of the decal and leave that as clear while makeing the rest of the decal the same as the camouflage it is going onto and then paint the underlying part of the aircraft white?

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks for looking anyway Alastair, how big DO yours go up to?

I've tried the 'neg approach' before, and the main problem is matching the decal surround colour to the paint. It's VERY time consuming and fiddly, and can take up lots of ink and decal paper trying the different matches.

The wings are glued in place now, and the almost inevitable 'Grand Canyon' along each joint line (This is a 1960s Airfix kit, remember....) are now being PSR'd to death. For the first time anyway.......

[Gondor]

Thanks for looking anyway Alastair, how big DO yours go up to?

The biggest are 48". I do have two sets that are specific to Canberras though, so there are the Squarer and the rounder types.

Gondor

[loupgarou]

Got a problem with the Dalgety's serials.

To look like the Canberra prototype it has to have white serials, which I can't print myself, as I'd normally do.  While I can find 2-3 different manufacturer's sheets for the 8" fuselage serials I can't find anyone who does the massive 52" underwing serials.

Xtradecal do some 48" ones that might do at a pinch but for some bizarre reason they don't include zeros! And the Dalgety's serial will be VN800 of course, one more than the #1 Canberra, VN799.   

Anyone got any ideas about how I can get round that problem please?

And if the Dalgety had been completed BEFORE the Canberra, with a VN798 serial?

[PR19_Kit]

And if the Dalgety had been completed BEFORE the Canberra, with a VN798 serial?

I've already written the backstory..................

While there never was a RW VN800, there wasn't a VN798 either, so who knows?

[buzzbomb]

Anyone got any ideas about how I can get round that problem please?

Tried this method once, with not perfect success, but reasonable. It is fiddly and many, many paths for not working.
Coat of gloss white (or colour of choice for the serial), preferably enamel and let it harden.
Use letraset/rub down lettering over the white, but not super embossed down.
complete painting, over the letraset, then when dry (enough) a bit of tape, should be enough to pull the letraset off and not the surrounding paint (hopefully)

A few levels of flaw in this method, one being getting appropriate letraset font these days. it appears to be getting harder to get. Also hope that the manufacturer in the PRC uses shoddy material for the letraset so it does come off.
If you can find White in a close enough size and font.. ignore all the above and just use that 

As I said.. reasonable success in my experiment with this on a model that has long since been trashed.

[loupgarou]

Or with a steady hand, you could cut the shape of the letters/numbers in thin plastic or brass and use them as stencils for painting (better with an airbrush). I have seen commercvial stencils for military vehicles, no reason you couldn't do the same for an aircraft.

[Gondor]

Just had an idea about the decal problem. What about using 1/48 scale decals seeing that there are no 1/72 ones the correct size?

Of course, once my brain managed to come up with the idea, it decided to give up when I tried to work out what size you would need in 1/48 

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Good idea Alastair, and Fantasy Printshop do some 18 mm serials in white too! 

I'll give them a go I think, even though they're the vinyl types, which I've not had much success with before.

[kerick]

Just make it 811. Good enough for me.