Jim's Italeri AH-64 Sea Apache and a Saraf *Finished*

[SARowl]

Jim,

so hopefully get the drawing finished tomorrow and printed.

I'll be interested in following your decal making process. I'm having a go for the first time for my Lynx prototype.

John

[SJPONeill]

Boy, those illegal fishers must be tricky customers if you need Harpoons and Sidewinders!

Our zero tolerance policy isn't just for drunk drivers... plus we're happy to sink our own ships as diving reefs so fair's fair that anyone else's should go the same way...

And just to explain the 'Navy' tags on an RNZAF machine...here, the RNZAF owns and operates all Defence aircraft but we let 6 SQN RNZAF wear Navy stickers to keep the squid crews happy...

Those decals look pretty damn awesome, Jim, might have to tap you for a copy if I ever get off my backside and finsih convert the junkyard Revell Apache into a Sea Apache...hope you're saving pennies to get up to Wellington in 2014 to show this puppy (and some of your others) off at Scale Model Expo?

Simon

[ShaunW]

Jeez Louise Jim, those decals look excellent - you're a man of many talents that's for sure.

[JamesPerrin]

Decals look very smart, at least you saved time not having to match colours

[Jagewa]

I'll be interested in following your decal making process. I'm having a go for the first time for my Lynx prototype.

Hi John,
There's a section in the site's Modelling FAQ on decal making which covers most of the process: http://uamf.org.uk/faq/index.html no piccies through.

But I can certainly go through the way I do it, with a few piccies....

I use a vector drawing program, Inkscape http://inkscape.org/ "An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format." Windows, Mac and Linux.

I found it a bit of a struggle to get my head around, after being used to The Gimp and other pixel pushing programs, but the benefit is you can infintely scale images with no quality lose/pixelation. I'm definitely in the beginner user class with it.


One thing I really like is the object scaling..

draw up your object and easily scale to the size you are after.

I normally do double the number of decals I need, i.e four roundels where I only need two, in case something goes awry with one or two.. which I've had happen before.


Once I'm happy with the graphics, I print it out onto plain paper and check the sizing, and how they look in the flesh.

Then it's decal paper time:

I use Experts choice decal film http://www.bare-metal.com/Experts-Choic ... -Film.html, it's the one I've found easily available here. $7.99 NZD but it does last for a few models.

To be a scrooge, I cut a section of clear decal paper, slightly larger than the printed decal area, then cello-tape it over the paper printout.

Then into the rear feed of my printer, a Canon MP630.

then I print the image out again, but change the Paper Type to "High Resolution Paper". After a bit of trial and error I found this gives the best result for my printer. It affects how much ink the puts onto the paper, with the not very absorbent decal film, it doesn't need as much ink laid down on it.


Here is a close up of the printed decal, the dotty roundels are due to them not being solid black, I slected black in Inkscape but changed the opacity to 70%, as I want a lo vis grey look. You can see the solid black TE288 codes look fine. I also think it's partly due to the ink I use. Being cheap I have refillable cartridges and use a generic cheap ink. It'll be interesting to see how they look on the model.

Once they are printed, I let them dry for a whole day, seal them with some thin airbrushed coats of Klear, leave them again for a day, and then trim and apply.

I always apply decals using onto Klear so can't comment on how Micro set/sol solutions affect them.


Cheers
Jim

[Jagewa]

Those decals look pretty damn awesome, Jim, might have to tap you for a copy if I ever get off my backside and finsih convert the junkyard Revell Apache into a Sea Apache...

You'd be more than welcome Simon, is it a large scale one?

hope you're saving pennies to get up to Wellington in 2014 to show this puppy (and some of your others) off at Scale Model Expo?

Now that's an idea, the wife keeps suggesting we go to Wellie for a weekend, that would be good fun.

Decals look very smart, at least you saved time not having to match colours

Got to love lo-vis markings

Jeez Louise Jim, those decals look excellent - you're a man of many talents that's for sure.

Be interesting to see how they look, I've not tried lo-vis markings before.... I just adjusted the black opacity, nut I'm wondering now if the grey should be made from mixing colours..

Cheers
Jim

[Clashcityrocker]

Handy little decal printing tutorial. Thanks for that.

Nigel

[ShaunW]

That is a great tutorial Jim. Just one point, is your printer inkjet or laser?

[JamesPerrin]

I use the same software. I like the tip about taping a section of decal paper onto a sheet you've already printed on. You just have to be carefully nothing is sticking up that can get caught in the printer mechanism. BTW I use the glossy paper setting on my Canon M630 inkjet.

[SARowl]

Jim,

Thanks for that!

I've got Inkscape on my Mac, so it's worth a try.

John

[SJPONeill]

Those decals look pretty damn awesome, Jim, might have to tap you for a copy if I ever get off my backside and finish convert the junkyard Revell Apache into a Sea Apache...

You'd be more than welcome Simon, is it a large scale one?

Yep...THE large one in 1/32...got it as a built-up from a mate after his kids got into it...I was stuck on how to do the NOTAR tail instead of the conventional one but I really like how yours has come out so might give that a miss...have a bunch of 1/32 weapons from some Trumpeter kits so that won't be a problem; and plenty of foam board for the new fairings...

hope you're saving pennies to get up to Wellington in 2014 to show this puppy (and some of your others) off at Scale Model Expo?

Now that's an idea, the wife keeps suggesting we go to Wellie for a weekend, that would be good fun.

We've made it our bi-ennial pilgrimage to the big smoke since 2005...get someplace nice to stay up the Valley and make a long weekend of it...it's also about the only time that I can buy what I like without getting any sideways glances...

[Jagewa]

@Shaun Good point, it's an inkjet printer, so it's inkjet decal paper you need.

@James I had tried Glossy but High Resolution give me the best, I do know the print quality I get with the Linux drivers for the MP630 is not as good as using Windows and the Windows driver. Canon don't support Linux very well with their drivers..

@Simon Sounds great, we might aim to do that ourselves, I think the last time Mandy and I got away anywhere on our own was 1996...

Another point with sealing inkjet printed decals, which maybe obvious from my heavy hand attempt this morning..

Get a thin misted coat of varnish/Klear etc on first and let dry before applying any more...

I end up doing this every so often, just printed out some more...

Cheers
Jim

[JamesPerrin]

ah I didn't actually spot you had the same printer as me! Hopefully the Linux drivers don't burn through the ink cleaning the head for 5mins everytime you want to use it.

I brush on Humbrol Gloss Cote as it doesn't disturb the water based inks and only takes a min to do, though obviously needs longer to dry.

[Jagewa]

That's interesting James, something I might try.

Well the new decals didn't get a whole day drying as I like, I really want to crack on with these two, but we had a lovely warm day, low twenties, and I tempted fate.

Sea Apache..

Not as lo-viz as I was thinking, but I'll wait and see how they look matted down.

I was a bit light on my sealing coat this time, and had a few decals smear after they had a dunk in water, so I gave the spares a light brush coat of klear, and we were ok.

Saraf:
I painted the yellow V, the white circle for the Star, and yellow circle background for the tail insignia.

The Mike Grant method of grillecals, and showcased by James, worked great.

There's one on the tail as well...

Cheers
Jim

[ShaunW]

Aside from the ..er..technical issue with the inks, which you've obviously faced before I think those look excellent.

If my lotto numbers come up I'll take a trip to the Wellington show. One of my old mates, who I don't see a lot of these days it has to be said, went walking to NZ about 3 years ago (sorry I don't recall exactly where) and had a great time.

Edit - you've been posting as I've been blathering on here. The decals look great Jim - and those grill decals have solved the problem detailing the vents on the sponsons very nicely.