SPA Modeler

That's a cracker Tom - nice work. You did a good job on that colour.

VERY Nice Tom!

- Kari

Gotta jump back on this if I’m to give it to him by the 4th of July. All is left is gloss clearcoat to prep for decals, decal session, clearcoat to seal them all in and install landing struts.

Clear gloss went on last night. Decal session starts tonight. So many walkway lines it scares me. Cant tell if they're one decal or single line decals. Single line decals are a nightmare if the fold over/under.

Last night, I applied decals to the undersides. One got folded over and got tossed. Another got stuck to my fingers and can’t find it. Probably slipped off my fingers and gone forever. No biggie. I used Tamiya grey panel liner on those spots. Went on better than Ithought. Pics forthcoming. Tonight, I’ll start the difficult ball busting topside.

Undersides decals done...



Doing this one Spirit of New York of Grim Reapers Sqn. Decals are on main doors.




I was going slow until disaster struck. See silver penciled walkway after using masking tape template I created. Had to do it reverse measurements.



Its a good thing I did worse first which is the longest one on wing. I honestly was scared it was going to fold over. Thankfully, it didnt. I made sure I had wet my fingers and placed the backing paper on the wing to slowly slide it on.

Until.... that damn pan shaped one folded over. Not sure how it happened. Spent a good half hour hoping I could untangle the fold. Nope. It was impossible considering it is 1/144 scale.

I will make a copy of the decal sheet for the opposite side. Not taking any chances if it happens again. I knew something was going to happen. It was too good to be true when things was going smoothly.

I'm done with this decal session for the night. I'll resume tomorrow.

The more I thought about my masking of walkway of folded over decal, the more I looked at it, I'm not happy with it.

So, I made copies of the decals and made a better mask to try again with silver pencil. Here's where I'm at now. I used baby wipes to remove original pencil lines - faded enough for a redo. Definitely a more correct size compared to cutting out on copy on paper.




Next, sharpen my pencil and have another go at it; this time making sharper and straighter lines. Pics forthcoming...

Here's the end result. Not perfect but definitely a lot better than last night's attempt.

Nice save! Academy decals suck!!! Lately, they've been using Cartograph on some kits. Clearly that was not one of them.