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How can one make decals for carrier decks?


jinx46

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I have the Revell 1/720 USS ENTERPRISE CARRIER, and I need to make decals for all the stripes and lines on the flight deck.

The kit does not supply them.

 

Any ideas or suggestions?

I have heard that one can buy clear decal sheet, make them in the computer with a graphics editor program like Photoshop, test print for size and then print on the clear decal film. Has anyone ever tried this or perhaps some other method.

 

One obvious way would be to mask and paint, but the yellow and orange dotted lines around the elevators would be a nightmare to mask and paint, as would most of the rest deck strips and stripes.

 

Thanks

Edited by jinx46
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Nick,

 

I cannot help you with the decals, but just and FYI the stripes around the aircraft elevators where not yellow and orange. They where yellow and red as where the stripes around bomb elevators and flight deck catapult control bubbles/center deck control stations.

 

Chris

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It's not that hard to paint them. I did it on a 1/700 Nimitz once. Paint the deck white or yellow or whatever color the stripes are and then mask them with bits of masking tape. It probably isn't "much" harder than laying the stripes out in a graphics application and printing them and they'll look much better. The two color stripes aren't that hard, either, pant it one color, mask (and it can be wider than the stripe will end up, the "dashes" just need to be the right length, then paint the second color. Then remove the masking for the "dashes" and use thin strips of tape to mask the total stripe and paint the deck color.

 

Check the timeframe of when you're representing her, details of color and pattern changed. I think early on, most of the deck was a gray and the actual landing area "runway" was quite a bit darker. Later on the decks were almost black when fresh non-skid was applied, maybe Tamiya NATO black darkness. It faded as it aged to maybe gunship gray darkness or a little lighter.

 

I also used a trick to do the skid marks in the landing area. I made a small stencil from a file card by cutting about 20 little rectangular slits in it and airbrushed black through in onto the deck in the center of the landing area. Then moved it a little and sprayed again. I kept doing that until the "skid marks" were overlapping in a rough oval centered on the #3 wire's area with a few "bad landings" extending up to the #4 and back to the #1 wires.

 

Sorry, no pictures, that was years and years ago when the Italeri kit first came out. Pretty nice kit as I remember.

Sorry, no pictures, that was years and years ago when the Italeri kit first came out. Pretty nice kit as I remember.Sorry, no pictures, that was years and years ago when the Italeri kit first came out. Pretty nice kit as I remember.Sorry, no pictures, that was years and years ago when the Italeri kit first came out. Pretty nice kit as I remember.

Or, check "Starfighter Decals" http://www.starfight...om/1700-de.html He makes a sheet for the Enterprise and is a real nice guy to boot!

 

Oops, just saw Rusty had already posted Starfighter's stuff. Sorry!

Edited by DaveDeLang
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Another resource is model rail road decals. There are thousands of sheets. Some are specific train markings, but many many others are generic lines, numbers, etc. You can also get sheets of solid colors and cut out your own lines of any thickness you want.

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