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Approach to these decals...


themongoose

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So I've painted the red onto the tail of my F-16 Thunderbird. What's left to apply are the stars and the logo(red circle with white star in it). On the decal sheet, pictured below, they are all on the same film. however, ignore the stuff in the bottom right corner and top left corner as it was just captured in the rectangular window for the picture.

 

Should I just cut away the red design on the left side and apply the whole film or should I try to cut out around each star or emblem and apply separately? Is there another alternative I'm not thinking of?

 

Capture-S.jpg

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what i would do is to create masks with tamiya tape for the two sized star and airbrush them multiple times in blue, at their correct location

, cut the decal around the thunderbird squadron logo and use only that as decals.

 

but i understand masking the stars and defining their correct placement is not easy.

nevertheless, that's what i would try.

 

I'd be too concerned with such a large film

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I totally agree with Red Dog's assessment, especially with small stars, your having to decide basically between having clear film "filling in"  between their points if you don't cut exactly around each one, or having them tending to fold, flop, double-up and curl up on you if you do, becoming nasty little rolled up bits of decal film in your trash container.

 

I would trace or copy the decal sheet pattern onto a plain sheet of paper to become a placement template for the stars as well, cutting them out with a hobby knife, as well as the scalloped design by the red trim.

 

Using the scalloped pattern as your placement guide, pencil trace the stars onto the masking tapes, and then cut them out and "spray-away".

Edited by Gigant
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This is one of those times a mask cutter like one of the Silhouettes would be just the ticket. The software allows for placement of each item relative to the others, and normally all it would take is scanning in the decals, and depending on how dark/contrast the colors are to one another, wouldn't take much get the proper placement and cutouts, save the logo, which I would still use in decal form.

 

Minus the cutter/plotter, I would do what RD suggests, and utilize rice paper tape to make a mask for the two sizes, then use the decal for the logo. 

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Just to offer an alternative view, the stars on the cowling below were individually cut from the decal sheet and applied one at a time:

 

x0Nije.jpg

 

The red, white, and blue were painted, as there was simply no way the full decal was ever going to conform to the cowling properly.

 

Kev

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Just to offer an alternative view, the stars on the cowling below were individually cut from the decal sheet and applied one at a time:

 

x0Nije.jpg

 

The red, white, and blue were painted, as there was simply no way the full decal was ever going to conform to the cowling properly.

 

Kev

 

Did you know that you can touch-up and or correct typical red-white-& blue insignia decals with MM "Insignia" color acrylic paints?

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Maybe so, but there was no fixing this with paint touch-ups:

 

45XvwQ.jpg

 

Kev

 

LOL!

 

If what I see is that your final finished job is the correct pattern, then essentially the decals' star-pattern being "out of sync" were a waste of money and time.

 

Were you able to salvage anything from them?

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LOL!

 

If what I see is that your final finished job is the correct pattern, then essentially the decals' star-pattern being "out of sync" were a waste of money and time.

 

Were you able to salvage anything from them?

 

Just the stars. I cut them out individually from a spare set that some kind soul sent me, and applied them over the painted blue areas. A blessing in disguise, really, because as you note, the pattern on the decals is wrong, so I was able to lay them out accurately in the end, and they look pretty good. And getting back to the OP's question, I figured this might work for him, too.

 

Kev

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Just the stars. I cut them out individually from a spare set that some kind soul sent me, and applied them over the painted blue areas. A blessing in disguise, really, because as you note, the pattern on the decals is wrong, so I was able to lay them out accurately in the end, and they look pretty good. And getting back to the OP's question, I figured this might work for him, too.

 

Kev

 

Wow-What did you use to cut them with?

 

*************subject change******************

 

On the "other hand", in 'Mongoose' case, unlike yours, his is a much flatter surface and far fewer stars, therefore the template/spray paint option should be less work all the way around.

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Wow-What did you use to cut them with?

 

Just a #11 blade, pressed along each edge of the decal. I can't remember how many there were, but I did count them at the time. I had to do it in stages to preserve my sanity!

 

Kev

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Ok, i started with Kevin's approach. Originally was going to do the tracing suggested on mask, but I found i was out of mask. After the first rolled up log of decal star I decided on a hybrid approach lol

I cut them into sections that would keep the alignment but minimize the decal film. I made 6 groups out of it. I cut around the red logo star and kept it separate since it has to go over the bird logo.

IMG_1226-X2.jpg

Edited by themongoose
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