FOKKER D-VII

[ruzlkampf]

Alright, I'm not going to get into the 4-color version tonight.....but if there's an interest in knowing how to do this I can be persuaded into going WAAAAY more in-depth on how to go about this. Fun stuff really. I'm gong to make an upper 5-color scheme for this short tutorial just so ya'll can see how it's done, but I wanted to show where I got my 4-color lozenge stuff from while I'm yakking about this. I cropped the first scan down to just the pattern and rotated it to make coloring it easier. I just used the 4-color pattern from this scan, but they could both be used.

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

This is a free download off the Arizona Model site that I used for the colors using the eyedropper feature in paint. Notice at the bottom, they used the same lozenge pattern that i scanned outta the D-VIII book. Made this one real easy. It's also easy to use the paint program to lighten/darken colors to your taste. One caveat though,...no matter how perfect you get your colors painted on this pattern.....every brand of printer will alter them when printed. There's another ton of features on most print drivers for changing the contrast,sepia,sharpness, blah blah that will insert another set of variables into what the actual decals will turn out as colorwise.

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

Okay, I'm going to be doing the upper 5-color real fast just to give an overview of what's involved. Remember that 5-color scan I showed earlier? Here is another free download on the same Arizona Models site for the 5-color scheme. Notice it has the same pattern as I scanned from the Albatros book circled at the bottom? Cool! Only problem is I didn't think the colors looked right. All very subjective really with weathering and different manufacturers and all. If anybody wants to argue about what is 'right', go to those other forums that revel in confrontation and conjecture. I'm going to go with what looks right for me, and GUESS! Bwhahahaha! Lot's more fun, and I'm the one who has to look at the model, right?

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

Time to throw some 'paint' on that scan I did earlier! These are just colors that 'came to me' and looked about right. Kinda cool that it has the scale dimensions there too. Important if you want to get the size right for whatever scale you're modeling. I think the lozenge cloth was right at an inch(?) wide at 1/32nd scale, and an inch and a half at 1/28th. It was around 50inches wide. Having the numbers on the different shaped 'lozenges' made this pretty much paint-by-number. I just brushed some colors around in the middle to get an idea of if my colors were close. Oh yeah, I used the 'line' feature to draw around the edges of the different shapes in their respective colors to make painting the edges a bit easier.

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

Next step is to brush all the colors solid. I hear this is very good therapy? heh heh. It is relaxing and fun once ya get the hang of it.

 

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

Now I use the 'select' tool to cut/paste another set of this pattern below the original. I've got about 20 minutes into this so far....including scanning and searching for my images. Basically reconnect the colored lines using the 'line' feature, and keep using the 'eyedropper' feature to keep the colors the same.

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

That takes about another 10 minutes. I now have a 'swatch' of pattern big enough to use the 'select' tool with that will just make the rest of this a matter of cutting/pasting. This is a repetitive pattern, so it's not that difficult to do. It's like an amoeba dividing....1 original pattern makes 2,....2 cuts/pastes to make 4,....which makes a pattern that takes half the paper.

[ruzlkampf]

Cut/paste that to make this. Whoohoo! We're cooking with gas now, and only have about 10 more minutes left.

 

 

 

 

[blackbetty]

hahahaaaa, give him hell, russ

[ruzlkampf]

I saved that last image to my desk top, and re-opened Paint. Under 'attributes' (I think that's under edit?) I sized a canvas at 8-1/2 inches x 11 inches. This is the size of most decal paper, and i want the ease of just printing it out at %100 on the printer. Oh, that's with NO BORDER' setting on the print driver. Most printers have a default setting of putting a small border around whatever is printing, but that will throw off the scale of the image when it's reduced to fit within those borders. Make sense?

Now this takes a bit of practice to get right, but it's cool when ya get the hang of it. We want to import the image from the desktop to this 'canvas' in Paint,.....and re-size it to scale. There's a feature to alter the percentage under the 'image' menu. I usually have to this a couple of times, save the image and print to measure it exactly....but as I remember I had 4 rows of lozenge pattern when I did these on my decal sheet(at 1inch wide) I'll just do that for now. These are NOT in scale, just showing how it's done. More cutting/pasting fills out the sheet, use the 'erasure' feature to touch things up around the edges and get rid of those dimension numbers and WHAH LAH! Of course I would've painted out the letters in the centers of the lozenges......but golly gee whiz these look almost identical to what I put on my D-VII. Imagine that?

 

 

 

 

I had to drop the image down to less than 800x600 size because it now has enough color to make the file size more than 100kbs. That's some of those limitations I was telling ya'll about as far as a tutorial. Soooo, it took me more time to type this out than to actually make the darn thing. Well I hope everybody enjoyed the tutorial, and as the Beatles would say,"I hope I passed the audition"? Maybe some day I can become astute enough on a computer to delve into more detail into this kind of stuff as it opens all kinds of possibilities for modeling. I should also post some images that everybody can download of the lozenge that I used for the D-VII and E-V so they can re-size and use as they want without having to use my name.....or 'whatever'...as some sort of 'payment'? (whatever that means?)

Gotta get back into my happy balloon and hum-dee-oooh-dee-oooh back to my 110 build now. Later All, Russ

[Spads57]

Holy Cow Dude that some impressive original artwork. As I know through this forum and the Aerodrome both you and Doug I feel safe in writing I can see similarities between both lozenge decals. But that's understandable since you both produced some excellent work from the same basic patterns and research.At any rate both sets of marking are none the less Outstanding works. Just my 2 cents.

 

Great work on the Fokker my friend lozenge and all.

Highest Regards,

Gregory Jouette

[Javlin1]

Maybe some day I can become astute enough on a computer to delve into more detail into this kind of stuff as it opens all kinds of possibilities for modeling. I should also post some images that everybody can download of the lozenge that I used for the D-VII and E-V so they can re-size and use as they want without having to use my name.....or 'whatever'?

 

Does that include me to Russ?? Kevin

[DougN]

Excellent tutorial Russ! Of course, you make things look simple that would take us mere mortals ages to do!

 

Cheers,

 

Doug

[Out2gtcha]

While I'm not in need of any lozenge camo I would ask if you have any advise to those who are looking to print their own decals. What works well for you? Do you recommend a brand of decal paper and fixative? Any pitfalls to watch out for?

 

Your posts are always such a hoot to read, keep up the good work.

 

I agree as well Russ. You have NO need to defend yourself from people who throw tantrums like my 7 year old niece, without so much as a shred of evidence to support their outrageous claims. From my perspective it was very clear and apparent that you came up with the lozenge decals on your own with your own research and artwork.

 

I would ask the same thing as Dan did, as I have never done my own decals and would very much like someones opinion who has produced their own with successful results.....

 

Cheers,

Brian

[LSP_Matt]

Nice tutorial Russ. Even nicer Fokker. From

SR71 to this...sheesh...awesome

 

Right now, somewhere on planet earth, a man called Doug is eating a whole lot of 'Humble Pie'.

 

An apology under the circumstances is warranted.