sluggo

This is obviously a production compromise to simplify the painting process at this particular factory. The drawing calls for a 2 inch constant border around the insignia. The proper border widths (using the ratio from spec) for 30 and 35 inch insignia would be 1.875 and 2.1875 respectively. So, on the 30 inch you are looking at a 1/8 inch deviation from spec and on a 35 inch 3/16ths. You could easily get away with this deviation because it would go unnoticed without measurement, probably even at scale. That said, it does not make the above formula correct. I'd also venture to guess it is where the 40/44 interpretation come from. I will add that I never noticed how many decals were "off" until I started laying properly dimensioned drawings over scanned decals. Now that I'm looking at the above drawing and thinking about it from a production standpoint, I would not doubt if this was common practice in other facilities as well. That said, I'm still hardcore "If it ain't true to spec, it ain't right". Along with the above, I agree with everything else Jennings has posted in this thread. The "diameter" always refers ti the inner diameter or circle the star fits into if you will, and is always a multiple of 5. The radius (of the inner circle) is simply used to calculate the other elements of the insignia. I think confusion about the ratio (particularly the bar placement) is rooted in the fact that a star is asymmetrical. You can see what I mean in the images below. Below we have a star in a 4 inch diameter (2 in radius) circle. The circle has a height and width of 4 inches, making symmetric. The star on the other hand is 3.808 in wide by 3.6216 high, making it asymmetric. The star and the circle below are "eyeball" centered. The blue cross-hairs represent the circle's center. Below you can see the star's true center compared to the circle's center. And here is what you get when you align centers. This is why the bars align relative to the star instead of the circle. Here is a finished 4 inch insignia produced using the ratio spec. The highlighted area being the 4 inch diameter, 2 inch radius starting point. Full dimension: 8.308" wide by 4.5" inch high. Why the oddball width? Because the star has an oddball width. I'm guilty of eyeballing the star's size, it probably should have came in around 3.8"

I feel your pain brother. Try these stretches. Number 3 and 4 work for me and it's amazing how quickly it starts to help. The only one I have never tried is number 6. http://www.healthline.com/health/back-pain/sciatic-stretches#sitting-pigeon-pose3

Most of the guys that buy stuff from me use extra Oracal 810 or pre-mask (paper transfer tape) which I supply when necessary. If you want to try the pre-mask which is a paper tape used in the sign industry I suggest using the pre-mask they recommend for Oracal 631 which is their removable wall vinyl.

You should not assume the scanner will scan precisely 1:1 although it should. I don't know about the Silhouette software but in Illustrator you can draw it any size and then plug in the width or height you want and it will scale it for you.

Try it.The worst that could happen is the paint might flake instead of cut.

I would be willing to share my stuff as well. If others were interested, I even have a VPS server where we could set up FTP or forum based point of access. If there were enough interest, I'd even be willing to do a Webex session on Illustrator basics. I think I have 25 seats on my webex account. Maybe one of you other cats that run the Silhouette software could even be a guest host.

I have not used the Silhouette software but I assume it is similar to Illustrator's trace image function. It does a reasonable job of turning an image into a vector but there's always clean-up and tweaking of nodes to do. I find more often than not, there are far more nodes generated by the software than is necessary. Particularly when it comes to letters.

Without a doubt, the most intensive part of learning to do your own masks will be working with vectors. Once you have a solid grasp on that, the rest is childs-play. The great thing about working in vector format is you only have to draw it once. It can then be scaled up or down with no loss.

I run a Summa cutter. I purchased it do do large format stuff like signs and vehicle graphics mainly. Being my 3rd cutter I did the homework and decided on this unit because of it's ability to cut tiny lettering. For the money, I'd say the Silhouette is the ticket if you want something that is economical and portable. There comes a point where you can cut a mask so small it's either too time consuming to weed or just plain unusable.

Jim, Looking AWESOME! You've undertaken a daunting task and you're slaying it. Keep 'em coming.

Splendid work Jim! By the time you are done you will be an expert at masking. Looking forward to the next update.

Thanks guys! It was not deliberate. I painted them over with flat black then RLM 66 while painting the sidewall. I went back in with a brush and lacquer thinner to remove the paint from them. That process caused the insulation to discolor.

Finally got one side of the cockpit presentable. Pretty much all from scratch. The oxygen bottle and map pocket are Bill's pieces. Fuse panel, junction boxes and primer are kit parts with a little reworking. Some touch up work to be done yet but I'm going to start on the other side and worry about touch-ups later.

Looks like you've figured out a way to over come. Good job! Still looking forward to the other side.......

Progress has been a bit light of late. Seems some spell has come over me that has sidelined my no detail/OOB claim. I suspect the spell originated on the west coast of Canada. This is all I managed to accomplish this evening. I have been working on some other cockpit parts but none are presentable as of yet.

Awesome work Bill, Looking forward to the next update.

Got the flaps cut away and one side pretty much mocked up. I used two pieces of square stock to build up the cut away flap. Then sawed off the big chunks. Than shaped it. One down, one to go.

Well, so much for not doing all that extra work on this one. Since Bill offered up his scratch built slats it'd be a crime not to make use of them. So off we go! Knocked one side out over the last two evenings. It's pretty much a given that the flaps have to drop now so that'll be next. Also modded the kit spinner to resemble an E-7 spinner. This was accomplished by plast-i-welding strips of styrene to the nose of the spinner in laminate fashion, cutting them down to size , then filing and sanding to the final shape. It looks like it needs filler but I can't feel any irregularities. I'll prime it first to see what it looks like. That's it for now. Off to start hacking the flaps off this "OOB" build.

Marking the x on the masks in your tutorial is brilliant! I add registration marks to the masks themselves but there's still room for error.

I don't recall the color order without going down to the cut room but I seem to recall the center being red and the outers being white. Not that any of that matters. I'd cut them horizontally, toss the cut-offs and Tamiya tape over the contours.. There really is not going to be an easy out for that area. Have patience, you have plenty of material. Be sure you triple check to be sure the masking is seated before you spray and recheck while you are in progress. Worst case, the clear will grant you forgiveness if you have to do any touch up work. It looks daunting at this point but keep in mind that the white is down so all you are really dealing with at this point is the two edges the demarcate the red stripe. After the red is down you only have the two outer edges to deal with because you are covering everything up to paint the blues.

Thanks guys! This is most definitely not one that just falls together. The next victim will be for sure. I come home at lunch and sanded the repair I did to replace the raised detail lost on the slats during the gun fitting fiasco. I finished one side and was pretty happy with it. Then on my way back to the grind, I stopped at the mailbox and found a pleasant surprise in there. Bill (williamj) bestowed upon me this assortment of goodies that survived some sort of run-in with a tiny human. A much appreciated act indeed. (thanks Bill!) If you have not had the pleasure of seeing Bill's work in person, I can assure you it's outstanding. Looking at these bits and pieces, I can only imagine how fabulous the bird was in it's glory days. I guess I better not let him down. Looks like the previous slat work is about to be superseded.

I have the Tri-Master kit. It's mostly built and on the shelf of doom. I may resurrect it one day. I'd be happy to photograph and/or measure up anything you need reference of. IIRC, the gears were metal and the front gear bay pretty decent.

After what seemed like a few millennia fitting, filing and sanding I finally got the gun access panels to fit well enough not to have to break out the gallon can of body filler. Here's the current pile of sub assemblies. Here's the wings in their current state. Time for some filler the fix some scribing.

Thanks everyone! Finished of the wheel bays. The gap in the pic will go away when the wing gets assembled. Started on the guns. Attaching those nice barrels to those gun shaped blobs of plastic was problematic. I chose to build them from brass tube so they could not help but be straight . They will be closed in so the only thing I was concerned with was maintaining the mount points and angle. That's all I got for now.

Well that wasn't so bad. One side fitted. Won't win any awards for accuracy but it beats the dead hole. Pen marks on inside of upper wing are guides for some additional detail.