UH-34 D nose art decal

Instead of black, could you make the background the same green as the surrounding paint?  Even if it wasn't exact, you could go in with a brush afterwards to blend it all together.  

Hello!

First of all - that's a very interesting story! How come you live in Canada now, if I can ask you that?

Now for the decal - I don't know how you want to print it, but when I was preparing my custom decals I was drawing them in CorelDRAW and then it was easy - the background colour of the drawing area was ignored by the decal maker, meaning only the pattern that I drew were printed, the remainder of the decal sheet was left clear. Some programs let you define an "ignore colour" or "transparent" - meaning the areas left in that specific colur are handled as unprinted, clear.

If you like, I could draw the pattern you posted for you in CorelDRAW, and send you a file, then it will have the .cdr format. Or if you need some other format, maybe we can work something out - write me a PM, if you like. I would also need to know the exact size you need the pattern to be.

Plus - it would be cool to draw up nice colour profile of the aircraft you have in mind - if there was something like that, maybe a professional decal maker would bring out decals for that?

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

LonCray

Instead of black, could you make the background the same green as the surrounding paint?  Even if it wasn't exact, you could go in with a brush afterwards to blend it all together.  

 

@Pawel:

My wife and I emigrated to Canada in 1969, following my graduation from university, to take a jobs in Ottawa. We liked Canada a great deal and have been here ever since. We are now Canadian citizens. We live in Vancouver. 

About my decal problem: I will be using Experts-Choice White Decal Film with my inkjet printer. I've used their clear decal film with good success. This helicopter decal is difficult because the outermost part of it will be white, and of course I can't print white with my printer.

I appreciate your offer to create a design for me, but I'm happy with the drawing I'm using. My tour of duty in Vietnam was early in the war, and the evidence from HMM-363 Squadron photos on-line is that the nose art was done quite crudely, by hand, so that's what I'd like to try to replicate, although at 1/72 scale no one will be able to tell without close scrutiny.

I have thought about the possibility of making a stencil in the shape of the four-leaf clover, but that would be as difficult as cutting out the decal after it's printed. 

Bob

Another option is to use clear decal paper and leave the white part white in your design.  This will not put down any color and be a clear area.  Paint the area where it will be on the nose white.  Then you can go back and paint the area around the decal that gets left after trimming the fuselage green color.

Hello Bob!

Thanks a lot for your explanation!

I did a quick redraw in Corel and here's what I have come up with:

If you print this out on a white decal sheet, you can trim along the black line and get the logo you want this way. If you wish, I could easily make the black line a little thicker. The trick here is the black line should hide any problems with the cut and shouldn't stand out much against the green background. Or, if you want, I can make the line dark green, too.

Hope it helps - I sure would love to see some pictures of your model when you are that far with the build. Good luck with it and have a nice day

Paweł

HeavyArty

Another option is to use clear decal paper and leave the white part white in your design.  This will not put down any color and be a clear area.  Paint the area where it will be on the nose white.  Then you can go back and paint the area around the decal that gets left after trimming the fuselage green color.

I'd thought of this approach, but I think the brush work would be too fine for either my skill level or the size of my smallest brush. And I've learned in my brief "adult modeling career" that less paint is more! But I appreciate your take on my problem.

Bob 

Pawel

Hello Bob!

Thanks a lot for your explanation!

I did a quick redraw in Corel and here's what I have come up with:

If you print this out on a white decal sheet, you can trim along the black line and get the logo you want this way. If you wish, I could easily make the black line a little thicker. The trick here is the black line should hide any problems with the cut and shouldn't stand out much against the green background. Or, if you want, I can make the line dark green, too.

Hope it helps - I sure would love to see some pictures of your model when you are that far with the build. Good luck with it and have a nice day

I think you've got it, Pawel. I downloaded your drawing, pasted it into my word processing program (Apple's Pages), made six copies of the image ranging in size from .5 cm to 1 cm in width, then printed it. The .5 cm version seems to fit best, and I don't think it will be too difficult to trim the resulting decal. Any errors will be so small as to be nearly invisible.

One request: Please do provide me with another large copy, making the outline about three times thicker and changing the color to a green matching Tamiya's TYS-28 Olive Drab spray paint (digital swatch available at https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/85028/index.htm — I realize that you won't be able to perfectly match the colour, but any "olive drabish" should work for our purposes). And I certainly will post photos of the completed model. It shouldn't take me more than two or three years at my present high rate of model building — I make a lot time-munching mistakes!

Thanks very much for your help.

Bob

P.S. After looking at your web site, I understand now why you are so interested in my project and in the Vietnam War. You might appreciate browsing through my web site, "37 Days in Vietnam — A Navy corpsman with the U.S. Marines": http://www.ephemeraltreasures.net/37-days-in-vietnam.html.  

Decal film is very thin and doesn't go over dark colors well. The white film is transluscent and will not maintain its color well. 

I would suggest one of two options.

#1 Paint the area where the decal white first. Then cut out the decal shape on a piece of tape and mask the white area, then repaint the OD which will leave you with the white clover. From there you can either put your decal over the white spot, or simply make a decal of the lion and apply it over the white paint.

#2 make multiple decals, and apply one over the next until the color is right.

Option #1 is the best in my opinion, but I've done 2 and it will work after you get the 3rd or 4th decal in place. If you go with 2, I would print several without the lion and only apply the decal with the lion on the last layer. That will help to hide any slight misalignment of the layered decals. Since it will at that point be a good white background the single layer of red will be fine.

Thank you for your suggestions, Aaronw. I've only worked with transparent decal material, so your concerns are certainly worth noting. I think #1 just might work. 

Bob

Hello Bob!

Here you go, I hope it helps you:

Thanks for the link to your web page - I started reading it and the photos you made in 'Nam are really something special! Looking forward to seeing your model - good luck with it and have a nice day

Paweł