Need a bit of advice here........Decal colors

Hello!

What *I* would do - and that's just me - I'd probably scan the decals, redraw them in Corel DRAW! and then have them printed together, so that the colour is guaranteed to match. Alternatively maybe you could find a company to cut masks for you based on the decals and paint the markings on instead of using decals - at least the simpler and bigger ones. Third method that I can think of would be to take a really fine brush and try to paint on the decals - the trick is you don't have to paint the area really accurately, you can leave some of the old colour at the edges, just don't cross the lines. This way you can equalize the colour.

Hope it helps you - good luck with your builds and have a nice day

Paweł

First I would start by getting a chip of the real color. I'll see what I can dig up on that. Must be chat on some model forum somewhere.

Then compare it to what you've got. Hopefully one of them is right.

That's about it.

Bill

I'm thinking it may be the diffrent color backing paper causing the yellow to look off. Can you remove some off each sheet you aren't going to use to compare?

I probably wouldn't sweat it.  But I've gotten lazy over time :)

modelcrazy

I'm thinking it may be the diffrent color backing paper causing the yellow to look off. Can you remove some off each sheet you aren't going to use to compare?

 

modelcrazy

I'm thinking it may be the diffrent color backing paper causing the yellow to look off. Can you remove some off each sheet you aren't going to use to compare?

 

The answer seems to be FS 13655.

http://www.colorserver.net/showcolor.asp?fs=13655

Yes, yes I know. What is on the screen means little.

modelcrazy

I'm thinking it may be the diffrent color backing paper causing the yellow to look off. Can you remove some off each sheet you aren't going to use to compare?

 

Depending on how decals are printed, controlling color, especially of light colors and yellow, is a difficult job.

What about painting the larger yellow markings on both airplanes?

I was hoping modelcrazy would be right.......I painted a piece of plastic Blue Angel Blue from the spray can.  I then took a decal from each sheet, and put them on.  I had the issue before where the blue showed through the decal really bad, but this time both of the decals cover the blue no problem.

Without flash....You can clearly see the difference in colors between the 2 decals.  The 1 is from the Hasegawa kit, and the 9806 is from the Fat Albert set.

With flash...the colors look the same?!? 

I don't have a bottle of Blue Angels Yellow yet to compare the decals too, it should be here Monday, at least then I can compare it to the paint.  I may just have to paint the decals of the none matcher, which I think is going to be the ones on the Hornet.  Ugh.

There’s gotta be other decals available for a Blue angel hornet?

The Hasegawa ones look better to me.

I think what I'm going to do is wait until Monday when my paints arrive and compare the decals to the paint.  Then I'll scan them and change the colors out and print new ones.  I will have to see if that is going to work or not though.  My concern is the decal won't be opaque enough and you'll see the blue through it.  I know these decals are opaque enough, so I may just land up painting over them.  I don't want to waste my money buying decal sheet after decal sheet trying to get things to match. 

Keyda81

I think what I'm going to do is wait until Monday when my paints arrive and compare the decals to the paint.  Then I'll scan them and change the colors out and print new ones.  I will have to see if that is going to work or not though.  My concern is the decal won't be opaque enough and you'll see the blue through it.  I know these decals are opaque enough, so I may just land up painting over them.  I don't want to waste my money buying decal sheet after decal sheet trying to get things to match. 

 

You will have to print yellow decals on white decal paper, which means you'll have to cut them out anyway.  Depending on your color matching skills, to create a blue background color, you'll either have to cut them out exactly to match the letters. If you can create artwork that creates (and prints) a really authentic blue angels blue, you do not have to trim as exactly.  Printing yellow on clear decal paper with an inkjet printer will give you very translucent decals.

Don Stauffer

 

 

Keyda81

I think what I'm going to do is wait until Monday when my paints arrive and compare the decals to the paint.  Then I'll scan them and change the colors out and print new ones.  I will have to see if that is going to work or not though.  My concern is the decal won't be opaque enough and you'll see the blue through it.  I know these decals are opaque enough, so I may just land up painting over them.  I don't want to waste my money buying decal sheet after decal sheet trying to get things to match. 

 

 

 

 

You will have to print yellow decals on white decal paper, which means you'll have to cut them out anyway.  Depending on your color matching skills, to create a blue background color, you'll either have to cut them out exactly to match the letters. If you can create artwork that creates (and prints) a really authentic blue angels blue, you do not have to trim as exactly.  Printing yellow on clear decal paper with an inkjet printer will give you very translucent decals.

 

 

I kind of figured that.  Looks like my best option might just to be to paint over them.  It will irk me to no end leaving as they are. 

I know this won't help but...Take all your pictures to post with a flash and install a bright picture light to focus on them wherever you display them LOL

Hi Keyda, do you mean painting the decal itself? That really won't work because the clear carrier film is not the same shape as the printed image. I still think that you'd be best either living with them or continuing to try to find a replacement for one to match the other.

GMorrison

Hi Keyda, do you mean painting the decal itself? That really won't work because the clear carrier film is not the same shape as the printed image. I still think that you'd be best either living with them or continuing to try to find a replacement for one to match the other.

 

I was going to try it after they were put on the plane.  I am still considering purchasing a different set for the Hornet.  There is no other offerings for Fat Albert, at least not that I have found.  No big rush with it anyway.  I don't plan on getting into this build for a while. 

Keyda,

I've looked hard at those two decal sheets and I'm afraid your options are pretty limited. Here's why.

Each sheet has that badge, just as one example. The badge decal is a single piece of carrier film without any interior voids, unlike say a "zero". This means you cannot paint over it because it will turn into a solid blob.

You also cannot print it on white paper because again, the infill will be white film, not clear with blue showing through. 

There's a white cloud in there. Since you cannot print white, you are stuck either hand painting it after printing on clear film, or printing on white paper, which won't work for the blue parts.

Printing on clear film will not give you a good yellow color.

In theory, there would be a way to spend a lot of time creating color separations for the yellow and the white, adjusting the yellow color, and applying multi layers of decals. Or silkscreening multi-color ink images.

I think your time is best spent picking the one you like and looking for it's companion. Don't go by kit manufacturer; the decals aren't always consistent. 

Or let it go. I think it looks goodenuff.

Possibly a question for some others with more experience... If you go the route of printing your own decals would it be possible to print a secong set, just and outline essentially, on white? Then put the white decal on first to cover the blue and then lay the yellow on top of that? Or print two yellow copies And do the same thing? I’m trying to think of how to make them more opaque so the blue doesn’t show thru.

Both of those ideas are good ones. I have often doubled up white decals to get them opaque. Then I decided it was easier to do the following. 

Prime the model white. Make a photocopy of the decal. Use that to cut a blue tape mask. Put the mask where the decal will go and finish all the base color painting. Remove the mask at the decal stage and apply the decal.

Now, that's easier for a national marking or a tail stripe than it is for a line of copy. There the "double strike" decal app works best.

There are ways to make a "white" decal of another colored object. Print the object on the back of white decal paper. If the object is symetrical, like a star, just cut it out from the back. If it's an odd shape, the image can be flipped in Acrobat and then printed.

I guess I will have to experiment a few different things.  Maybe I will just reprint the Hornet decals in the same shade of yellow as the Fat Albert decals, and put them on over the kit decals.  I will try that on my scrap bit of plastic at some point. 

Two posts above do show a way if you have a good enough graphics program. If your graphics program allows you do do a color seperation output (many do), then you can indeed to two sets, a yellow set and a blue set, with the yellow set on white paper when you print, and the dark blue on just the interior portions of the decal.  On closed blue areas, the eye will not be as sensitive to color variation as two blues right ajacent to each other.  You'd have to do a reasonable color match to the blue, but it would not be perfect.  However, you'd still have to cut the outer edges of the yellow real accurately. They do not need to be perfect, however.  A thin line of a slightly off color will not be as noticable as large areas.

I'll assume this is for 1/48 scale. Cam Pro makes F-18 Blue Angel decals for 2006 and 1987. Not sure how well the colors match, but, hopefully this may help you a bit. 

Edit: Cam Pro also makes a set in 1/72: 2006

Don Stauffer

Two posts above do show a way if you have a good enough graphics program. If your graphics program allows you do do a color seperation output (many do), then you can indeed to two sets, a yellow set and a blue set, with the yellow set on white paper when you print, and the dark blue on just the interior portions of the decal.  On closed blue areas, the eye will not be as sensitive to color variation as two blues right ajacent to each other.  You'd have to do a reasonable color match to the blue, but it would not be perfect.  However, you'd still have to cut the outer edges of the yellow real accurately. They do not need to be perfect, however.  A thin line of a slightly off color will not be as noticable as large areas.

 

 

The graphics program might be able to do it, but I know I can't!  Lol.  I have no skills what so ever when it comes to stuff like that. 

hogfanfs, thanks for looking.  I'll keep that set in mind.  I might just pick up a few different sheets and see if one matches better. 

There is another, truly elegant, solution, depending on how deep your pockets are or how lucky you may be to locate a 4 color printer.    This is the problem I was researching when I found this site.  My solution:    an OKI C711WT (WT=4th cart is white).   Create your yellow decal and when printing, use two special functions of the printer.   First: "white ON" which coats the TOP of the decal with white, after all other colors are applied, giving the colors below more density.   Second: since the object isn't an overall white decal, there is "mirror print" which prints everything backwards.  Now to get the un-mirrored decal, it is applied top down (white down) with enhansed colors now on top with the white background on the bottom.