Help Decaling w/Adobe Illustrator

Thank you Modelnerd. I am going to look for those tutorials. What I have is a picture of what I want my decal to be, so I imported it, but then I got stuck there. I know I have to resize it, and cut away the outer portion of the picture. I just have to figure out how.

I'd suggest first doing a rough sketch with pencil to decide how you want your decal to look, and the approximate size. Then decide on colors. Once you're satisfied, copy it and cut out the sketch and tape it up to your model to check size or orientation. You didn't mention exactly how comfortable you are with Illustrator, so these next steps may already be known to you. You can scan in your sketch and import the scan into Illustrator, to serve as a rough template. Place the scan on Layer 1, then lock the layer so the scan cannot be moved. Now create a new layer in your Layers palette. This will be your drawing layer. (Make sure this new layer is on top of the scan layer.) Now draw your decal with Ilustrator's shape tools, type tools, whatever you require, and assign your desired colors to the individual elements. When satisfied, select all in the layer, then group. Now you can scale the artwork as a unit, to your desired final size. There is a preference that allows lines (strokes) to scale along with everything else, this is best checked "on" before scaling. Now print a test page, clip out and verify against the model that all is as it should be. Tweak as necessary, then print on your decal paper. The steps mentioned here are a game plan, if you require actual assistance with Illustrator, there are several free resources on the web, often with video tutorials, including Adobe's own website, which will help you get up and running quickly in Illustrator. Good luck!

I'd start with reading the manual thoroughly and going through the Illustrator tutorial until you are comfortable with the program and its features. Illustrator is not a program you can just jump right into unless you like frustration. Time spent up front mastering the basics will save you time (and frustration) later on.

If you are trying to make a decal of a scanned image (for example, an aircraft squadron badge), you can import that scan as a template in a separate layer. Then create a new layer and start drawing in it on top of your template. For each major element in your new drawing, create a new layer. This way you can turn individual layers on and off to better see what you are doing.

Of course, if you are a talented artist to begin with, you won't need a template. Just open a new Illustrator file and start drawing!