Greetings folks. I want to get your opinions. The process of decaling is a short way off for me so I am getting my ducks lined up. As you probably know by now, this is my first build in a very long time. Having said that, I have to relearn the decal process. I think I have the basic process in mind when it comes to using Micro Set and Micro Sol. I have watched videos and read articles. I am not entirely new to using them either. I had used them in my past modeling flurry. Still, I built mostly cars at that time and I wasn't dealing with rivets and panel lines.
Here is where the question comes into play. I have ordered and received a decal sheet that has the markings that I want for this build. I think they look ok, but I want your opinions on what trouble I might run into. The markings for this plane are fairly large and they will cover a fair amount of detail. My concern is about getting the decals to settle into/onto all the panel line/rivet detail without silvering. There seems to be a lot of clear areas between the markings. You folks are more familiar with this. Do these seem normal for aircraft decals? Or am I dealing with something a little out of the norm? The setting solutions "should" handle this correct?
Many years ago I read about how some modelers will trim out all the clear portions of the decals. I had tried that back then and I found that the process has it's pitfalls. The worst of them was that any uneven cuts with your knife into the marking area became glaring once the decal was applied to the model. Applying the decals was much more difficult as well. You really had to play with them in order to get them lined up. I am sure that with practice a person can make this all work. I am curious if any of you folks do this.
Lastly... I may even try airbrushing the markings. The markings for this build are one color, and they are fairly simple in shape. It would seem an ideal project to try it on. I have just experimented with making masks and with some success. I ran the decal sheet through my computer scanner, scaled the image correctly, then printed it onto paper. The paper copy is now the underlying layer that I use to work on. I tried various masking mediums and I have found that Tamiya Masking Tape works the best, and for several reasons. Firstly, the tape is somewhat opaque. I can clearly see the markings through the tape. This makes it possible to trim the tape accordingly. Secondly, there is something about Tamiya tape that makes it cut really well. I don't have to press as hard as the other masking mediums I tried and in order to cut through. Thirdly, the tape seems to have the perfect adhesion qualities. Not too sticky, not too weak. I was able to pull the tape off the paper without pulling any paper up. And, the tape still held it's stickiness. I was able to make some nice clean masks. The only problem I had though, my tape is not large enough to cover the entire marking. I did some research and Tamiya sells the tape in sheets, and, you can get them in much wider rolls than I have. I have ordered both to try.
Sorry for the long read. Your opinions are appreciated.
Thanks folks.
Steve
