There are no doubt some of you who have assumed I dropped out of the group build. I'm still here, you lucky devils! And of course, there was the obligatory hiatus for the holidays. This step which I will show you here was the most mentally taxing part of the project. I can safely say this, even though I'm not finished with the project, because ANYTHING that comes after this step will be easy!
As previously mentioned, I drew up my own decals, once I discovered my Eagle Strike set did not come with lozenge. Since inkjet-printed decals are quite susceptible to water, I thought it prudent to use a color laser printer. Well, as you know, Kinko's wouldn't touch it, so I had to research and buy my own dang laser printer (I settled on a Xerox Phaser 6130). As I soon discovered, the downside of laser-printed decals is that they're brittle and chip easily. Clearcoating does help, but there will still be problem areas. The following pictures show the decalling progress. At this point, they're still glossy.
In this photo, the "axle wing" (for lack of not really knowing WHAT it's really called!) has a flat coat:
Wrapping an entire plane in decals has proven to be a tad on the tricky side, I hope I don't ever have to do this again! My next post should have the plane together and finished.