First of all, you should all understand that I am a fundamentally lazy man.
Secondly, you should know that I just purchased a new printer: a
Canon model that prints with an oil-based ink. These two factors have
led to my recent wonderings about the viability of creating cammo patterns
using decals. It is possible to obtain blank decal paper, and it is equally
possible to use a printer to make decals with itseveral of my ships have
names that we produced in this fashion, using the laser
printer at my former place of employment. However, now I am thinking
big. I have never been able to produce good cammo patterns on my 25mm
vehicles, and doing it on a substantial force of 6mm tanks can take a good
long while. Thus, the following ideas:
ClarisWorks has a drawing program which allows the user to create "3D"
grayscale shapescircles and polygons that appear convex or concave, depending
on the setting. Using these shapes on a black or gray
background could produce a sort of high-tech looking urban cammo
pattern.
You can do large, irregular polygons using any sort of drawing program.
Personally, I cant paint a straight line, so this will make my life
tremendously easier when doing some of the urban cammo patterns that I have
been working on. You can also make dazzle patterns for Full Thrust
ships this way, and I have been toying with the idea of doing just this for
the NAC ships that will be my next purchase.
I am also thinking of just making lines of various lengths, and using them to
make a network across a 25mm vehicle or two. Theres also the "spraypaint"
effect in most paint programsthis will allow the creation of impromptu
appearing cammo patterns, and can also be used to create a spray of dots
across a conventional cammo patten.
Just some thoughts, of dubious worth. What do you guys think? Workable, or am
I merely dreaming?
> Just some thoughts, of dubious worth. What do you guys think?
I don't think it will work as the decals won't deform enough to cover large
areas or any surface detail. They are just going to look lumpy and peel and
crack. You can only apply a large decal to a totally smooth surface with a
reasonable curvature. Like the old Star Trek Bird of prey in the three ship
set, the bottom of the ship was baby bottom smooth to apply the BOP decal and
even then it was a total pig to get right.
I'd buy an airbrush like a Badger 150 that can go to a fine point and spray
the cammo patterns through frisk film or by hand. You could print the basic
shapes onto the frisk film with the printer to use as a guide to cutting out.
The problem with masks is that you have to get them close to the surface to
stop bleed and this requires some patience and practice on paper first. Just
doing it by hand and using a simple edge mask gives OK results.
Now what you really want is the sort of electrostatic spray gun they use to
do the painting on micro-machines. Sort of a 3D ink jet.
> Just some thoughts, of dubious worth. What do you guys think?
I know what you mean. Oh, god, do I know what you mean.... But I am not
planing on making anything tremendously big. Most of waht I would like to do,
the "Special Effects", would not require anything particuarly large. The
lines, of course, would be an exception, but if I kept them to no more than
about three or four inches long it should be
workable.
Tim spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> > Just some thoughts, of dubious worth. What do you guys think?
I'd have to concur. Decals are a pig (especially if you have to fit them to
complex surfaces) and they give (many times) a glare (although this can be
reduced with a dullcoat). About the only place I'd like them is if someone
made some shoulder flashes and cap badges for SG2 and I would probably apply
them.
> I'd buy an airbrush like a Badger 150 that can go to a fine point and
You can also get away with painting a basecoat, and then using one or
two other colours with the spray directly - an ambush scheme -
probably one of the harder things to paint 'exactly' like a historical
pattern, but a good knock up can be made. Instead of the large patches you get
the basecoat with a lot of smaller splotches of your chosen spray colours. But
I'd consider doing this before doing final detailing. In many ways, this is
easier than trying to apply a template and probably produces a consistent
result across a force.
(From my microarmour days, painting 1/300th scale leopard IIs in camo
by hand can be awful time consuming).
Is there a kit out there with MGs, cupolas, etc. and things like
jerrycans and the like - those who build dioramas will recall
that those kits from Itareli or Escii that had MGs, barrells, boxes,
ammo crates, sleeping rolls, etc. - these things make nice additions
to stock vehicles (along with antennaes and applique reactive armour)?
/************************************************
Thomas Barclay Software Specialist Police Communications Systems Software
Kinetics Ltd. 66 Iber Road, Stittsville Ontario, Canada, K2S 1E7
Reception: (613) 831-0888
PBX: (613) 831-2018
My Extension: 4009
Fax: (613) 831-8255
Software Kinetics' Web Page:
http://www.sofkin.ca
SKL Daemons Softball Web Page:
http://fox.nstn.ca/~kaladorn/softhp.htm
**************************************************/
Tom spake thusly upon matters weighty:
Sorry Tom, I see I may have missed part of the post where you were painting
ships, although the same technique for putting an ambush scheme on could work.
I would recommend a black ship with a white and maybe red ambush spray over
top (as a kind of speckling). Would make the ship blend well with the
background thus making visual detection
difficult (which might or might not be a plus on the gaming table -
sometimes it is easy to lose pieces and ones like that don't photograph well).
The thing about Decals is, although they give you a far better result for
straightness etc than freehand painting, its often hard to disguise a fact
they are there.
Tom.
/************************************************
Thomas Barclay Software Specialist Police Communications Systems Software
Kinetics Ltd. 66 Iber Road, Stittsville Ontario, Canada, K2S 1E7
Reception: (613) 831-0888
PBX: (613) 831-2018
My Extension: 4009
Fax: (613) 831-8255
Software Kinetics' Web Page:
http://www.sofkin.ca
SKL Daemons Softball Web Page:
http://fox.nstn.ca/~kaladorn/softhp.htm
**************************************************/
I don't recall the name of the material or what specific type of decal it
works with, but I have used a commercially available chemical that helps a
decal "snug" down over an irregular surface. I once used it when applying
roundels to some French WWI aircraft miniatures, but have apparently lost the
bottle during my last move. The roundel decals actually flowed down into the
crevice separating wing and flap quite nicely.
> Just some thoughts, of dubious worth. What do you guys think?
> am not planing on making anything tremendously big. Most of waht I
> I kept them to no more than about three or four inches long it should
> -----Original Message-----
Humbrol Decalcote perhaps? There are several products like this on the market.
Any GOOD hobby shop should be able to help.
> I don't recall the name of the material or what specific type of decal
Humbrol do a two-part decal softening / setting solution that sounds
similar. In my experience it works fine at getting decals to 'flow' into a
single direction (eg down into an engraved panel line and back up again) but
has no hope of getting a decal to adhere to the contours of something with
compound curves like a GZG vehicle! As soon as you ask a decal to start
bending in more than one direction at once then problems are going to occur.
> At approximately 7/10/98 3:45 AM, John Jeffery Shoemark wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
There's a line of products that help in general modeling. MicroSol and
MicroSet for decal placement. MicroMask for masking those clear plastic
canopies before airbrushing or spray painting. There's a number of other
products as well. Most hobby stores I've seen that deal in a fair amount of
plastic models have these items around (at least in the USA that is).
Some of the best camo I've painted was done by painting the entire figure a
very dark green (I think an olive that was almost black), then loading a brush
with a little more paint than you would use for dry brushing and "pecking" the
paint on. "Peck" on three different colors (a brown, a tan, and a green, for
example), and the result is a pattern that's really striking up close, but
that fades to a muddy brown at a distance.
The paint that gets "pecked" on doesn't go down into the details, so the dark
undercoat shows through and brings out the details.
There are several manufacturers of decal solvents. They are water soluble and
contain a certain type of alcohol that will melt down decals. Usually you
apply the decal as normal then paint on a coating of the solvent. After a
minute or so the decal is almost liquid and seeps downward into crevices.
After about ten minutes, the solvent has evaporated and the decal is still
soft, but definitely set onto the plastic.
--Binhan
> Matthew Brose wrote:
> I don't recall the name of the material or what specific type of decal
A few comments regarding using decals for cammo. First off, you need to have
the surface on which you are placing the decal to be smooth. This means a
gloss coat of some sort. What this will do is prevent little pockets of air
from silvering the decal. Then you have the option to either
apply a gloss, semi-matte or matte finish on the figure after everything
has dried. As to setting solutions, over here in the US we have available to
us Microset and Microsol and for those really tough decals Solvaset. A warning
with Solvaset. It may cause your decal to disintegrate depending on the decal
manufacturer. It is quite strong. Definitely use a test piece before you apply
a keeper. And once it is on, don't touch the decal until it is completely dry.
If, after everything has dried, there are small bubbles in the decal, use a
pin to pop the bubble and apply a dab of the setting solution to that area to
suck down the decal.