New Aragon Mechanical Works @ Shapeways

3D Printed airplane models and mecha

[sw-namw]

Everything that has a beginning has and end.... Decals for small airplanes part 3: Last manufacturers

So here we are, I was not planning to write this in six months time but I like to keep the posts brief.

So the last two are specialty cases for me, most of my work so far has been around 1/285-1/300 scale, but as of late demand in 1/200 scale has picked up and my first always to go manufacturers do not actually work in that scale.

Thanks to the guys in the wings of war forum I found Mehusla in ebay

1/144 Direct

http://stores.ebay.ie/1-144-Direct

He has a broad range that covers most of the common subjects of modelling from WWII to Vietnam, I find his decals really nice with good adherence and good definition, alignment is good and he is one of the few guys that covers 1/200 in his sheets.

The only gripe I have with his decals is that color density is not that good and even the white color suffers transparency issues over dark colors.

If it was not for that I would probably use his decals as one of my main resources but at present I prefer to stick to him on dark decals or normal ones over light colors.

The american roundels on my seahawk below are from his shop

The final manufacturer I am going to cover is not related to aviation, I have been a big fan of Battletech for a long time and I have worked in a good bunch of miniatures for it. And the definite source for Battletech related decals is Fighting Piranha Graphics

Fighting Piranha Graphics

http://www.fightingpirannhagraphics.com/

They have a huge range with plenty of different crests and insignia of the different factions from the Battletech universe. Their decals have good definition and color density but their worst problem is their fragility, they do not have a top coat so they get scratched quite easily.

Still they are the only source available for Battletech decals and that is a minor gripe (once you learn about it :)). They have some generic sci-fi, warning marks and those are sometimes useful in aviation subjects.

You can see some on my mini below, it is an Unseen Galahad (aka Glass Spider) from the Omega Galaxy, Jade Falcon Clan.

That is it for today in regards of reviews, I will probably make another post in the coming minutes covering one of my latest minis

[sw-namw]

It is about time, Decals for small airplanes part 2: More manufacturers

Picking where I left it the last time, lets continue reviewing the different manufacturers that are out there.

In my first post I covered two of the major players in the miniature decals market

Dom’s decals and I-94 enterprises, I would say that more than the 90% of my decal needs are covered by them, however there are some others that cover some niches that make modelers life easier (once you know about them :) )

Let’s get in business:

Fantasy Printshop

http://www.fantasyprintshop.co.uk

Those guys do not just make waterslide decals, they do a bunch of other stuff but they make a couple of interesting sheets.

They have lettering for bigger scales (1/200 and up) and really nice sheets with stripes, they have a good set of them and the sheets have several different widths available, they are extremely useful for stenciling and exotic paint schemes (ala JV-44 Fw 190s).

On my BT-1 you can see white and black stripes from their FP60X range

Something that I like from them as well is the block color sheets.

They are very useful in case that you need to create some custom (and simple) geometrical shape in one of the given colors, I use them for Spanish civil war nationalist markings (black circles).

From the technical side of things I can say that color density is fine but their light colors (yellow/red) suffer a bit of translucency an it is advisable to back them in white if they are laid out over a dark color.

They tend to be a bit stiff so using microsol or any decal softening solution is advisable. Do not forget testing the decal solution in a non critical model with a sacrificial decal to avoid suprises in the final model.

When working with stripes I usually cut one stripe of white and another of the final color (red/yellow) and I lay them in succession.

You can see the results on my A2D Skyshark below

The red lines have white backing.

And as this post is getting longer than I expected, I will move my last two decal manufacturers to the next one.

[sw-namw]

Starting the house by the roof: Decals for small scale airplane miniatures part 1: Manufacturers

Piggybacking on my first post lets introduce a few manufacturers of decals

Why?

Well because no miniature is complete without a set of decals, you can go crazy as I do or you can just drop a couple of roundels and insignias here and there.

The BT-1 on my first post has a total of 25 decals on top of it

4 US 1930s roundels

4 narrow white bands (covering half of the rear fuselage)

1 single wide black band

6 Big black letters on each side of the fuselage

2 Big white letter on top of the black band

4 small letters on top of the wings

4 medium sized black bands on the wings

As you might imagine not just a single manufacturer was involved in this monstrosity :)

So lets get started, shall we?

My main provider for roundels and random national insignia is Dom from Dom Decal’s

http://domsdecals.com/

Doms website is pretty spartan but the important stuff are his decals, I came across his range when he just started with the range and he had a wonderful range of actual properly laid out german balkan crosses which were sorely lacking at that time.

Still I think that his german markings are the best out there, I have both the 1/300 (1/285) and 1/600 sheets and they can cover a good range of planes, I have no 1/600 airplanes myself but the 1/600 sheet is quite useful when dealing with airplanes with small wings or narrow fuselages (He 162 I am looking at you!)

Size wise only the biggest planes might not be covered by the three sizes offered on his sheets and by biggest I mean really big boys as the Ar 232, XB-15..ect, The biggest size goes nicely with the usual suspects Ju 88, He 111, Do 17, B-25, B-18, B-23...ect

His range is pretty comprehensive and he also accepts suggestions, he had some really nice generic pinup decals that look great, I cannot see them now in the web but I will drop him an email to see if he still have them around.

Resolution, thickness, color density and transparency are very good now but some of his early sheets were not that good he has improved a lot with time.

The only think he lacks a bit is lettering, he just has USAF, NAVY and MARINES stripes and German squadron marks (with all their funky symbols).

Second on the list is Dave from I-94 enterprises

http://www.i-94enterprises.com/products/decals-setting-solution/

His ranges are broader than Doms but the amount of decals per sheet you get is slightly smaller. His German range for 1/285 is a bit of hit and miss lacking a few of the different balkan cross styles and sizes.

The american range suffers a bit of the same issues as the germans however he has some nice sheets as the US-102 were he covers a lot of different sizes that other manufactures don’t.

He offers nice sheets that cover tail markings and specific squadron markings and he takes into account the actual miniature manufacturer models when designing these decals which is a plus, you can by a decal sheet resting assured that it will fit the mini you want to put the decals in.

He also has a few armor and generic decals and a bit of sci-fi stuff.

But where this range excels is lettering, Dave offers 4 sheets of generic lettering in 4 colors (white, black, red and yellow) and three sizes on every sheet plus specific lettering sheets for the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force and Marine corps (black, white and yellow) and stripe sheets for each of this corps above on several colors (black white and grey so far)

He is my one stop shop for lettering :)

On the technical side his latest decal sheets have improved in resolution and color density (his earliest ones suffered as the doms ones) and they are very good.

One word of warning though, the lettering in red and yellow does not have white backing which means that it is sort of transluncent and the color will lose crispness when applied on top of dark colors. A quick workaround is to first lay a white decal of the same type and put the red/yellow one on top.

That is enough for today, next post will cover a couple more of manufacturers and some finishing techniques

[sw-namw]

First post and First model

Inaugurating the blog with one of my latest models painted,

Tested the new HP Strong and Flexible material with this little known airplane that was the direct predecessor of the Douglas SDB Dauntless, the paint scheme is based on pictures from LIFE that I found in flickr.

It is 6B10 from the squadrons aboard the USS Enterprise (CV-6) in September 1940

Link to the shop item at Shapeways

1/285 (6mm) Northrop BT-1 dive bomber