Aerodrome RC 1/10 Alb D Va

Jecull · 28 December 2009, 06:21 PM

For the sake of it here's the direct link to Doug's lozenge decal thread...
FINISHED LOZENGES from test for all

Jecull · 1 January 2010, 07:54 PM

I finally got over the trepidation of trying this. I printed up some lozenge and the personal cammo for the turttle deck. These I covered with clear spray paint as a fixative. I decided that if the ink would stay on after hitting the decal with Micro Sol then it should work over all.

Since I didn't do major damage to the experiment, I decided to try it on the cockpit.

This seemed to go well enough so I cut out the opening, going back over the edge with Micro Sol.

This is looking pretty good as I can see wood grain through the decal. Once it's dried I'll slip the coaming back on. Till then, Gunther will have to wait.

Jecull · 27 January 2010, 08:13 AM

"News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated." - Mark Twain
Just moved into an apartment and needing to sort things out to be able to get at the work table is all.

Jecull · 13 February 2010, 05:06 PM

Interesting dealing with these decals. This is post printing & initial cut out. I'd taped it down to get the bottom edges & figured I could cut the curvature in after laying the decal.

I was definitely wrong on that count! the bottom edges were easy but I bunged up while trying lay the thing down & it was on transparent sheet! The decal rolled under and, while trying to sort that out, the color also slid off! I guess this happened as it had only sat for 1/2 hour or so to dry after shooting the clear flat. Also, the transparent allows too much of the wood show through and muddies the colors up something fierce.

So I thought I'd try for the lower wing again. Figured the transparent sheet would be okay with the polyspan as a backing.

Looks good enough but I wasn't careful enough sliding the wing tip piece. There was a bit too much grab at the trailing edge and the decal pulled apart near the edge. I had to dump it & will lay in a repair later. The next four pieces I did better with but lost some color due to the decal creasing at the center (the dark purple, first panel in). There are other, minor spots that came off too in handling (i.e. the spot on the green).

I found that feeding the decal in the water helped...

...giving it time to curl in only one direction, rather than both ends towards the middle (which is what caused the wrinkle in the purple)

So here is the result, with lots of Micro Sol under the decals, waiting to dry. The hope is that most of the wrinkles will settle out over the next few hours.

Jecull · 13 February 2010, 06:09 PM

Trust in the abilities of Micro Sol! I'll get the technique down so, I hope, won't have any more mising ink...

Jecull · 25 February 2010, 05:40 PM

That week went by quickly! So this is where I've been;

Left lower wing upper mostly covered in lozenge. I'd missed the last 1" near the wing root. This works out as I can do that last bit in opaque decal to cover the plywood.

The workspace that can easily be converted to a dinning room table. I have 3 different colors of Sharpie that I've been using to cover the cracks in the ink.

First section of lower lozenge in place. The pen line was from when I'd cut the polyspan...it'd didn't get covered like I was hoping. It takes about 12' of distance before it's un-noticeable. *sigh*

First piece on the right wing. The cracks in the ink weren't as bad this time but the decal material is very delicate, I just can't seem to get around this problem.

The true horror that is rib tapes! I'm still contemplating Chartpak tape for the potential ease that it may give. With the strips this narrow, 3/16", the decal stretches horribly & is very difficult to keep in line.

Overall, so far, it's livable. I'll have to find a marker to color over these before I spray the final coats of flat.

I'm going to work on the gear struts & cabanes while I wait for my finances to settle down again. Each decal pack has 6 sheets, @ 10$ per pack. I'll need 2 packs for the upper wing and one more for the lower. I've also decided to hand paint the personal camo on the back as I'm not able to get this down with a decal. I've tried twice and both times the ink ran off the decal. I'm thinking, in addition to operator error, the curvature is too great for the clear coat to take. I'm guessing that it cracks causing the water to get to the ink.
It's all a learning experience...

Jecull · 19 March 2010, 02:32 PM

Whoops! Forgot to post this update here...

So, rib tapes all across the left lower topside & 2/3rds complete on the right. The lower wing Eisenkreuz, personal crescents, and fuselage/tail Eisenkreuz.

What have I learned so for with this process?
1) Use opaque decal sheets only. The transparent looks cool with the light coming through it (I used it because my LHS only had combo packs) but it is thinner & stretches easier than opaque.

2) Keep in mind the "selvage" edges & orientation of the pattern (you can see what I did wrong by looking at the brown pentagons). Since this isn't a competition model (& I'm sure not going to try to change it now!), I'm kinda bummed about it but I can live with the mistakes.

3) Give the just printed decals at least an hour to dry before spraying the fixative. After spraying, let them sit for at least two hours before handling/application or overnight if you can.

4) Use a full coat of Micro Sol or Micro Set before laying the piece down. Sol is the more aggressive softener but Set seems to be the better adherence aid.

5) Take your time.

6) When you need to move the piece after placement, pull gently from the side that you want the decal to go towards.

7) Try to move the whole decal at the same time. This will help reduce wrinkling which causes loss of color.

8) Use a brush with Micro Sol to slowly push bubbles out and smooth major wrinkles. Minor wrinkles will settle out during drying.

9) Rib tapes are a pain. When the decal starts to uncurl in water, it'll separate from the backing. Either get your fingers behind it, sliding your fingers to each end, then attempt to lay the decal in a straight line. the other method I tried was to encourage a bit of overhang at one end while keeping the decal on the backing. Keep your finger on one end as you attempt to pull the backing off in line with the rib. I found that pulling from one end, then the other, helped with getting these straight but getting them on top of the ribs is a bugger.

10) Tight curvatures are not good for this method. I'm still not sure whether it was operator error, lack of flex in the fixative, or a combination of the two but decaling the back of the fuse didn't work. I've yet to try printing, taping the decal in place, then spraying...

11) Laziness doesn't help. I tried to save a couple of cuts per small eisenkruz by placing them in the corners of the sheets before printing. As you can see, those two edges are smaller than they should be. I'll probably cut off that little bit then but new strips on. That should reduce the obviousness of the error.

Now on to working the sub wing & gear, shaping the cabanes, & working the motor bay.

Jecull · 19 March 2010, 03:09 PM

Going to get to more decal application but first...
Decals new & repeat. These take care of most of the lower wing undersides (thank you Thomas & Dan San for the color information), finishes the right lower topside, aileron undersides, wingtip & one panel for the upper wing topside & eisenkreuz & topside of the radiator.

Outer upper wing rib tapes, upper eisenkreuz, aileron topsides, fuse & tail eisenkreuz, & lower radiator.

Personal marking for one Ltn.

Josef Mai (scales down to the right size this time), 3 panels of upper wing topside, & the final lower wing undersides.

Since I couldn't get the decal to stick around the cockpit and they came apart around the tight curve of the turtle deck, I went with the old fashioned method for the personal camo...paint.

I pulled the gun deck off as I had the guns too far forward. the new piece is soaking in water for the next few hours. I'm also going to have to make another set of cabanes because I appear to have lost the originals. *sigh*
Back to work...

Jecull · 22 March 2010, 09:57 AM

So here is what happens with 3 coats of fixative. What a pain it is to get this to settle down. There's some minor wrinkling along the chord wise seams.

It became more of a problem on the topside, as these two images show, & appears to have darkened the color some too. The wrinkles were more pronounced and I couldn't push the all bubbles out. I had to put holes in the bubbles later then force the Micro Sol in. It helped but made for an unpleasant color repair.

The ailerons fared better at least...

as did the eisenkreuz on the tail.

What an experience this turned out to be! We'll see how I fare with the sectional cuts over the ribs as I'll start doing that on the right lower underside next.

Jecull · 4 April 2010, 06:23 PM

I'll get images up of the lowers in a couple of days as I'm just about done with the decals (just running the edge tapes on the right). One of the panels really started to come apart on the color then the decal got gummy enough to stick to my fingers. That made for quite a mess on that panel, what a pain that became! I patched over it but it's still pretty obvious.

I've been having the same issue with the edge tape as , due to their length (8.5") they start to get stretchy & gummy before being able to get them down straight. I keep having to remind myself that this is going to be a stand-off model. I'm sure people will still get right up on it though...

So, where is this beast at with regards to AUW? Extrapolating based off of partially done bits.... 26 oz. minus battery. Chuck in a 2S 2100 11.1V battery @ 6 oz & I get a wing load of 10.7 oz. I don't think she'll be much of a floater but not a flying brick either...