1/18th Decals

[Spudkopf]

G'day All

Let me say from the start that this is a shameless plug for a decal product that I’ve been working towards for some time.

I have been designing 1/6th scale (305mm) decals sets for John Ivory’s custom accessory site, John’s Stuff, many of the early files were created with MS PowerPoint (at the time the only vector based drawing utility I had) and I lately I have been re-doing many of these earlier files in Adobe Illustrator, which has allowed far more scope in design and scale.

When 1/18th was still in it’s infancy (well for me anyway) I proposed to John that we should make some decals to suit the XD scale mainly because I myself had begun to get interested in it due to the acquisition of a 21stCT Stuka, but with only a luke warm response I decided to put that project on the back burner.

Recently I suggested and finally convinced John that we should re-scale some of the new decals and begin making them available to the 1/18th XD and 1/16th RC crowds.

So I’m proud to announce that the first sets consisting of Stuka, Tiger and German Panzer units sets are now available from John’s site.


http://www.johns-stuff.com/pages/decals/decal2.html


Hope I did not break any rules.

[Teamski]

I'm very impressed with the decal sheets!! Sure looks like a professional product. I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in the divisional signs alone for the Tiger.............

Good luck on your line. It should do well!

-Ski

[red69charger]

Very nice looking decals and very thorough coverage. I may have to pick some up.

Question: Are these decals precut or are they uncut?

[Spudkopf]

G'day All

Thankyou for your comments and support.

The decals are originally printed on a full 8.5"x 11 water slide sheet, that is then in the case of the 1/18th sets cut into half or 1/6th sheets, however the decals themselves have to be trimmed from the sheets, as we are yet to get the technology to do fully pre-cut sets.

Of corse I will not hide the fact that I have quite a vested interest in the success of the decals I create, as my takings are used to make purchases of 1/6th and 1/18th items that are not available down-under (none of the Elite or XD products nor any of the 21st CT 1/6th stuff is available in Australia), as it is due to the other decal projects I’ve done in the past I now have two FW190Ds and a Tiger some where off in Post office land, as I type one of these has arrived this morning, can't wait to get home and see which one.

If the demand is there, allied force sets will definitely become available in the future, you can get an idea of what kind of content to expect by looking at the 1/6th (305mm) sets (note that not all the sets shown here are my original creations) here:

http://www.johns-stuff.com/pages/decals/decal1.html

As an FYI, I've only just completed creating 51, 1/6th scale StuG unit emblems, this took me a good 15 plus hours to do. I’m quite surprised to see that John already has them up on his site.

[flayrah]

Years ago, when I was collecting 1:16, I purchased some decals from Johns Stuff and they are first-rate. He even made some custom decals for me, but at last check he doesn't have the time to do customs any longer.

[Spudkopf]

G'day Flayrah

Requests to John for custom decal sheet designs are usually my department these days, however I do think he has a slightly different pricing policy for customs jobs.

My main requirements to do custom designs are relatively clear & sharp reference material, appropriate dimensions and time.

[Spudkopf]

G'day All

Been working hard putting my own set of custom Stuka decals on my bird.

So here are some WIP shots, most the decals and paint is yet to be properly sealed with an appropriate matt coat, also the indoor direct flash photography tends to show up the short commings of my very rusty modelling skills, but it gives you an idea of what I'm doing.

First up a flash back to the initial repaint





......and now with the new decals applied











Will take some natuarl light outdoor shots when I get a chance, however still much to do like exaust stains, paint sealing and touch-up etc, etc.

[Teamski]

Spud;

Awesome pics! Your decals sure look really good. Did you actually repaint the plane or did you strip off the old decals somehow?

Again, sweet job..........

-Ski

[Spudkopf]

G'day Teamski

I used a 1200 fine grade wet & dry paper (I think it's called grit paper in the US) to remove the incorrectly matched and positioned units codes, unit shields and fuselage crosses, the same was used to the PC tail crosses.

The weathering 21stCT did on my bird consisted of some heavy handed silver dry-brushing especially on the upper wings a some light black airbrushing of the panel lines. I used the same wet & dry method to lightly rub back and tone down this dry-brushing.

Seeing that 21stCT uses mat varnished over raw plastic for the lighter green all I had to do was match up the darker green and mask off accordingly, I ended up masking off about 60% of the dark green areas the remaining areas were touched up or blended in free-hand using a very light spray setting, a simular setting was used to airbrush in replacement blackened panel lines. Will have to break out the black again to age up the relevant decals that cross these panel lines and to add some exhaust stains

Hope this helps in some way.

[red69charger]

Beautiful job! Thanks for the sanding tip.

[5ohsinker]

Nice work, ill definitely have to pick up a couple.

[Red Tail Squad]

That is beautiful work. I can only hope someday to acheive that quality work. Maybe when the kids are out of the house I'll have some time to do that.

[Spudkopf]

G'day All

Thanks for your comments, I hope to get off to the hobby shop this weekend to do a re-supply on Paint for the Ju87B, Fw190D's and for the Winter Tiger that I've just started to work on.

For the Tiger I Initially only intended to remove some glue smears and touch up the paint appropriately and paint any pieces that 21stCT missed as my Tiger has a very well warn winter scheme, however on my Tiger there is a fairly large overhang of the rear armour compared to that of the side armour which leaves a significant gap as shown in the illustration below.



I tried to unscrew the beast to see if I could persuade them to correctly align but this was not to be, so the only option was to fill the offending gap with two slim triangles of plastic card.

Then I started to see other faults, the ones that bugged me the most are the way the plastic equipment stowage points plugs are attached to the die-cast upper hull, it may not have been so bad if these had at least been installed flush with surrounding metal, but on mine some were badly aligned due to sprue flash or just bad installation. So now I have removed and reset all these stowage point plugs, filling any remaining gaps and sanding them flush with the hull.

Needless to say the painting required has now gone from a mere touch up to major repaint, so now I’m considering a complete repaint in dark yellow as most late production vehicles other than rebuilds would have been produced in this colour, however seeing how the turret is more or less OK paint wise I have to weigh up the relative efforts and merits required to do either option.

I can take and post some WIP shots of this project if they are of any interest.

[Teamski]

Spud,

If you don't mind............ I'd like to see what it looks like. I'm sure everybody else would, too!

-Ski

[USCGSARdog]

Me too Spud! Please post those pics!!! Sounds like a really cool project. I love custom stuff!!!!

-Rob

[Spudkopf]

G'day Rob / Ski

Ok, ok you've twisted my arm I'll take some shots tonight or over the weekend (it's Friday morning here in Oz) and post them here.

[momaw nadon]

Spud,
I was wondering if you have any planes for any other decals? I inquire, because I have started a tank bunter Stuka. I still have much work, but that would set it off with some of those great decals of yours. I was thinking of Hans-Ulrich Rudel, so I would need his markings. Let me know. Thanks
momaw nadon[/img]

[Spudkopf]

G'day Momaw

The art work for a Rudel tank busting crate should not be that difficult to do as it would have to be one of the most profiled birds out there, Yet having said that this can also present a problem in that many differ in subtle ways but luckily mainly in the paint schemes. The model conversion from a Ju87B to Ju87G is a big job though.

I have always thought that if 21stCT had produced a Ju87D/G model instead of the early Ju87B model that they would have sold many more Stukas, but then again seeing that at the time of it's release the only other Luftwaffe bird they produced was the Me109E it was the perfect stable mate, just don't see where the P51 fit in, however then all their WWII armour is post 43, so go figure!.

To get the ball rolling I suggest you drop John an email as he runs the actual decal creation sides of things once I've created the design.
john'at'johns-stuff.com (the 'at' is really an @ just trying to avoid the 'bots)

Just so I can do my research, it is a Ju87G your talking about with the yellow wing chevron and the fuselage chevron a bars.

Not his earlier dive bombing mounts.

I have always thought that if 21stCT had done a Ju87D/G model instead of the early Ju87B model that they would have sold many more Stuka's.

Ski/Rob

Decided to fix up the track pulling cable mounts on the side armour also, so will post picks once that is done.

[USCGSARdog]

COOL...... I can't wait to see 'em!

-Rob

[momaw nadon]

Spud,
Yes that is the plane. I haven't seen any good reference photos of any early Stukas that he piloted. The custom that I'm working on isn't going to be prefect, but it will look the part. It will be more accurate than my UH-1D Huey which is still has work to be done.
momaw nadon

[aferguson]

momaw.....that's a cool project and one i've considered tackling myself on several occassions. How much converting have you decided to do?

At it's most basic all one need do is add the 37mm wing cannon pods and then paint it up like a Rudel Stuka. That would kinda sorta look the part.

As mentioned above to do a real D/G is a lot of work. Smoothing out the cowl lines would probably not be too hard, just time consuming. The canopy would be really tough though. Extending the wing tips is not that hard and removing the braces from underneath the tail planes is obviously simple.

To make new spats for the undercarriage is a big job and the difference is small so i really wouldn't bother. It's that canopy that's the biggest problem. It really changes the lines of the plane and would be really tough to make.

There's other changes too that i've forgotten about i'm sure..

How much have you decided to do?

[Spudkopf]

G'day All

Well she's just about ready to enter the paint shop, I estimate that I'll have to aply a good 3 to 4 spray can coats on the custom areas to seal them up.

Unfortunately the mixed medias of die-cast, plastic, filler and super-glue tend not bond really all that well, hence the initial use of a spray can and copious amount of coats (I have a sinking feeling that the one can that I bought today is not going to be nearly enough).

Well here she is, as you can see I've not even attempted to correct the issue of the driver and radio hatche hinges and gone with the soft option of retaining the 21stCT style.









Updates to follow......

Momaw

As far as I know Rudel's earlier mounts were just standard painted birds but usually sporting an individual aircraft code letter of A.

[mburduck]

Spud,

First, those are some incredibly nice decals! Once I find some time to customize some of my "standard" 1/18 Panzers, I will be getting a few of those decal sheets. They look terrific.

Next, that's a great job you did on that Stuka, and I look forward to seeing the finished Tiger.

Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing it with us.

All the best,

Mike

[momaw nadon]

aferguson,
I have to be honest I haven't started anything on the Stuka, but have the reference for it almost done to where I know how everything will work and look.

I have noticed that the b-1 cockpit is more forward than the G-2, but it is so little that I don't think that it will make it look bad if I don't move it. As for the spats I think those also I can reuse without it being odd looking. I just need to remove the sirens. As for what work I have planned, the first would be the canopy. As for the nose of the plane I have many changes to make. Like the scoop under the engine will have to be move back and change in looks. I will add extra armor around the cockpit in areas. The wings I'll extend to where it looks good, but will not be to much work. If it turns out good I will offer casts to other that want to do this as I had planned for the Huey I'm working on. Which I have to amit that it is looking better than I had though, but with the Huey going as well as it has, made more work for me on it. I will be changing the engine covers to look more as they would on UH-1D. I didn't plan to change them, but thing change. I hope to have finished picture of the mock up before the end of the year. Then the casting begins. Let me know if you think of anything else that i have left out that needs to be. Thanks
momaw nadon

[Spudkopf]

G'day All

I was going to post an earlier WIP of my Tiger project when she was still in her Panzer Yellow outfit but due to limited web space decided to wait until I'd almost finished the full paint job.

This is actually the first large scale tank I’ve ever painted, I’ve gone for a very heavy Tri-colour cam pattern, in some places the Panzer Yellow has almost been completely obscured.

So far the only marking added is the divisional symbol for S Pz Abt 506, I intend to add the three digit turret number of 405 to denote a vehicle of the fourth company (1, 2 & 3 companies where equipped with Tiger II’s), I may also add a set of standard crosses to the sides but I’m still undecided on this point.

In these first two shots you can see that I’ve added the 3 hoist points, deleted the s launchers and beefed up the turret cheek armour behind the mantel.





…..and here are some more shots to show off the paint scheme, enjoy.