Sunday 11 March 2012

Sopwith Dolphin - decals started

Well, I've made a start.

I thought I was going to get the decals finished this weekend. On Friday I got as far as doing the solid white background for the roundels on the upper wing, and I was going to make an early start today and do all the rest of them. But in the end I couldn't really be bothered doing anything at all this weekend, and before I knew it, it was the Freak Zone on 6 Music and I realised the weekend was almost over. It's so often the way. Well, an hour or so ago I went on to the next stage and started adding the decals I'd printed out on the laser printer. But then I saw that the white background was too big, so I ended up with a white outline that was much too thick. So I had to try again. Luckily, it's quite easy to remove decals. Just work some Microsol under them with a brush and then peel away with tweezers. After that, I gave the wings a bit of a wash in water, cut out smaller discs and started again. While I was at it, I added the serial letter "I", so I'm a bit further on than I was.

The finished result that I got looked all right, if slightly washed out. But there's probably nothing wrong with a bit of fading. One slight  problem I noticed is that even when you add the decal on top of the white background, you can quite clearly see the hole made by the circle cutter. So I'm going to have to add a dot of white paint this time.

The other drawback is that I've run out of white decal film, so now I'm off to the Hannants site to order some more.

Update
I've also ordered a pair each of Mini World brass Vickers guns and Lewis guns from Hannants, as an incentive to get my arse into gear and get the decals finished.

Further Update
After placing the order, I realised I'd ordered the wrong type of Lewis. The photos in Windsock 54 seem to show Mk IIIs, whereas I had ordered Mk IIs. How stupid can you get? Anyway, I've changed my order now.

No comments:

Post a Comment