crowe-t Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 Yes Bill, I'd like that very much! Thanks for offering. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 (edited) Working on a Revell orbiter recently, I noticed the same thing about the doors. Airfix and G-Mark (Entex/Minicraft) seemed to get it right, but Revell's doors are indeed a little too far aft. Nice how well these markings seemed to go on. BTW, which orbiter backflip photo did you use (my guess would be Discovery from STS-114)? There are some slight differences to the black tile patterns depending on which orbiter was pictured, but of course one can't really tell once the orbiter is attached to the ET and SRBs. BTW, I would also be interested in seeing the tiles file as well if possible. Edited November 7, 2010 by Jay Chladek Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 Those tiles DO look amazing, Bill! And they cost you ... what? ... nothing?? Most excellent Bill! And are you 'saying' that you didn't hafta trim, and cut 'em to fit the model? They just ... slid into place ... except for the landing gear doors, which no-one's gonna be able to tell the doors are in the wrong place anyways. This is coming along really nicely Bill! And the ET looks pretty good too, but are ya planning on varying the ET's colours a bit? Just a bit?? This is good stuff! Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted November 8, 2010 Author Share Posted November 8, 2010 Thanks everyone. The mission photo I used was from STS-132 image no. iss023e044629 (file here) http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images...023e044629.html I didn't really have to trim much of anything. What I did was make a scan of the bottom of the model and then in Photoshop opened both the shuttle image and the model scan. Then just simply cut and pasted the shuttle photo in to the scan file and scaled down accordingly. For the most part it scale down even all the way but I did have to "squish" the nose ever so slightly to get it lined up. That photo was one of the ones I've seen that was almost dead on straight angles. Most of the other shots I've come across had the shuttle at a skewed angle and threw it all off. I'll get the files all tidied up and shoot you guys a copy. I had to cut them into three sections since the paper I had was 5.5 X 8.5 and not full sheet. Hey Pete, when you say varying the ET colors do you mean as in weathering or do you think the overall shade is off? Let me know bacause I am slightly color blind with a Red/Green difficiency so for all I know it may be too pink or something. Hope to get more done this week cause starting the next few weeks will be pretty busy with Christmas concert stuff. That eats in to my free time a lot. Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 Your ET's base colour looks just fine, Bill ... and yeah, I was referring to the 'weathering' of it. Every ET I've seen ( in photos, unfortunately) has bands of either slightly lighter or darker tints and tones. The entire ET as one flat colour, I've only seen as scale models ... so-o-o I was just wondering if you were gonna use the airbrush a little more to differentiate the base colour a little. I've got my only Shuttle stack here on ARC, ( my very, very 1st model done about 4 years ago) in the GALLERY section and you can see the ET's colours are just modified a little. I can't wait for the BIG 1/72 stacks to be released ... just can't wait to play with those! Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
C-130CrewChief Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 You don't get much more "real" than that! Looks smashing! I think you should paint the leading edges. Curt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HOLMES Posted December 13, 2010 Share Posted December 13, 2010 I concur with the others ... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted December 15, 2010 Author Share Posted December 15, 2010 Thanks Holmes, Curt and all. I haven't had much modeling time lately with Christmas stuff occupying a lot of my free time. I did make one mistake on this in that I felt I should have undercoated the tile decals with black first since they are pretty transparent. (which is probably true) But I should have left well enough alone and just sprayed a thin dark over coat instead. I took off the decals shown here, painted the underside black and then went to put on some more decals...and for some reason this time the decals curled up on me like crazy! I tried to straighten them out but it was useless. So now I need to go get some more decal paper and try yet again. I'm not sure if the curling problem is due to possibly not enough clear coat or perhaps too much clear coat? What do you guys think? I am using the Testor's sheets and clear coat spray. I've used them many times with no problems but this is the first set with decals this large. The first run was perfect. (Shoulda left it alone!) Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted December 15, 2010 Share Posted December 15, 2010 Don't it just make you wanna SCREAM!! I thought I had figgered out decal film ... but alas, I have not. I am a beaten man :P I wish I could give you some sage advice Bill, but let me ask a couple questions first. The decals in question, are they the belly tile decals? When you removed them, and resprayed black paint, did you then put on a coat or 2 of Future? ( ... and how did you remove them in the first place??) I ask, because, when I was having probs of this kind, and I thought just a coat of Gloss Black was good enough for the decals to adhere, I don't think it is. I applied a brush coat of Future and the decals, the belly decals, went on fine. However, that being said, I've had smaller decals curl up when applied. There was a coat of Future and I went thru 3 sheets of decal film, wherein I experimented by spraying a Clear coat on 3 or 4 different parts of the sheet with Thin, Thick and Thicker coats from a rattle can. I used Bare Metal's Experts Choice decal film, White, for inkjet. And the only thing I've determined, is ... it's a crapshoot. Spray too thin a coat of Clear, and the decal dissolves, too thick and it curls up, or not. And if you were using white decal film, I don't think there's a need to spray black underneath, first. The white is fairly opaque stuff. To darken mine, I'm gonna try an acrylic wash, a dark wash, and with the quick experimentation I've tried, it doesn't damage the applied decal. Whereas, thinned enamel, thinned with thinners, DOES damage the decal material. I tried it on some scrap, printed decal material. I sure hope this helps ya buddy! Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Northdenvertom Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 I had very good luck with Bel Decals for my shuttle belly DIY decals. Got them off eBay for about a buck a sheet. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted December 16, 2010 Author Share Posted December 16, 2010 Don't it just make you wanna SCREAM!! I thought I had figgered out decal film ... but alas, I have not. I am a beaten man I wish I could give you some sage advice Bill, but let me ask a couple questions first. The decals in question, are they the belly tile decals? When you removed them, and resprayed black paint, did you then put on a coat or 2 of Future? ( ... and how did you remove them in the first place??) I ask, because, when I was having probs of this kind, and I thought just a coat of Gloss Black was good enough for the decals to adhere, I don't think it is. I applied a brush coat of Future and the decals, the belly decals, went on fine. However, that being said, I've had smaller decals curl up when applied. There was a coat of Future and I went thru 3 sheets of decal film, wherein I experimented by spraying a Clear coat on 3 or 4 different parts of the sheet with Thin, Thick and Thicker coats from a rattle can. I used Bare Metal's Experts Choice decal film, White, for inkjet. And the only thing I've determined, is ... it's a crapshoot. Spray too thin a coat of Clear, and the decal dissolves, too thick and it curls up, or not. And if you were using white decal film, I don't think there's a need to spray black underneath, first. The white is fairly opaque stuff. To darken mine, I'm gonna try an acrylic wash, a dark wash, and with the quick experimentation I've tried, it doesn't damage the applied decal. Whereas, thinned enamel, thinned with thinners, DOES damage the decal material. I tried it on some scrap, printed decal material. I sure hope this helps ya buddy! Pete Hey Pete, You're right I wanted to scream like a middle school girl! I was torn between whether or not it needed a black undercoat. I was using white decal sheet but if you look in that photo above, you can see where the two sheets overlapped before I trimmed them. the overlap is darker because the white sheets aren't totally opaque. So in my not so infinite wisdom I decided to try again. So as you understand it, if it's too much clear coat they curl? I wasn't sure if it would be because of too much or too little. Northdenvertom, thanks. I'm gonna try testors again since they are readily available and if they don't work this time I'll look in to those. Thanks! Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 (edited) Bill, I had my decals printed with a laser printer on white decal paper from tangopapadecals.com. Where I overlapped the decals it looked darker so you are right that the white decal paper isn't totally opaque. I experimented with a few pieces and the only issue I had is when a decal folded over the ink(toner) cracked on the fold. I bought some Microscale Liquid Decal Film and applied that and this time I purposely let the decal fold over but the ink didn't crack. The decals never curled up. Curling decals must have to do with the clear coat, whether it is too little or too much. Since I used a laser printer only liquid decal film is needed and you can't even see it after it dries. The decals look and feel the same. If you can bring the files to get printed on a Laser printer you may have better luck. I hope this helps. Edited December 16, 2010 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 "So as you understand it, if it's too much clear coat they curl? I wasn't sure if it would be because of too much or too little." While I was experimenting, I sprayed on 2 light coats onto a printed decal ... let it dry, and applied the decal. It curled. So outta frustration ... I sprayed ... and sprayed a thick coat, while flinging expletives at the frakkin thing. Let THAT dry and applied it to a piece of Futured scrap styrene. So while I was expecting it to curl ... it didn't. So ... thinking I had it figgered out, I sprayed a thick coat on the good sheet ... and the SOB curled. ;) In other words, I would guess that if you spray on a coat that's not too thin ... and not too thick ... it may work. But having said that, if Mike's Liquid Decal film works, and that stuff, I assume has to go on like a coat of Future, fairly thick compared to a spray can, then THICK may be the way to go. What I've done to try to remove any surprises is design my decal sheet so I have 4 or 6 of the same decal on a sheet. Print it out and spray a light coat on one decal, a thicker coat on another and thick coat on another. Let 'em dry and try each one. Whichever one doesn't curl ... wins! I wish I could give you more of a definitive answer Bill ... but I just don't know. Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 (edited) Pete, I used a foam brush to apply the Liquid Decal film and it should be applied very thin, basically wet. But I guess compared to a spray can it is thicker. When it dries it basically disappears however apply it thin so the Microset & Microsol work better. The only thing to note is I had my decals printed on a laser printer. I was able to apply them without any clear coat or liquid decal film just as long as I didn't let one fold over and was extremely careful. The ink doesn't run at all. On larger decals it's hard to keep them from folding over so the liquid decal film should be used. Ink jet decals need some kind of fixative. I never tried just using Liquid Decal film on ink jet printed decals. I would suggest experimenting with it first since the ink might still run. Edited December 16, 2010 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spaceflightengineer Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 Nice looking TSMs ["Tail Service Masts"- not towers] there. I realized reading your write up that I really have never completed a full orbiter other than a model of 101 ("Constitution/Enterprise")- that I did while suffering through, er, completing my final 6 months in the USAF- right after the first drop test (which I was present for, having been on leave at the time). Weirdly, that 1/144th Revell orbiter has remained intact through moves, etc. I'm sort of proud of it particularly since I hand painted the windows and they turned out very good (...don't know if I could do that again 33 years hence). I have all the 1/144th scale kits- full stacks, and one of the orig issue 1/72nd Mono stacks. I too want to uber detail a MLP- perhaps for the 1/72nd, but probably end up doing a 1/144th. I should detail one of the doorways to replicate, with a figure, when I first entered a TSM and let's say I "sprawled" into it. I could title the dio "First trip into a TSM". Get it? First "Trip". I'll be in the lounge all week except Thursday. Please keep posting progress pix! Thanks. Bruce P. Hey all, After fighting a bit with the 1/48 shuttle build I realized I've never even finished a shuttle build except for a few revell ones as a kid so as a diversion and a learning process from the other build, I'm going to tackle the 1/144 scale Revell stack and scratch a MLP to go along with it. Actually I'm using Minicraft's ET and boosters and revell's orbiter.I've done a little work on the ET by adding the intertank ribbing and busied up the the lower interface area. nothing super detailed just to give it more detail. I also did the basis for the MLP. This is where most of the work will be. Depending on how far I want to take it, there is a lot happening on the real thing. Here is the front section started and the Tail Service Towers started. I'm having a hard time finding detail shots of the hoses? and piping? etc...that run from the tail service towers and the orbiter. If anyone has any shots of that it would be much appreciated. That's all I have pics of so far. I have some of the orbiter started. I am thinking about using the engine bells from the Minicraft kit as well since they seem to be a little easier to detail. I'll try to get pics of it posted whenever I can. As always, comments, suggestions, critiques welcome. Thanks, Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Astrazoic Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Glad to see all these shuttle projects under way. Well done on this one, BTW! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted April 13, 2011 Author Share Posted April 13, 2011 Speaking of space shuttles... I've finally gotten back to work on this thing. I re-did the tile decals and this time I figured out my problem. I wasn't allowing the clear coat time to cure. I only gave it a day last time and the weather had changed so there was shrinkage...ahem. Anyway, this time I let it dry for 48 hours and I put them in the same room I would be decaling so they would settle in to the same temp. All in all, I think it came out alright. I lost the full shuttle bottom file so I need to create another beaver tail decal but I should be able to get that soon enough. Anyway, comments, critiques and suggestion always welcome. Thanks for looking. Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 Hey Bill, It's good to see you are back to this build again. The decals look great! :D I'm glad you got the decals to work out. What did you use for the decals on the top of the elevons? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted April 13, 2011 Author Share Posted April 13, 2011 Hey Crowe, thanks for the comments. For the elevon tops I found another pic online and ran copies of them in scale. After I put these on I found a higher res pic but I think this time I'll leave well enough alone. Maybe next time I'll use the better pic. We switched computers @ work and I lost a LOT of the reference I had (didn't plan ahead and coordinate with IT) so the tile decals are the same ones I had before that I'd sent you. Everything else is gone. I will need to redo them one day for when I get the 1/72 scale shuttle due out soon. I also created some decals for the black area around the edge of the tail and rudder and hope to have those on later today. BTW your build is coming along REALLY REALLY well. I look at your build and then notice all the little things I'd missed on mine. Oh well, for the next one I'll have a great build reference with yours. Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MarkD Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Awesome model. Yeah, I can't wait for the 1/72 scale shuttle kit to be back. The last time I saw that kit was in 2002. IMO the 1/72 shuttle kit is the ultimate for shuttle model builders, a lot of details to add. The ET color you used looks great. I can suggest Model Masters Chrome Yellow for the darker foam color and Testor's Flat Yellow for the lighter shades of foam on the tank. Here is my thread on the results http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....howtopic=225784 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Bill, Any updates? I can't wait to see more progress pictures of the MLP :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 ummm...err...would you believe the dog ate my homework????? No, I haven't actually done anything to the MLP itself and the shuttle has only had a few more decals and details painted. I keep looking at it and looking at the print outs of the paper model and think "I should be cutting plastic and making all the simple stuff since I'm sitting here"...and then crash bam boom, the girls are fighting over who's playing Buzz Lightyear and who's playing with Jessie. Then they are in bed and I think about getting back to it...but alas, it sits. So NOW I have a BIGGER shuttle coming in the mail soon so that can get 10-40% complete and sit there for a while til I get it finished...and...sigh...one day. I do actually finish models sometimes but they seem to be over a span of well over a year. I will get some done on it and when I do I'll post progress shots. Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Bill, I've been the same way with my models since I got back into this hobby a couple of years ago. I have an AMT Star Trek refit Enterprise that I started working on a couple of years ago and since put it aside. I also have a 1/1000 Polar Lights original series Enterprise that's almost done. I just need to paint and decal it. However at the moment I'm really trying to get the Revell Shuttle project completed. Between the hot and humid weather and waiting on the window decal, not to mention some other distractions it's taking longer then it should. :( Don't rush this project, so far everything is looking great! Your attention to detail on the MLP is perfect. I wouldn't even attempt a scratch built MLP at the moment. I also really like what you are doing with the decals you are making. Mike. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 I've done a little work on this so it doesn't get left behind and forgotten. I've started some decaling on the orbiter and kind of wish I would have waited. I see some flaws I would rather have fixed before I decaled but I was getting impatient and wanted to hopefully finish something. So here it is as of now. There is a noticable line where the tail decal was cut too short. I need to adress that somehow and I need to blend the leading edge top decal into the leading edge. I'll probably use oils and feather it in. With some weathering it should be fairly hard to notice. On the top I don't like how the two tops inner areas of the wings are different shades from one another. I think the port side is too yellowish. Oh well, it's a learning experience. Comment, critiques and all or welcome. Bill Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crowe-t Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 (edited) Bill, Great work on the shuttle! I'm glad to see this one coming together. Don't worry about the slightly different shades on the wings. The real orbiters have a lot of different shading all over from the heat of the re-entries. BTW, what did you use for the black tiles on the nose? Did you paint the shades and details on the tops of the wings or is that done with decals? Please post some pictures of the orbiter's belly. Edited July 3, 2011 by crowe-t Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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