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1/72 Shuttle Stack Build


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I intend to print the real decals on clear laser decal paper.

You may wanna try out a test decal or two on Clear and on White decal film/paper. The few decals I've printed on Clear, the colours, except Black, weren't as solid as I had hoped and just didn't show up well on a white paint job.

For paint, I used Krylon on an XB-70 and it looks just fine ... but it needed quite a few light coats. And both the Shuttle and the XB-70 are large, so an airbrush is just a little too 'under capacity' to cover something like this.

Pete

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I sort of agree with the spray can approach on a large scale shuttle. That is unless you have a mini spray gun. Not saying you can't get good coverage with an airbrush, but for something that is mostly one color (minus the sublte shading) and doesn't have to be glass smooth, why go through a lot more work of having to spray through a brush. Just my opinion.

Bill

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Troy

I use the either the small metal cup or the small bottles that came with my Paasche VLS. Testors Acryl only needs a few drops, maybe 5-7 drops for a 2 ounce cup. Testors claims Acryl can airbrush with no thinner but I find it needs a few drops. I've never really measured how many drops but it's usually around 3. Thin it till it has the consistency of milk.

Mike.

Edited by crowe-t
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...I am getting closer to being ready for the white base coat. I was considering using Krylon semi-gloss white...

Have you tried applying decals to a semi-gloss finish before? I've always heard you should apply decals to the glossiest surface possible to eliminate the possibility of silvering; semi-gloss might not be adequate.

As for the decals themselves, even as a test print on paper they look terrific! Are you planning to build a pristine Orbiter, or are you planning to weather it?

Al

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Al,

I have applied decals to a good semi-gloss finish before and it seemed to work well. After I apply the base decals, I'll add the detail decals and most likely add a second overlay decal of the T-0 umbilical plate and other hatch door details to make sure they have a full, rich color. I'll then spray micro-flat over the decal surfaces and weather from there. My intention it to produce a weathered orbiter.

When I had the opportunity to see the STS-135 Atlantis rollover from the OPF to the VAB I was surprised at how much wear and tear she had even after the turn-around for the upcoming flight. I just hope I can capture the look and feel of the weathering in a subtle way. I guess I'll see how it goes. Thanks for all of the tips and comments!!!

Troy

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Thanks Mike! I still need to rebuild the rear SRB struts as they were destroyed many years ago when the model was broken. I have this image I shot for reference, but I would like to find a top-side view if I can find it.

STS-133-ET-Base-900.jpg

On the subject of reference photos, I'll be attending the media tour of the SCA 747 on Wednesday. I couldn't make it last time when it arrived to fly Discovery out. I'll post anything that I get.

Troy

Try,

Do any of these pictures help? They show the top side of the rear SRB struts.

Mike.

121OnThePad38.jpg

121OnThePad59.jpg

121OnThePad61.jpg

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...When I had the opportunity to see the STS-135 Atlantis rollover from the OPF to the VAB I was surprised at how much wear and tear she had even after the turn-around for the upcoming flight...

During the turn-around inspections they were definitely more focused on functionality than cosmetics, i.e. "We don't care how it looks, our priority is to make sure it and the crew get there and back safely." Interestingly, a Thiokol rep once told me they never had two fully functional shuttles at the same time; their focus was on making sure the one assigned to the next mission was sound, occasionally taking parts off of a shuttle that had just returned to put them on the shuttle that was on it's way to (or already on) the launch pad.

Al

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At the face value 72 DPI the file comes in, they are larger than 1/100. But you're not going to want to keep that DPI level if you're going to print decals from them. Ideally you don't want to print anything less than 300 DPI. So when you up the DPI value from 72 to 300, you lose a lot of overall image size. I had to increase the dimensions from 2048 to 4105 in order to get close to 1/100 scale at 300 DPI. If you're going to use one of these texture files to make decals for a 1/72 kit, you'll probably want to sacrifice some DPI in order to keep from having to increase the dimensions too much. I'd try going with 150 DPI so you can still get a decently sharp print before scaling them up to 1/72.

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Hotdog,

I found that out as well. I ended up redrawing all of the lines and adding a tiled texture for the thermal blanket areas as Photoshop smart objects and layer style pattern fills. The end result is turning out well. I'm still playing around with things around my current crazy schedule. I hope to have some more shots in the next week or so.

Thanks,

Troy

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