Making German white bordered black numbers decals

[Wiggy]

Greetings crew members. It's been a long time since I've posted on ARC.

My project is an Fw190D-9 with a very unusual #2 in the Black 12.

I'm going to try (There is no try, only do) to make my own decals this time.

My question is: how do I get the White border on the Black 12?

Thanks for any help you can give me as I try "something new".

Pull the chocks, Wiggy

[dnl42]

You've got two choices in decal paper: white or clear. So, you need to decide up front whether you're going to rely on the white decal paper or a white painted background to provide the white for the image. When I've made my own decals, I've considered the complexity of the background shape and the colors in the foreground. With a "maskable" background shape, I'll rely on a white painted background. You may also need to consider the opacity of your printer. My printer doesn't create very dense colors, so when I use clear paper, the background will show through. As a result, I tend to print decals with high contrast between the decal and the model surface on white paper. One problem with white decal paper is the edges of the paper. To fix that, I paint the edges of the decal with the background colors using a fine brush. Another problem with white paper is getting large swatches of evenly printed ink can be a problem; I find a white background accentuates the color density variations.

Then, design your decal image using a vector drawing program! If you do use a pixel program, you'll risk pixelation ruining the image. You can use a pixel program if you make the drawing several times larger and then rely on the printing process to draw at smaller scale (for example, 72 dots/inch for the drawing v. 600 dots/inch on the printer). Use white where needed. When you print that image however, the printer driver assumes you're printing on white paper, so it doesn't actually place any ink/toner in the white areas.

Finally, you're going to have to figure out the printer settings for your printer and the paper. Don't forget to clear-coat your images. I use either Microscale Liquid Decal Film.

My advice: Make the design. Learn the printer settings. Try printing on both white and clear decal paper on a scrap sheet of plastic finished like the model to figure out what's best for this particular combination of decal and model.

I only print my own decals when commercial decals aren't available. When I need custom stripe decals, I spray decal paper with Vallejo and cut strips; I seal there with clear lacquer. When I need maskable shapes, I paint them directly.

HTH

[spejic]

Then, design your decal image using a vector drawing program! If you do use a pixel program, you'll risk pixelation ruining the image.

It works fine if you make a very big image.

[Wiggy]

Thanks fellas. This information gives me a starting point.

I think I'll print slightly larger Black 12's and use these as a mask. Should be able to cut-out these numbers since there is no "islands" inside the numbers (#4,6,8,9,0...). Then I'll print the Black 12 just small enough to lay inside the white painted area. With the proper swear words in the correct order, this should work.

I'm building W.Nr.500570 of 6. Staffel, II./JG6. As if the field-applied paint wasn't enough of a challenge...

Regards, Wiggy