1/48 Kitty Hawk Su-35S Flanker-E WIP

[Fighting Eighty-Four]

On 10/29/2017 at 8:24 PM, Joel_W said:

Michael 

  I've got one decaling question. I've had issues with decals like the ones on the top of the wings that are a red line box with mostly clear decal film.  I've gone to cutting them up into parts and trimming as much clear as I can. Yours looks perfect. Are they one decal, or sections?

Joel

You know, it is interesting you bring that up.  That is something I really had an issue with as well.  I tried no less than three different sources for it, and what I settled on will surprise you.  First, I tried the kit ones, but the red was so transparent (disappeared when applied to the dark paint) that I gave up on it right away.  I refused to use the Begemot ones because they did not look right compared to pics I have seen.  The dashes should be equal, but on the Begemot sheet they are of differing lengths. So I broke into one of my Eduard Flanker kits that have Cartograf decals in it, and tried those.  They are full clear decal film inside the dash box as you mentioned.  Even though I had a nice glossy surface and used microset and solvaset, the decal ended up looking like hell.  On the other side I used my normal future as setting solution, and this worked much better (on larger potentially troublesome decals I usually have better luck with microset and solvaset, all others future works better for me).

 

The next day checked the decals and the one side looked like absolute hell, and the other one was decent. So I removed the bad one and looked for a replacement.  I have a Hobby Boss Su-27 kit in my stash, so I took a look at the kit decals, and they actually looked pretty decent.  The area inside the box was actually cut out with a support piece connecting the edges with the X in the middle, so it wasn't all film.  So I decided to give it a try, and it laid out really nice and the red popped nicely against the Eggplant paint, so much so that the other side looked like crap now.  LOL  So I removed the other side and used the other decal.  Now I will just have to figure something out when I build the Hobby Boss and Eduard kits.  LOL

Edited October 31, 2017 by Fighting Eighty-Four

[rom]

Hi!

great work!

 

I have a question...

After building it, do you think that Eduards interior PE set 49858 is usefull?

https://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/49858.pdf

Especially for the detail under the canopy.

 

In the same way, what do you think of the exterior set:

https://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/48934.pdf

 

Thanks

[Peterpools]

Awesome teaser 👍

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

[Joel_W]

Michael,

  Gotta hand it to you as you really worked on that issue till you solved it.  For larger scale aircraft I've been thinking about actually masking and painting. Squares I know I can handle, but other shapes not so sure. 

  I've modified my decaling procedures last year after watching Paul Budzik's video on decaling. I used the standard Microscale set and sol with ok results. After watching Paul's vid I added Solvaset as the last applied agent. I also use a damp warm towel to help the decal settle. I've also discovered Mr. Mark set and Sol which I use on really difficult decals and they settle down like they were painted on. But I only use them as a last resort.  My latest modification to my decaling procedures starts with the raw paint. I polish as much of the model as I can comfortably work on with a 12,000 micro mesh pad and water. I was surprised at how much smoother the paint became. I use Tamiya X-22 for a gloss base for decaling, so I used the 12,000 pad on it as well, and it also became that much smoother. I seal the decals in X-22, then polish them out once again which helps to blend them into the paint. Then the whole model with Glosscoat. Now I can start my weathering. 

 

Joel

[Petrov27]

some interesting decal tips there guys - thankya!