Home Made Decals for 1/144th B-24s

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:18 pm

Hey guys,

So my father and I have been trying our hand at making some homemade decals for some 1/144th B-24's of the 90th Bomb Group "JOLLY ROGERS". I thought I would post just a few of the planes. The first pic is "Queen of Hearts" from the 320th Sqd. This is the aircraft my grandfather was in as top turret gunner. The second plane is "Booby Trap" from the 321st Sqd. We made the nose art and tail markings for both aircraft. Enjoy!

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:25 pm

Sweet!

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:21 pm

Neat! What kit is that?

SN

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:38 pm

Its a pre-done kit from a Japanese company call: Cafe Reo. The series is called "Big Bird", this being the first. Heres a link to show the aircraft that were available in the first set:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.georgetownhobbies.com/images/Cafe%2520Reo/Big%2520Bird%2520Vol.%25201/CFRD01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.georgetownhobbies.com/Newsletters/Cafe%2520Reo%2520Big%2520Bird%2520Vol.%25201.htm&usg=__X65IWONXQLQChwQQlcABUQCrhSE=&h=678&w=447&sz=80&hl=en&start=24&zoom=1&tbnid=bfwovc1MLpunlM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=92&ei=LC8zT5DBF6nu0gHFi9ndAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbig%2Bbird%2Bcafe%2Breo%2Bb-24%26start%3D21%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1

Since then they've done a whole bunch of different aircraft sets. One of the most recent being these: http://www.hlj.com/product/CAF79088

Heres a few more shots from the other two 24's my dad did. These two have company produced decals on them. The Queen Mae decals are from MYK decals: http://www.myk-design.com/tank/e_products.html While the green 320th decals came from a short run production after-market decal set from Minicraft that's pretty rare nowadays.

The Inspector · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2012 4:04 pm

Those look great, and with 1/144 becoming much better than the TOOTSIE Toys blobs of just a few years ago, there already is a need for other than kit markings for popular aircraft. Chris, you could have yourself a profitable little cottage industry there for those cold Winter nights!!

Cherrybomber13 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:49 pm

No wonder you never have any time to do all the stuff I have for you :lol:

Excellent Dude :drink3:

I love the fact that you and your dad are such good friends and have such common interests. It seems to be a rarity these days. One think I miss about being up north is I don't get to work with my dad on our many resto projects.
You guys out to see the tool box Dennis and Chris redid at the shop... They are a great team.

viking73 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 11, 2012 3:53 pm

These look nice. Great job!

-Derek

WIXerGreg · **Posted:** Sat Feb 11, 2012 4:19 pm

Nice! How are you making the decals?

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:03 pm

WIXerGreg wrote:

Nice! How are you making the decals?

Were using the Testors printable decal sheets on a really crappy home computer printer. Im using Photoshop and illustrator to make the decals on the computer. :wink:

spookythecat · **Posted:** Tue Feb 14, 2012 3:17 pm

Cool!

WIXerGreg · **Posted:** Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:57 pm

Much better than my attempts with the Testors kit. The last time I used it I was trying to make some black letters and they printed all botchy and cracked. I sort of gave up on making my own.

lmritger · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:30 am

Wait a minute... you can print WHITE with that Testors decal kit? Or do the Libs come with Jolly Roger skulls and you're just printing the nose art and aircraft numbers? Because if you can print white, then I need to get off my a55 and get crackin' on some schemes I've been farting around with for ages.

BTW, this is the first time I've seen closeups of these B-24 kits and I have to say, I am *really* impressed... and I'm also impressed with your efforts to build a full airwing of 90th BG aircraft! What better way to do it than in 1/144?

Fantastic work Chris!

Lynn

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 10:57 am

Thanks for all your positive remarks guys! I as well as my father are very proud of them. To answer your question, no the testors decal sheet does not print white. We used a combination of white and clear sheets to accomplish the schemes.

The all green 24 and Queen Mae are pre done decals. The other three were all completely custom designed. Drawn in Illustrator.

I'm also working on:

Aluminum Overcast
Texas Raiders
Fuddy Duddy
Sentimental Journey
Nine O Nine
Thunderbird
Yankee Lady
many B-25s

Ill post some when they start coming along.

Django · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:29 pm

That's pretty sweet. I wonder if a higher quality printer would improve the image clarity?

How do you go about getting the shape of the shark mouth right?

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:41 pm

Django wrote:

How do you go about getting the shape of the shark mouth right?

Sigh... a whole lot of test printing on regular paper and test fitting to the model with using what few photos we have to reference off of. The truth of the matter is that we've found at least three different shark mouths applied to 320th 24s. Four if you include the Moby Dick D model version.

1. Original

2. Straight with curve upwards. Type used on "Queen of Hearts"

3. Large Mouth that wraps over turret. Most common design to date. aka Airfix Kit, Monogram Kit

4. Swells around middle and comes together along mid body.

Ill try and find the forth version to show you guys. I think there also might be a fifth but am not sure at the moment.

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