Airfix 737's






Minicraft 737's






Revell 737

Some builds to be proud of for sure.

Andrew

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Bronco NOGS: Part 1 Jan 2009 Part 2 Dec 2010(!) Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Final
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If so, how hard were they to apply?
thanks!

The decals are not laser printed. They are Cartograph decals printed for Minicraft, but never issued by Minicraft for the following reason: Minicraft had molds for both the 737-300 and 737-400 fuselages. When they changed factories in China several years ago, the 737-300 fuselage mold was lost. However, the "400" mold, which arrived at the new factory was mis-marked as the "737-300". As such, Minicraft decided to reissue the "300" with United and Lufthansa decals. The decals were printed by Cartograph, but when the Chinese started injecting plastic, they discovered the mold labled "300" was actually a "400". Since United never flew the "400", all of the United decals were useless. I was able to secure one of the decal sheets and using one of the Minicraft "300's" in my stash, the model was completed. As you would expect, the Cartograph decals are superb. I am sure that if you contacted Minicraft, they would be willing to sell you one or more of the United/Lufthansa decal sheets.

... use on these small-scale models? I know there's several of us who would really appreciate it.

As always, beautiful 1/144th builds!!!

Regards,
Tomt.

All of the scribing is pretty straight forward....find a good 3-view of the 737, and then lay out those panel lines that you want on the model using a pencil or thin felt-tip pen. I use the UMM razor saw to do the scribing. As far as cuting guides, people us all types of things. I use plastic cable ties for a guide on the vertical panel lines on the fuselage, and a short piece of flexible metal (cut from an old tape measure) for the horizontal fuselage lines and wings. The flex metal guide is held in place with some double face tape.

As far as the shading, all of the small rectangular/circular panels are done with decal as follows: Using some clear decal paper, take a little black paint, and really thin it down. Then spay just a mist coat on the decal paper (this may take a little practice), so that the decal is still transparent, but slightly darken due to the paint (I use gloss black lacquer paint). Once the paint dries, the decal can then be cut into small rectangular sections, or circles using a circle punch, and then applied to the model like any other decal. When applied, the semi-transparent decal allows the base color (natural metal, white, gray, etc.) to show through, but slightly darkened due to the light coating of black paint on the decal (take a look at the engines of the Aloha Airlines model). This method sure beats trying to mask and spray all of those small panels on a 1/144th model, and if you make a mistake or do not like the way it looks, the decal can be removed without damage to the model.

... to explain all so lucidly.

Muchly Appreciated!

And again, gotta say that I find your 1/144th work most inspiring - Keep up the great work!

Regards,

Tomt.

Carl, the technique you describe with painted decals is very interesting and from the images I see it is also very effective.
Very inspiring models, too.

Thanks for sharing.

Great work and beautiful results, I really like those, must look great all together.

Great tip on the decal panels too, I'll be filling that away.

Cheers
Jim

nt

What do you use for bases on the airborne ones?
Jarrod

Go to http://www.butchoharemodelers.com/
Look under "How To Articles" and click on "stands". That should cover your question in detail.