Making Custom Models: My Method [Archive]

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rstretton

08-29-2008, 05:30 AM

I've made some custom models recently (see my website and scale600) and a couple of people have asked me how I've done it most recently Moazz who wants to make the MH Hibiscus livery as a custom model. So I thought it might be helpful to make a thread with my method.

I am NO genius at this by any stretch of the imagination and the Japanese guy Yosuke Mori's custom models are much better than mine.

Anyway this is how I do it:

1. Search on Airliners.net for good side views of the plane I want choosing one photo.

2. Use Paint Shop Pro to copy/paste sections of cheatline and spray can colours to remove the wings.

3. Use white to remove the background and clean up the white fuselage areas on the photo.

4. Take a copy of the photo and mirror it to make an identical other side.

5. Copy and paste the titles onto the other side mirroring and rotating them to read correctly.

6. Take both images and paste them into a word document scaling to fit a 1:600 size model by measuring the model itself and trying a few test prints.

7. Print using my work's laser printer (though an inkjet would do fine) onto clear decal paper.

8. Prepare the model by skinning the original decals. The model used really needs a white base colour (as white doesn't print on printers) as I have found painting the model difficult.

9. Slide the decals onto the model in four parts: right side, left side and both tail sides.

The hardest part I find is the cockpit windows and meeting cheatlines around the nose. I try and keep the original schabak's cockpit windows if I can.

Tools I use are: tweezers, nail scissors and small paint brushes (to brush the decals with water when placing on the model).

That's it really. Its not that hard though making high quality models can be difficult. Good luck giving it a go and make sure you show the results if you try it! I would love to hear of others experiences trying this and any better methods too.

rstretton

08-29-2008, 05:32 AM

Making the MH Hibiscus livery using my method will be very difficult as the livery requires a complete red nose and roof area which is the hardest bit to do! The joins will be fairly obvious and the cockpit area very hard to get right. You'll notice that none of my custom models attempt anything that difficult! Good luck anyway! Maybe start by trying some simpler liveries with white noses.

moazz

08-30-2008, 01:20 AM

If i paint the half of the fuselage in red then make decal only on the hibiscus and stick on it do you think it will work?

rstretton

08-30-2008, 05:25 AM

It's worth a try. I found painting to be a real pain but I'm no expert. You will probably need several coats. As for the cockpit windows I suggest trying several versions. At least with water decals you can always erase any mistakes. Good luck.

CO777

08-30-2008, 06:47 AM

It's worth a try. I found painting to be a real pain but I'm no expert.

What about airbrush? Sure its expensive but I guess its much cleaner and easier to paint the model this way.

TriStarCollector

08-30-2008, 09:39 AM

Talking about 'custom models'... well, this might be a bit off-topic but...

I know, I have been a very (*VERY*) severe authority when it came down to quality issues on Schabak models. I am sure I got onto Schabak's nerves each and every time my retailer was not able to locate any moderate-quality example of the models I had ordered. I always sent in the damaged or minor-quality models and requested replacement from them.

First of all, I would like to mention that Schabak reacted quite nice and always replaced the models adequately. Sometimes, I even got an additional model in order to compensate the inconvenience (talking about that I should mention the UPS 727 they sent to me which was already out of production at that time).
Anyway, sometimes later, Schabak was fed up with my complaints about crooked and damaged decals. They stated that they were not able to deliver the quality I was asking for. I insisted and made a suggestion (told from my memories): "I am sure you can produce almost perfect quality if your staff would utilize the materials properly. May be you can provide me with the decals you use and I will take care of the damaged models myself". From then on Schabak delivered any sticker I was asking for. Being a young guy, I only requested stickers for the models I really got and that were damaged or crooked decaled. I would say that I decaled approximately 100 models myself, some really took two or more attempts for a perfect result. However, this was the best non-paid deal I ever had! I recently located some remaining stickers (dated from 1988 thru 1992) and am thiniking about a "new production run".

rstretton

08-31-2008, 04:11 PM

Wow TristarCollector that is amazing. What decals have you got? If they are older decals then I am sure you can make some new combinations using old liveries that were never made on the later moulds. I'm jealous :smile:. Maybe you could also use the decals to fit to similar sized aircraft that schabak never produced depending of course on your selection of decals.

TriStarCollector

09-01-2008, 12:30 PM

Sure I can post the list. I already thought about doing some real liveries that Schabak never did (e.g. silver vs. grey vs. white fuselage with Condor) or a bite fantasy such as a white Eastern 757... or just good-decaled models of the real version! Any additional suggestions?

Whatsoever, here's what I have found in an old, dusty box (stickers dated around 1988/1989, therefore, in most cases old colours):

A300 Olympic
A320 British Airways
707 Lufthansa
727 American
727 Condor
747-200 Air Canada (red & maroon)
747-200 Air New Zealand
747-200 British Caledonian
747-300 Cathay Pacific
747-300 Qantas
747-300 Swissair
747-400 Northwest
747-400 JAL
747-400 KLM
757-200 Eastern
757-200 LTE
757-200 LTU Süd
757-200 Royal Air Maroc
DC-10 American
DC-10 Condor
DC-10 United
F-100 American
F-100 Swissair
L-1011 ALIA
L-1011 ANA
L-1011 Air Canada
L-1011 Air Lanka
L-1011 American Trans Air
L-1011 BWIA
L-1011 Gulf Air
L-1011 Royal Jordanian

TriStarCollector

09-02-2008, 08:21 AM

Kümpser made an interesting suggestion: to scan several decals (at least each type of aircraft) and upload these to the database so that anyone on this forum can download them as kind of a "real Schabak specimen" (at last for cockpit and cabin windows, doors, hatches) which can be modified with the liveries of your prefered airline (in Photoshop or CorelDraw by using original photos or graphics with the desired airline livery). I guess this would require a new section in the database (something like "original Schabak decal sheets") and the cooperation of the forum owners. Julian, Rcihard... what do you think?! Might this be of interest? I have no experience with selfproduction of decals, therefore, I have no clue if such "Schabak decal specimen" would be of help at all...

CO777

09-02-2008, 01:30 PM

Nice suggestion. Sure I can put them into the downloads section or make an extra menu but add them to the database is impossible.
Is anyone interested in the foils?

rstretton

09-02-2008, 04:33 PM

That is an exceptional idea. It would be excellent to be able to get hold of copies of these decals if only to get decent cockpit windows!

tyagu

09-03-2008, 05:37 PM

Yes,yes, yes!!!!!!!!!

Ciderman

09-03-2008, 05:50 PM

Hi Daniel,

is there any chance to persuade you into selling the 747-300 Qantas, the 747-400 JAL and the 747-400 KLM decals? :smile:

Martin

TriStarCollector

09-04-2008, 01:48 AM

is there any chance to persuade you into selling the 747-300 Qantas, the 747-400 JAL and the 747-400 KLM decals? :smile:
Well... let me do the scanning for the 'Download' section of Scale600.com first, then I will decide what I am going to do with the decals... okay?!

Ciderman

09-04-2008, 11:10 AM

Alright! I am most interested in the JAL and the Qantas.

CO777

09-05-2008, 11:59 AM

Well... let me do the scanning for the 'Download' section of Scale600.com first, then I will decide what I am going to do with the decals... okay?!

OK Daniel turn on the scanner! :smile:

TriStarCollector

09-05-2008, 02:21 PM

As soon as possible. First of all, I'll have to pick-up the decals from home, sweet home. It will take me a few weeks, the scanning itself won't be the problem. :bigsmile:

rstretton

12-04-2008, 05:41 PM

As soon as possible. First of all, I'll have to pick-up the decals from home, sweet home. It will take me a few weeks, the scanning itself won't be the problem. :bigsmile:

Hi,
Were you able to find the time to scan the decals?

TriStarCollector

01-04-2009, 01:11 PM

Hi,
Were you able to find the time to scan the decals?
It took me quite a while but, finally, I found the time and scanned the decals. They are currently under re-work by Julian and should be ready within the next days/weeks. Hope this helps any collector in order to produce his own "like-original" 1/600 decals.

I will use some of the decals for the production of 'new old models' and sell off the others.

rstretton

01-04-2009, 02:56 PM

Excellent thanks. I look forward to seeing them.

TriStarCollector

01-08-2009, 06:08 AM

Well guys,

I have made a selection of what I will not use for future production (it took me over three months to scan the decals, so I guess I will have even less time for the challenge to produce new models).
Therefore, I am selling off the following original Schabak 1/600 decals. Actually, I have no clue of what they are worth... may be 1 Euro, may be 10 Euros. The compromise is 5 Euros per decal; hope this is okay for you. Please keep in mind that the stickers are dating back to the late 1980's, so the airline liveries sported are of that period. In most cases, I have only one decal of each left (therefore: first come, first served). Just drop me a line if you are interested in any of these:

A300 Olympic
A320 British Airways (incl. separate fuselage bottom stickers)
707 Lufthansa
727 American
727 Condor
747-200 Air <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> (red & maroon)
747-200 Air New <st1:place w:st="on">Zealand</st1:place>
747-300 Qantas
747-300 Swissair
747-400 Northwest*
747-400 JAL*
747-400 KLM*
757-200 LTE
757-200 LTU Süd
757-200 Royal Air Maroc
DC-10 American
DC-10 Condor
DC-10 United
F-100 American
F-100 Swissair
L-1011 ANA
L-1011 Air <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>
L-1011 American Trans Air
L-1011 BWIA
L-1011 Gulf Air
L-1011 Royal Jordanian (includes separate horizontal stabilizers stickers)

* no winglet stickers for the 747-400!

TriStarCollector

01-16-2009, 06:13 AM

Updated quantities:

A300 Olympic
A320 British Airways (incl. separate fuselage bottom stickers)
<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOKUME%7E1%5CNICOLA%7E1%5CLOKALE%7E1%5CTemp%5 Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style>  </style> <s>707 Lufthansa<o:p></o:p></s>
727 American
727 Condor
747-200 Air <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> (red & maroon) - only 1 left
747-200 Air New <st1:place w:st="on">Zealand - </st1:place>only 1 left<st1:place w:st="on"></st1:place>
747-300 Qantas - only 1 left
747-300 Swissair - only 1 left
747-400 Northwest*
<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOKUME%7E1%5CNICOLA%7E1%5CLOKALE%7E1%5CTemp%5 Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style>  </style><s>747-400 JAL*</s>
747-400 KLM*
757-200 LTE (blue) - only 1 left
757-200 LTU Süd
757-200 Royal Air Maroc
DC-10 American
DC-10 Condor
DC-10 United
F-100 American
F-100 Swissair
L-1011 ANA - only 1 left
L-1011 Air <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada - only 1 left </st1:place></st1:country-region>
L-1011 American Trans Air - only 1 left
L-1011 BWIA
L-1011 Gulf Air
L-1011 Royal Jordanian (includes separate horizontal stabilizers stickers) - only 1 left

* no winglet stickers for the 747-400!

CO777

01-18-2009, 11:39 AM

Like already promised, Daniel scanned the foils for us.
Have a look into the download section for more informations.

Kümpser

01-18-2009, 11:48 AM

Now that's cool! Thanks to all involved!