Thursday, February 9, 2017

Estes Sprint XL #7224 Build, Part 8, Decals



The fin grain still showed on two fin sides after the first light white coat. I rubbed in some CWF with a fingertip. The coat was thin so there wouldn't be much sanding.







These are all the decal you get! The original Sprint kit had two sheets for two different decors.







The big "meatball" decal is interesting to line up. The name on the bottom of the ring is set on a curve.
TIP: Stack some CD cases to get a straight flat line parallel with the table top. The tips of the "S" and "TM" in the "SPRINT XL TM" name are both equidistant over the top of the CD case.





Around the top of the body tube is the single black band.

Cut the top edge right at the black ink so you have nothing to trim off.
After the decal dried a black Sharpie was run over the top edge covering the white paint.

6 comments:

  1. Are you painting and attaching the tail cone separately. In Decal step with CD's I don't see the tail cone attached.

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    1. Hi Scott,
      I should have mentioned that I didn't glue in the tail cone until after the decals. I saw the decal alignment coming and waited on the engine mount gluing. Without the engine mount in I could stand the BT-60 on end.

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  2. Hi, Chris. Nice work as always.

    When you have a ring band decal like that one, do you use a knife to cut it out, or scissors? On my first (now lost) ASXL, I used a hobby knife, for a more precise cut. But it left a raised ridge on the edge of the decal. I'm not sure why, but the end result was that the decal started easily flaking off.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Daniel,
      I usually cut decals like this (that butt up against the end of the body tube) with a knife and straightedge. After it is in place and dried I wipe some Future on just the decals and edges.
      I have had models like this with peeling decals before. My Semroc Defender decal peeled right along the body tube edge. It could also depend on the print process or how well the decal adhesive sticks.

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  3. In the directions for the Sprint LX (page 5), The image of the meatball decal has the rocket in the decal flying up (not even straight up) - Not the word Astron at the top. For a moment I thought of putting the decal on the way the directions had it... than I though better and referenced this blog and saw the cover also had the decal they way you did it.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Scott,
      I went to the Estes website and saw one picture like you mentioned and the face card the way I placed the meatball decal. It's all your choice in the end. I just went with the way it made most sense to me.

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