Saturday, May 20, 2017

The "OLD" Estes Trident D.I.Y. Decals


In a recent comment on the Decal post, Naoto Kimura reminded me about the decal treatment on the original Estes Trident kit:
"The instructions mention "decal" but wording seem to imply that they weren't water slide type. The Trident instructions does mention using adhesive tape for the markings (so it appears decals weren't included)."

I built an original Trident kit in the mid 1970s. I was disappointed to find decals weren't included. Estes gave some direction on how to make them by spray painting Scotch tape red!


Really? I doubt many kids had a spare sheet of glass handy. Who would want to spray paint the back of your metal ruler?
To see the original kit instructions, CLICK HERE

The instructions also mention the Trident symbol can be "Hand Drawn in enamel or India ink." I bet that came out real nice. India ink would bead up on a gloss white surface.
Back then I did do the painted Scotch tape trick with mixed results. It was okay but felt too thick.
This was in the days before trim Monokote. I have spray painted white decal sheets and cut off strips to make water slide decals. 
The re-issue kit from Semroc has the water slide decals as shown near the bottom of the old instructions.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Chris,
    When I built a Trident II clone (two ducted tubes and four fins rather than three ducted tubes and three fins of the original) I was going to home print the decals. However Semroc(erockets) sells the Trident decal separately from the kit: 3$ and change, I believe.
    Also have picked up Starship Excalibur and Starship Vega decals from them in the past. Cheers!

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    1. Hi BAR,
      i remember seeing the Trident II kit change and thinking maybe they should call it the Bi-dent now. I've used Semroc decals on many of their models with good results. If I were to build a Trident now I would go with water slide instead of Scotch tape decals.

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