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Friday, October 19, 2018

Estes Mini Mars Lander Build #0881, Part 15, Old Decals



The remaining decals got a shot of clear acrylic. This will make a film over the decals and hopefully hold them together.

On the left is the decal that broke apart with no way to repair it. I took the easy way out.

I cut the damaged area off the decal that goes on the opposite side. This makes it look like it was intentional, well sort of.




Here's another place where the decal broke up. Like before, the broken line was scraped off.






An orange Sharpie filled in the broken area in the "A".
This was a gamble, black usually works on black print, colors rarely match up. I lucked out on this one.




I used the back of my X-Acto knife to scrape the paint off the engine hook. Use the back of the blade, it'll flake the paint off without dulling the sharp side.

4 comments:

  1. Great work on the decals, Chris. If any part of a model rocket build can be tagged as being 'stressful', it would have to be the application of decals - even new ones. They are definitely a playground for Murphy's Law!

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    1. Hi Ed,
      New decals printed in China seem to have a thinner clear coat on them. I wish Estes didn't make large wrap decals implying they should be transferred in one piece. Too many builders had problems with the giant Mega Red Max and Little Joe II decal wraps.

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  2. Oh boy, do I love sub-assembling and painting Mars Lander legs! And, your Mini looks awesome, Chris! The overall sunshiny yellow color, with great decal details (even white), and the orange strut braces, look great. It really sings.
    When I've seen this kit on eBay, I never imagined it being so cool.
    Here's to Boren repopping this cone.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Overeasy,
      It is a good luck and a real departure from the original mars Lander. Whoever designed this got a lot of detail in the simplified lander legs.

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