How to change a decal

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Fred

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I have downloaded the estes kit #1948 Big Bertha (beta) decals. I want to make a white rocket, with black decals. In stead of the way they are in the kit which is white decals. I want to change the black to white and the white to black. What program can do this?

Thanks, Fred
 
I have downloaded the estes kit #1948 Big Bertha (beta) decals. I want to make a white rocket, with black decals. In stead of the way they are in the kit which is white decals. I want to change the black to white and the white to black. What program can do this?

Thanks, Fred
Actually, those decals are white printed on black which is printed on clear. I would change the black to clear, then change the white to black. Most printers cannot print white. I am assuming that you are printing on clear decal paper, not white.
 
Actually, those decals are white printed on black which is printed on clear. I would change the black to clear, then change the white to black. Most printers cannot print white. I am assuming that you are printing on clear decal paper, not white.
+1 on this reply.

It's very difficult to actually get white decals printed on clear, since inkjet and laser printers do not print white ink, but leave an un-inked area for the white paper to show through. Consumer printers use red, green, and blue as the primary colours, and a mixture of all 3 in full concentration is what gives black. On the contrary, it seems a bit counter-intuitive since we know that white light is actually a mixture of all colours (see every prism experiment known to man), and black is the opposite (zero colour).

Short answer is that it's incredibly difficult. I am currently making a 24mm RMS mod to an Estes Bull Pup (my favourite childhood rocket), and since it's going to fly so high I wanted to paint it black and invert all the decals to white, rather than the stock paint scheme which is white base/black decal.... After doing a couple hours worth of research I gave up trying to figure out a cheap way to actually do it.

Edit: Reread the OP's post and he actually wants black-on-clear, which isn't that hard at all. If you can scan the decal sheet into your PC, just use Photoshop to magic-select all of the white and then you can paint black into that selection. Print on clear inkjet or laser decal paper.
 
Gimp is a very powerful and free program for image editing. Paint.net is less powerful but still has some great functions built in. Either will work very well for what you are trying to achieve.

FC
 
I have downloaded the estes kit #1948 Big Bertha (beta) decals. I want to make a white rocket, with black decals. In stead of the way they are in the kit which is white decals. I want to change the black to white and the white to black. What program can do this?

Thanks, Fred

Ask Sandman. www.excelsiorrocketry.com
 
Easy enough to do. The forum doesn't seem to want to put the full size file here- just a smaller one.

For those that want to know the steps-

Download the file and open it in Gimp. Since this particular file is a grayscale, it's easy to change.
Select Colors, Invert from the menu bar.
Use the Fuzzy Select tool (magic wand) click in the now black area between the fins. Press Delete.
Use the Select by Color tool with a threshold value around 35, click in the grey areas of the fins. Press Delete. This gets rid of any color in what you want to be white. You will be left with a faint outline that will let you trim the decals and leave a little extra film.
Save the file and print it on clear decal paper. Apply to a white rocket.

berthabetareversed.jpg

kj
 
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