Build thread: Blackfish

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That does look good, I can't see the seam at all. I imagined I could see it after the 5th chevron, but it's not there. I'll be curious to see how the side with the lettering looks, so far so good!
Ask and you shall receive:
Lettering.jpg
Still a bit wet with Micro-sol

So the modified waterslide technique was cribbed from some youtube video. Rather than let the decal soak for the entire duration, I leave it in the water for about 10-15 seconds, and then take it out and lay (lie?) it face down gently on a piece of paper towel. The water soaked into (and still sitting on) the backing paper will continue to work to soften the glue, and eventually it'll be ready for application.

Although I don't think I have it quite nailed down yet (need to go back and watch that video again), it has some significant advantages:
1) You can leave them on the paper towel for a long time, because you don't have to worry about them being over-soaked and coming apart in the water.
2) No losing small decals in the water, because you remove them from the water before they actually become loose.
3) No forgetting the decals in the water and having them come apart before you get back to them, because for the 10-15 seconds in the water you stay with them. I like to pipeline my decals, applying one while soaking the next. Sometimes applying the current decal would take me longer than I expect, then I'd possibly have a situation to deal with in the water. No longer a problem.

Downside is that I think they take longer to soften out of the water than in it.

Anyway, I like it so far.
 
Final beauty shots. Future still needs to be applied, but that won't be visible in the photos so why wait.

I had more trouble than usual photographing this one. Couldn't figure out what angles to shoot it from, and also eventually edited out out the ugly backgrounds.
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Like @burkefj , final product is gorgeous as expected.
Get a beauty side shot of the Non-name side as well.

My theory is this, “if you get a lot of great glam shots before you fly it, the flight will be great. If you don’t get the shots, the flight will bash the heck out of it before you can get the pics.”

Kind of like when you bring an umbrella it doesn’t rain, but when you don’t bring it....
 
Wow! That's stunning! It really looks great. I think, unlike the Plasma Dart (which is more like a family of designs, and looks good with many different variations) I can't imagine this one looking any differently. Nailed the design and execution. It's complete, and looks *just right*.

(possibly the only exception would be to have the rings straight like the OR render, that would look good as well).
 
BTW, how did you get the background edited out so cleanly? Is it a photoshop smart edge tool or something like that?
I use Paint.net. I'm getting pretty good at this sort of thing, although I'm sure a real Photoshop expert could do it in 1/10th the time.

Background removal is a combination of techniques involving the various selection tools, most importantly the magic want, and some individual pixel touch-ups using the pencil tool.
 
I use Paint.net. I'm getting pretty good at this sort of thing, although I'm sure a real Photoshop expert could do it in 1/10th the time.

Background removal is a combination of techniques involving the various selection tools, most importantly the magic want, and some individual pixel touch-ups using the pencil tool.
For a free program Paint.net is pretty powerful.
https://www.getpaint.net/
 
For a free program Paint.net is pretty powerful.
https://www.getpaint.net/
*Extremely* powerful, and yet much more intuitive in many ways than the more advanced or "professional" apps. I always recommend that folks ditch MS Paint immediately and switch to Paint.net, because it opens up worlds of possibilities while still being very easy to use. I keep discovering new things I can do with it, and marveling at how consistent and predictable the operation of the program is.

Notable downsides:
1) Text is not maintained as an object, so once it's entered it's just pixels and you can't edit it any further (other than pixel-pushing).

2) Does not have any sort of built-in "retouch" tool. I have to think it'll come at some point.

3) It cannot print at 100%. Seems crazy, but I can live with that as printing is a very very small part of what I do with the program. I actually do my printing from MS Paint.
 
The lines and edges in that look so sharp and smooth, so straight or curved just right, so overall perfect, that the first two pictures look like CAD renderings.
 
The lines and edges in that look so sharp and smooth, so straight or curved just right, so overall perfect, that the first two pictures look like CAD renderings.
That's good, given the amount of time I spent working on them. :)

I was actually debating whether the fake-ish look of them was worse than the ugly backgrounds I started with, but concluded that no, the ugly backgrounds were worse. These pics show off the rocket best.
 
I wasn't talking about the background substitution. I was talking about the rocket. It's that good, even at these pictures' scale. A one foot finish.
 
Oh, well in that case... thanks. :)

I can assure you, though, that the paint finish is far less good than those photos would lead you to believe. The whole rocket looks good, but the paint itself... not so much. As always, I accept and move on, vowing to do better next time.
 
Final beauty shots. Future still needs to be applied, but that won't be visible in the photos so why wait.

I had more trouble than usual photographing this one. Couldn't figure out what angles to shoot it from, and also eventually edited out out the ugly backgrounds.
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Very Very Sweet!!! Great Job on the build & pics. Please let use know how she flies as well... Thanks for sharing it with us!!
Victor
 
Calling this build finished. It will fly... eventually (aka the next time I get to a launch which will be who knows when). Flight reports will appear hear as always, along with other odds and ends as appropriate.

Time to start thinking about the next build...
 
Something strangely familiar about that pic, can't quite put my finger on it...

OK, now you're baiting me 😉. If you re-used the cradle image, you rotated the image a few degrees, and either adjusted curves, levels, pushed highlights, or tweaked contrast to whiten the white of the rings. Gif Comparison:



Pixel comparison:

1594171350364.png

Time to start thinking about the next build...

That's tantalizing.
 
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