Looking for Der Red Max font for decals

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Marc_G

Well-Known Member
TRF Supporter
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
8,767
Reaction score
2,907
Location
Indianapolis Metro Area
Hi folks,

I recently lost my "Der Green Max" that had decals made by Gordy from Excelsior many years ago.

I know Excelsior's printers died and since these are pretty simple decals I would like to just print my own in simple black laser on colorless decal paper ; the sheet can be found on the web; I just need to recreate a Green word.

Is the font used available somewhere? Or, if the actual Red Max decals didn't use a font per se, has anyone recreated a reasonable facsimile?
 
Oh and while I'm at it, I need to get a PNC-60AH. I'm aware I can get a BNC-60AH for about $11 plus shipping from eRockets.

Is there a practical source of the plastic cone, short of buying a kit?

Interestingly, my need for this cone isn't the same rocket as the need for my Green Max decals (that one is already built). I lost the nose cone for my venerable Blue Ninja last launch (nose cone separated from body tube and drifted away under chute), and I wish to replace it.
 
Oh and while I'm at it, I need to get a PNC-60AH. I'm aware I can get a BNC-60AH for about $11 plus shipping from eRockets.

Is there a practical source of the plastic cone, short of buying a kit?

Interestingly, my need for this cone isn't the same rocket as the need for my Green Max decals (that one is already built). I lost the nose cone for my venerable Blue Ninja last launch (nose cone separated from body tube and drifted away under chute), and I wish to replace it.
Keep your eyes on eBay.
 
Hi folks,

I recently lost my "Der Green Max" that had decals made by Gordy from Excelsior many years ago.

I know Excelsior's printers died and since these are pretty simple decals I would like to just print my own in simple black laser on colorless decal paper ;the sheet can be found on the web; I just need to recreate a Green word.

Is the font used available somewhere? Or, if the actual Red Max decals didn't use a font per se, has anyone recreated a reasonable facsimile?
When you say "the sheet can be found on the web", do you mean the decal paper, or the decal artwork

I used the artwork from JimZ https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/est0651.htm and scaled it up for my Mega Der Red Max clone. I used both clear paper and white. The skull and crossbones were a bit of a pain as I had to trim close and hand place the individual pieces. I think it turned out OK. You could load the artwork into Paint, etc and change the black to green for your model
 

Attachments

  • MDRM_01.jpg
    MDRM_01.jpg
    101.5 KB · Views: 39
  • MDRM_02.jpg
    MDRM_02.jpg
    103.7 KB · Views: 38
  • MDRM_03.jpg
    MDRM_03.jpg
    165.6 KB · Views: 44
When you say "the sheet can be found on the web", do you mean the decal paper, or the decal artwork

I used the artwork from JimZ https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/est0651.htm and scaled it up for my Mega Der Red Max clone. I used both clear paper and white. The skull and crossbones were a bit of a pain as I had to trim close and hand place the individual pieces. I think it turned out OK. You could load the artwork into Paint, etc and change the black to green for your model
Dave, I think he means that he wants to change the "Red" in "Der Red Max" to "Green". So he needs the same font as in the decal.
 
Don't mean to hijack, but who do you get decal paper from? Inkjet and spray clear on sheet or Laser? Any tips? I have all the parts and decal scans for a MDRM clone (54mm mmt that I will fly on 38mm). Just want to make my own waterslides too to save money. So far I am gonna go with tango papa for blank sheets.
I can also see about spending a few mins in Photoshop to see what I can do today or Sunday. What height*width do you need word /letters [Green] to be?
 
Last edited:
Right, I want it to be Der Green Max. So I need to make the word GREEN in a compatible font/artwork.

I should have scanned the decal sheet I bought from Excelsior but at the time is figured I could always buy a new sheet. Didn't count on his printers dying with no replacement for printing white, chasing him to effectively shut down.
 
Don't mean to hijack, but who do you get decal paper from? Inkjet and spray clear on sheet or Laser? Any tips? I have all the parts and decal scans for a MDRM clone (54mm mmt that I will fly on 38mm). Just want to make my own waterslides too to save money. So far I am gonna go with tango papa for blank sheets.
I can also see about spending a few mins in Photoshop to see what I can do today or Sunday. What height*width do you need word /letters [Green] to be?
I forget who I bought it from. I don't build much these days. Probably MicroMark. I will see if I can look it up later today. I bought colorless (clear) and white laser decal paper; my Brother 9130cw prints fine. Colors are not great (under saturated) but black does pretty well.
 
Don't mean to hijack, but who do you get decal paper from? Inkjet and spray clear on sheet or Laser? Any tips? I have all the parts and decal scans for a MDRM clone (54mm mmt that I will fly on 38mm). Just want to make my own waterslides too to save money. So far I am gonna go with tango papa for blank sheets.
I can also see about spending a few mins in Photoshop to see what I can do today or Sunday. What height*width do you need word /letters [Green] to be?
I bought some from Amazon, nothing fancy and it's surely not the best available, but it worked well enough for my clones. I dont build many clones and I'm not a perfectionist so the quality was good enough. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J1VPF54/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1YT4DbFVYZ43Y
 
Don't mean to hijack, but who do you get decal paper from? Inkjet and spray clear on sheet or Laser? Any tips? I have all the parts and decal scans for a MDRM clone (54mm mmt that I will fly on 38mm). Just want to make my own waterslides too to save money. So far I am gonna go with tango papa for blank sheets.
I can also see about spending a few mins in Photoshop to see what I can do today or Sunday. What height*width do you need word /letters [Green] to be?

Hi @mjstech I was reading on my phone before and just now at my desktop noticed you might play with photoshop. I believe the original scale of the words was that the font height is 3/4", more or less, with the entire width of RED MAX being just a hair over 2.5", allowing it to fit on the fin. So to keep the width the same, GREEN MAX would need to be slightly downscaled to fit the two extra letters. Exact size isn't critical.

I too was thinking to play with it; just not sure what font to start with that would look similar. Finding a similar font with the spray template lines is the trick I guess; adding the bullet holes and the iron crosses wouldn't be hard. But a lot of the stencil fonts I've found over-stencil it... for example the M and X don't need stencil lines (if it were a real stencil for paint), but the fonts put lines on them.

I also reached out to Gordy who did the original decals; he might be able to provide the image.
 
Last edited:
I doubt there is an actual online font for this.
It's probably like the Goblin lettering, probably hand drawn by the designer Wayne Kellner.
 
I doubt there is an actual online font for this.
It's probably like the Goblin lettering, probably hand drawn by the designer Wayne Kellner.
I agree this is likely. However, there is probably a similar font (minus bullet holes and crosses). I just haven't researched enough to find a good match yet. Been doing a lot of work stuff over the weekend.
 
I doubt there is an actual online font for this.
It's probably like the Goblin lettering, probably hand drawn by the designer Wayne Kellner.

I too was thinking to play with it; just not sure what font to start with that would look similar. Finding a similar font with the spray template lines is the trick I guess; adding the bullet holes and the iron crosses wouldn't be hard.

Yeah, its not a typeface.

The stencil breaks don't make any sense, and there doesn't seem to be much of a pattern to the widths on the strokes or the radii of the shoulders.

The bar heights and widths are different for the A and the E.

greenmax.png

I built the N out of the X and the M, and the G out of the A, D, and E. I flipped the one copy of the E, just to convince myself the the bar heights didn't match across the logo. Matching the width of the arm on the G to the width of the bar on the E looks better to my eye -- since we don't know what the counter of the letter R would have looked like without the Prussian cross.

greenmax2_fixed.png
 
Last edited:
Just before I delete the file -- squared it up a little (the scan I grabbed from ninefingers wasn't quite straight).

I have to say, I am charmed by the idea of the Green Max. But I'd be inclined to really run with it.
green_PARTY_max.png
You'd have to tell people that "MAX" was for Max Nicholson, not Max Immelmann -- which (the explaining part) would make it less fun to fly, I think.

Still, if the build pile wasn't quite so tall right now...
 

Attachments

  • greenmax_vector_alittlestraighter.pdf
    774.2 KB · Views: 23
Last edited:
So, I wanted to upload my PowerPoint file that I used to piece together decals using the kindly provided Green Max files provided, plus other things I clipped from a PDF on the JimZ site, but PPTX isn't supported. Let me check with Angie on this. Here's a successful picture on top of all sorts of intermediary printouts on plain paper. This was done on MicroMark Clear-On-Blue laser decals.DGM Decal Printed.jpg

Some original decals I have from Excelsior are visible off to the left, which included white printed areas. I miss the ALPS printers...
 
Hi folks, Angie adjusted the allowed file types so I was able to upload the document I used to print black on clear Der Green Max decals
 

Attachments

  • Der Green Max Decals.pptx
    556.2 KB · Views: 25
Back
Top