Painting question

[tdn]

I have a question about painting rockets with a brush:

How would I get lettering on a rocket? My girlfriend and I were discussing a few techniques, and we thought of just painting it on freehand (she's a caligraphist). But that might look kind of sloppy.

We thought of creating a stencil, but that would probably leak through.

Can we create our own decals?

 

[brianc]

Originally posted by tdn
Can we create our own decals?

Yup.

There are other decal papers available, but this one consistantly
gets good remarks on TRF...

https://www.beldecal.com/model_decals.cfm

 

[sandman]

OK...here is something I've done and you can use a similar technique.

Whenever I get decals they always have a lot of "blank" area with nothing printed on them.

I save that "blank" decal paper to make a few "custom decals freehand.

I've even used dry transfer lettering available at office supply stores and in the model railroad department at most hobby shops that carry trains...OK so a lot of thier lettering is like Extended Railroad Roman but you might find something you can use.

By all means if she can do caligraph have her try it on some of the "blank" sections of decals...it's scrap anyway!

It's easier to do Caligraphy and to apply dry transfers to a flat surface (decals) then put it onto the body tube.

Can't hurt.

 

[sandman]

I guess I left out something on that last post.

What I do is apply my dry transfer lettering to the decal paper then I put the decal on.

The caligraphy thing should work right onto the decal paper but make sure you use a waterproof ink or seal it with a clear coat first.

 

[Micromeister]

Ssandman has some good suggestions, Dry transfer lettering can be done, but is somewhat problematic in that all styles aren't avaiable in all sizes, colors etc.

Let me direct you to 2 Tech-tips in the library secton of narhams.org. 005 brushes and brushwork will give you a quicky lesson on hand lettering (I'm an old time Sign Painter) and 016 is a discussion of all the various types of making your own decals.
Hope this helps

 

[DumasBro2]

Here’s a trick I used to help a coworker place his name on his custom-made arrow shafts. I printed his name in the font that he wanted and then flipped it so that when it printed, his name was backwards. I printed this on a laser printer (a copy machine will work as well). He then holds this against the shaft (print side down) and runs a heated iron over the backside of the lettering. This transfers the lettering to the shaft. A clear coat is needed to finish the job.

steve

 

[KarlD]

Originally posted by DumasBro2
Here’s a trick I used to help a coworker place his name on his custom-made arrow shafts. I printed his name in the font that he wanted and then flipped it so that when it printed, his name was backwards. I printed this on a laser printer (a copy machine will work as well). He then holds this against the shaft (print side down) and runs a heated iron over the backside of the lettering. This transfers the lettering to the shaft. A clear coat is needed to finish the job.

steve

Cool Idea! I assume a conventional clothes iron? What temp was the iron set for? Silk, Polyester? Cotton? AP?

 

[DumasBro2]

Yes, a regular cloth iron. He said he set it "really hot", what ever that is.....

steve