Polikarpov Po-2 1/48 ICM-Eduard, post-war civil version, Hungary - FINISHED

Started by Csaba · 222 · 2 years ago
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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Well thought to block the light!

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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Let´s get started with the cockpit... errrh designing masks or decals


    I still have to decide whether I print my own decals, or cut my own masks. Most probably it will be a mask, but a proper vector image will be useful in both cases. My usual tool for such task is Inkscape, an open source and completely free vector graphics editor. It is an amazing piece of software, especially if you consider that it is freely available.
    I used Inkscape´s "trace bitmap" feature to trace the contours, and cleaned the result manually. I had to add the missing letters, and level the whole thing. Still not ready, but we are getting there. I will spend one or two more evenings to make it ready. You can see that the letters are not really matching the originals.

    If I decide to use the masks, I will cut them with my trusty surgical blade set from Tamiya masking sheet. I seriously considered buying a cutting machine recently, but I am short of space, and would be a luxury for cutting a few masks a year.

    I don´t have time to do much more right now, both kids are at home because of the spring break. I will stay at home until end of May, and I really hope to gain momentum with the build. (10 weeks company paid parental leave, together with my wife and the smaller child, not a bad offer if you ask me)

    1 additional image. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Yep, not a bad offer, my friend @pikofix!
    Nice approach for the codes.
    Loking forward to your solution!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    I would call that even a great offer, Csaba.
    The codes you created look very identical, great job on that.

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    George R Blair Jr said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Paid leave is always good, Csaba (@pikofix). Great work on the markings. Looking forward to seeing them on the model.

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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    It is indeed very interesting to play around with such a vector graphics software. I printed out the first mock-up today, the size and layout fit quite well the original, but the letters P and X needs more adjustment, those are somehow off. I also noticed that the distance between the letters was not uniform on the sides of the original airplane. The first two (HA) are closer to each other than the other three.

    I still have to measure the underwing registrations on the reference photos, if I am lucky the same templates were used there by the repair crew.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Amazing approach to create the codes, my friend @pikofix!
    Looking forward to them!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Getting in the right direction, Csaba.
    Very good approach.

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    What a great job on the PC. Looking forward to the endresult and final decision.

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    George R Blair Jr said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Looks good, Csaba (@pikofix). Anything with letters or codes can be very complex, thanks to the spacing between the letters, and the geometry of letters like X, K, R, etc. The width of the letter changes based on how the letters are constructed.

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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:


    I had to do a few more measurements in Inkscape to realize that the automatic tracing feature misaligned a few things. I managed to fix the letters P and X, and set the distances and adjust a few more values. It is incredible that all of these modifications were below 0.2mm in a nearly 40mm long text, but our eyes are really good in spotting these small errors. This version fits the original much better than the previous version. Maybe I should decrease the height a tiny bit, but that task is for another day.
    I also managed to measure the bottom wing´s registration. It seems that the same letter templates were used, but with different spacing, so it will be easy to create those masks or decals as well.

    I also added a few test lines to the SVG file to test how a small stencil would look like. I might try to do a few of these as decals. (ITT TOLD means PUSH HERE) Based on the photos, PAX had no stencils, so it is only a small side project to test my recently bought laser printer decal sheet. I tried inkjet a few years ago with mixed results.

    @gblair Yes, it indeed looks simple, but once you start looking into the details, it is getting very complex. But it is fun, kind of old school modelling.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Even though the correction is very small 0.5%, the current result does indeed look much better, Csaba.
    At the end your build will look very realistic.

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Csaba, I will be very intersted in hearing how the stencils turns out - keep us posted! You seem to have nailed Inkscape well. I may have to spend some more time with it having seen your results!

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 1 month ago:

    Yep, auto tracing is not the way to go here...
    Everything in "manual"!
    Getting there, my friend @pikofix!

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    Csaba said 3 years, 1 month ago:


    @airbum, I made a quick test of the decal sheet. I have a simple, few years old, consumer grade black and white laser printer at home, nothing special. I printed out the registration and the stencils. I tried to apply the decals with and without Microscale´s liquid decal film on top. The test object is the bare plastic from the Eduard kit, I will never build that anyway.

    The decals work quite well, releases from the paper within a few seconds. They are quite soft, and easy to fold them accidentally at the edges. However, they cover nicely the surface details, panel lines etc. Mr. Mark Softer was applied on a few places. The uncovered decals reacted to the decaling solution, and the print started to dissolve. I did not have any problems with the parts covered with Microscale LDF, the decals reacted well to the Mr. Mark Softer solution.
    I also noticed that the decals covered with Microscale LDF seems to be darker, almost pitch black, while the uncovered decals are more like a dark grey instead of black. I have to take a look on those parts again tomorrow by natural light.
    The stencils look actually surprisingly good. I went down from 2 mm to 0.5 mm, and are all readable.

    One drawback is that the film seems to be somewhat thicker than the usual sheets from the kits, or aftermarket companies. I can see a small edge around the decal. I can try to trim the decals, but that would be just as time consuming as cutting my own mask. I can also try to carefully sand it with 3000 grade paper and smooth that edge. I will also try to airbrush matt varnish over the parts to see the final result.

    In short, I am surprised, these decals work much better than my early trials with the inkjet version. There is a hope for an old, abandoned project, where the manufacturer forgot to print half of the decals marked in the assembly guide...

    Now I should find a color laser printer and try to create more interesting decals ...