DIY CR.42 Decals
I have been frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t find any appropriate decals for my three 1/144 scale CR.42 Fiat Falcos that I painted up for my Italian force. After poking around a bit I found decal sheets that you can run through your printer and make whatever decals you need. I grabbed some fasces rondels for the wings, royal crests of the trail, blue fasces crest of the fuselage, and some number marking. I laid them all out in photoshop in huge groups and printed on some “Experts Choice” clear decal film. I used a 600dpi file to insure the file resolution exceeded my printer. I used my HP 3600n color laser to print. I’ve heard that inkjets have alot more problems since the ink will run. The printing on the laser was delicate, but waterproof at least.
The instructions say to coat your decals before mounting them. I of course had no such coating material and tried to go ahead without. After all one $2.50 page has enough room for about 24 sets of planes. The film is much much thinner than you are used to however and coating them would have aided in handling, and stoped scraping the ink off the decal. Application is more or less the same as a normal decal, but you have to be more careful not to wrinkle the decal as you slide it off the paper backing and onto your model. The up side is that the very thin backing conforms very well to the model and will wrap around edges without much issue.
Your printer most likely can’t print white so you’ll have to use a white decal sheet for this and be very careful about your trimming. The clear decals remain slightly transparent, so work best on light surfaces. I’m pretty happy overall with how the decals turned out. I think I’ll continue to use commercial decals where available, but its nice to know that this option exists.
If anyone would like a set for their planes until I run out, send a SASE and $1 and I’ll send you a couple sets.
[...] that way, as if they were in flight. The decals are Experts Choice. I show how I did the decals here. The last thing I need are some flight stands. Top Gun has some nice looking ones, but I’m [...]