Welcome
To My US A2 Jacket Bomber Art Page.
This page came about after seeing
the A2 flying jacket that came with the DiD Albert Ross figure for the Expo
model show in the USA. Because as far as I could see the jacket would never be
broken down from that boxed figure, I decided to see if I could make my own
bomber art jacket in 1/6th scale. So off I went to get some model aircraft
decals and the one's that I used on the back of these Dragon A2 jackets are as
follows:
Note: Please
read these instructions fully if you have not used model aircraft decals before, Also the darker edges and lettering will not show
up on a jacket of this colour.
A2 jacket decals Ageing an A2 jacket
A2 jacket decals
Zoot Chute - Aero Master Products sheet No
48-743 Oriental Liberators Pt II Fancy Art
Axis Nightmare & Strawberry Bitch -
Sky Models sheet No 72-054 B 24 Liberator (On the Axis nightmare jacket I used
the flying lady from the Aero Master set as it looked to plain to me otherwise)
The pictures above show a closer view of the
jackets and the decals that I used on them.
Important Note:
If you are going to fit any decals onto the back of these jackets, I
definitely recommend that this is done as the last thing with the jacket already
fitted to the figure. Because in the course of making this page up I had to
change over each jacket in turn to take the photographs. And in the process of
doing this the decals started to come off from the back of the jackets, this was
solved by the method below.
Decals Application
How to apply decals -
Decals
How to apply decals -
Decals
How to use
Micro Set and
Micro Sol
To set the decals onto the back of the jacket.
Note: Please read the above for information
about the using of model aircraft decals if you have not used them before,
because with the cost of them it is better to take the time to understand how to
use these items rather than ruin them.
My method of applying the decals
The first thing that must be noted is that I got
carried away with decorating my jackets and I forgot to take the photographs as
I went along. With the jackets I used I first cut the decal as close to the
image as I could, because this helps to make the image look more like it was
painted on rather than it is a decal. Plus it stops the edges from 'silvering',
this is where the carrier that the image is on shines in certain light when dry. Before I even put the decals into the warm water
to soak off I made sure that I had the figure laid down as flat as possible in
front of me, with the back of the jacket as flat as possible. I then soaked the
decal in the water and wiped the back of the jacket with the Micro Set solution
to clean it, I then applied a little more where I wanted the decal to fit. I
then took the decal and backing paper out of the water as soon as it started to
loosen and placed it onto the back of the jacket.
I slid the decal off the paper onto the jacket
where I wanted it to be and gently blotted it with some tissue to soak up the
excess water. I left this for about two minutes and I then got a paintbrush and
again gently applied the Micro Sol onto the decal.
Note: The decal may slide about slightly but be careful in
re-positioning it as the decal will become very soft at this point.
Don't fiddle with the decal!!!
This is where you just leave the figure and the
jacket aside to dry, please don't get tempted to fiddle with it in case the
decal breaks up. Because with me when I was fitting the flying lady to the Axis
Nightmare jacket I broke the legs off the decal because I just had to adjust it.
Note: This particular decal is a two part
one, in that you have to fit the white background first and then the lady on top
of that.
What I should have done as I did with my aircraft
models, is fit the white background first and let it dry fully and then apply
the second decal onto that. Once everything is dry check for any loose edges
which may come undone, because of the folds in the jacket that come about as
soon as you handle the figure. With my jackets I just laid the figure down with
the folds in place and then applied a little more Micro Sol to the part of the
decal that had come adrift and then left it aside to dry again.
Once everything is dry and in place I then gave
the decals a coat of the Model Coat 520 Matt Varnish to take away the glossy
look to the decal, which also helps to remove any of the 'silvering' as well.
Plus it also adds to the effect of the 'painted on' look. On the three lower pictures above you can see the
carrier film for the decals slightly, but in normal light this will not be
noticeable. It has only shown up in these images because of the flash from my
camera. Note: What I should have done with the Zoot Chute decal is cut out the
carrier film in the middle so this would not show up as much.
This was a very big experiment for me to see if I
could get the bomber art onto the jackets, and I am very pleased with the end
result and it has opened up a lot of new ideas for me. But do remember that the
less decal carrier film showing the better the 'painted' on look will be.
Ageing an A2 jacket
This jacket is another experiment by me to see
what the result would be if I painted one with some Dullcote lacquer, mainly to
see if I could lose the glossy look to the DML jacket. The first pair of
pictures below show the painted jacket on the right, fastened to an un-painted
one on the left.
These pictures are for a comparison between the
two jackets, I have placed the pictures to show the changes that have occurred.
The original jacket is in the first and third pictures, the painted and
'scrunched' jacket is in the second and fourth one's.
Note: I have only rubbed the painted jacket lightly between my hands
to get the effect above, which gives the jacket a sort of 'grainy' look to it.
I had an e-mail from Paul regarding the
jackets.
The first thing that strikes me, is the color.
Did the jacket really darken that much with the dull coat or is that just the
"distressed look", but I'm not sure about the color change. I have a technical
question is the dull coat when it dries gives it the at whiteish cracked look?
To help to explain this jacket is the one from
Dragon and not the DiD one from Albert Ross, and to try to lose some of the
'whiteness' that Paul has mentioned which has come from the Dullcote. I have
given the jacket a light wipe over with some brown shoe polish, which has helped
to remove the 'white' from the cracks. Note:
I have taken some better pictures of the jackets outside as shown above, as suggested by
Terry and it does show off the coats better.
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