The Ship Model Forum

If you have more than a few carrier builds planned, this can be a big time saver. I have one, it is made of stainless steel and includes several variations of deck kanji symbols and smoke angle markings. Painting the lines on through a template gives you the added ability to tone down the color away from the stark white that decals and transfers usually come in...without getting overspray from a weathering coat. There is one out there for USN deck numbers and lines also IIRC.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PE-1-700-H075-S ... 3f4aa5d962

If no dry decals are available, another way is to make your own pattern with tape directly on the deck.
You can do it two ways:
- first paint the deck colours, then tape around where you want the lines to be, then airbrush the lines and finally remove the tape. .
- First paint the entire deck in the colour of the lines. Then apply the lines in masking tape. Then spray the regular deck colours and remove the tape.

Masking with tape usually does take some time, but it is not difficult to do and the results can be excellent.

I recommend the yellow tape from Tamiya.

Cheers,

Marijn

Whoa, thanks, TimmyC. I figured the dry decals were just stickers, I didn't know they were burnished on. That sounds pretty easy to work with. Much easier than waterslide and I guess I won't need to try to paint those lines on. I appreciate the help!

Dry decals are a very different beast from waterslide decals. Dry decals allow you to place the whole pattern on the deck face-down, secure it with tape, then burnish the decal onto the deck. No need to worry about it getting all squiggly and aligned like waterslide ones.

For future waterslide decals, try reading this thread on some tips for making the discolouration (silvering) go away: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=75237

I'm relatively new to modeling so I apologize if this is a stupid question. I'm working on my 2nd 1/700 IJN carrier and after my first (Hasegawa Akagi) had some issues with the edges of the decals becoming discolored, I was wondering if there is a better way. I am currently working on a 1/700 Fujimi Kaga and I have all of the aftermarket parts (PE, wood deck and dry decals). The ship is coming together reasonably well (save for the various "learning experiences" I had with a few of the PE parts) and I am absolutely terrified to try to put the dry decals on because my hands are way too shaky. I have an airbrush and was wondering if there is any source out there where I could get some sort of template to put over the deck so I can just paint the lines on rather than using the decals. It seems like that would be far easier than messing with these long decals for an unskilled beginner such as myself.