Flags and decals

[craiglieberman]

Ok...I give up.

You know those silly flags you get with your models in 1/350th? Those American Flags and Union Jacks?

How the heck do you wrap them around a flagpole/mast without them falling apart?

I've tried glue (destroys the decal instantly), so what am I doing wrong?

[Deckard]

Cut yourself a little square piece of alfoil and lay it flat on the bench. Activate the decal and when ready (10 secs?) remove it from the water, still attached to the backing paper. Paint some Future floor wax on the foil, and then slide the flag off onto it. Let it completely dry or set.

Cut the flag off the foil and fold over on itself squaring it up exactly. Open it up again and place in the fold your stretched sprue line, and paint the inside of your flag with Future once more. Press it together with a prod or something that won't stick to the wax, and square the line up. Let it dry and then overcoat it with flat.

You can then cut the sprue line to length (but don't muck it up!), and using a pair of long nose tweesers put a flutter in your flag (if you wish).

Give that a shot and see how you go, it's always worked for me in any scale. You don't need glue, the wax works fine.

Regards.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Further to Deckards sound advice ---

I would add the following snippets gained through destroying a modelling lifetimes flags ( well it feels like that sometimes!)

Foil inside flags is an excellent idea:
But beware,..... there is foil and then there is foil...

Use if you can silvercoloured foil-this will assist in the whites of the decal staying bright-I once used gold foil and ended up with a beige white ensign...

The lightest foil I have found to date comes from the wrappers of some chocolate bars--great excuse to get sampling....

People tell me the 'bare metal foil' used by aircraft modellers to be perfect for the purpose-I have no experience therof yet

When 'crumpling' the flag to simulate wind flutter, insert the flag between a layer of paper---toilet tissue or similar-- before using tweezers to crease. The paper fulfils the function of a ' softener' of the creases preventing cracking as well as preventing scratches on the decal surface.

Lastly- in no way wishing to detract from Deckards advice-- I would not insert the sprue inside the folded flag;-- reasons are twofold:( haha!)

If you break the sprue you are in trouble.---- but more importantly...

On the real thing the flag is suspended at top and bottom of the hoist by clips-therefore when the flag is flying the flag is actually slightly downwind of the direct line of the halyard-- the method of putting the sprue inside the flag would therby mean you would have a piece of the flag effectively upwind of the halyard...

here is how I attach my flags:

Completely finish the model, rigging and all.

Rig the flag halyard from chosen yardarm, gaff or flagpole etc.

Induce a light bow aft into the halyard-do this while the cement is drying.

Take some brush-on matt varnish onto a suitable pallet( upturned paint-tin), allow to go off till slightly tacky.

Take flag into tweezers, tilt model up on end vertically-bow in the air, dip hoist end of flag into matt varnish, then apply flag to halyard while holding ship up on end

This ensures the flag will ' stick' perpendicular to the halyard, and not drop off due to gravity taking the outer end downwards-tyhe foil flag is quite heavy!!

Keep ship on end for a couple of minutes till varnish' grabs'.

You should now be completed

Good luck

JIM BAUMANN

Check out my gallery page for examples of flags

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

[Kelly Quirk]

Here's a little more advice:

http://www.modelwarships.com/features/c ... flags.html

[craiglieberman]

Awesome stuff....will try tonight on my CV2 Lexington I'm close to finishing.