"Deck markings on 1/2400 scale Carriers" Topic

Hi all, just a quick question. What's the board's opinion on painting the decks of ww2 Carriers in 1/2400 scale? Hand paint them? Or is there a decal solution out there? My ability to paint straight lines is non-existant so decals would be the prefered method for someone like me. Has anyone had any experiences? and if so how about some awesome photos of your ships!

Thanks!

The great ones I've seen used masking tape strips to get th straight lines….take a look on the GHQ forums for some awe inspiring work…

Here are couple of threads on this issue

TMP link

TMP link

in essence he uses clear decal paper (I see it at Hobby Lobby, I've heard that Staples has it too) and creates a decal in a graphics program. High end ones are mentioned but really a good one will probably work fine. I would think getting the measurements correct will be the hard part. Maybe do a few peliminary prints on regular paper until you have the sizes correct?

The only problem is very few printers do white. A solution might be to leave the areas to be white (if you need such) clear and paint the deck white in those areas, let dry, then cover with decal.

And as Extra Crispy says the GHQ forums have threads on hand painting the decks.

A correction, he printed on white decal paper (available as above). It does negate the need to paint the deck areas white. I've considered using this to do modern helicopter deck landing spots. Try to match the deck color and leave the marking blank so they will show white. I've even thought about trying to do this will hull numbers. If you can match the hull side color then you can color everything but the numbers. Perhaps a bit of color matching (blending) after the decal is down to help it?