No progress thru the week, but that’s what weekends are for! Started putting decals on the A220. The kit decals are by Pas Decals in Russia. They are laser printed on to a solid sheet of clear decal backing paper, so you have to cut closely around the image to minimize decal film edges. The decals aren’t very colour dense. The windshield effectively disappears against the black Background. And the black Air Canada lettering ends up more a dark grey than a true black. The red maple leaf on the tail is two parts. A white version goes first, followed by a red one. Thankfully, they fit, and it ensures the red “pops“ but it took a lot of gentle pushing to get them to line up.
The kit comes with two liveries. The main livery is the corporate Airbus scheme. The second is the modern Air Canada scheme, included on a separate sheet. The corporate livery has very nice passenger windows that more closely resemble an in use plane. The windows included in the Air Canada livery are just grey ovals. Naturally, the nice windows are part of a larger decal with doors and other stuff. Murphy’s law says that all that other stuff won’t be the same colour on the two schemes. And naturally, I wanted to use the more realistic windows. After some very careful cutting and trimming, the nice windows were separated from the stuff that wasn’t needed, while the unwanted grey oval windows very separated from the stuff I did want. It took about 90 minutes to complete the port side. The decal edges are still visible, so I will need some Micro Sol to snuggle them in. Here’s where things sit at the end of Saturday.
Sunday was a chance to start the starboard side. Progress was good, and I got all the decals on the sheet installed. That’s when I realized that I was short two smaller red Air Canada logos. I was sure that I hadn’t lost or misplaced any decals. I went back to the instructions and realized that that they called out the logos, at two locations, using the same numbers x2. So I hadn’t missed anything. The decal sheet was short two logos.
In the pictures below, you can see a small logo just behind the cockpit windows. You can also see a white logo on the port wing fin. The white is an under layer to make sure that the red shows properly when placed over top. That’s two of the four locations, with the other two locations being on the opposite of the airplane.
I have gotten into the habit of scanNing the decal sheet before starting to place any decals. It is a precaution that has paid off several times when I screw up, and suddenly find I need more decals. Time to head to the computer to try and create replacements. I do not claim to be a Photoshop expert, but after 15 minutes I had the required Air Canada logos copied onto a new layer. Printing was another story. I simply couldn’t get my printer to grab the decal paper. After several failed attempts, I tried taping the decal paper to a normal sheet of paper. Thankfully, the printer took it. I made a couple of large maple leaves as well, as I noticed that I had trimmed one of the tail logos a little too close, and it wasn’t covering the white layer underneath. I printed multiple copies of each decal, as spares prove useful. I brushed a layer of GlossCote over the decals to protect them and let them dry. Here are my homemade decals almost ready to be used.
Fifteen minutes later, I cut one out, dunked it in the water, and waited for it to come free of the paper. It takes a lot longer than for commercial decals. It is necessary to find the magic period between the decal coming free and the protective top coat failing and the ink running. I doubled up the logos on the wing fin to get good colour density. It will need multiple coats of MicroSol to get it to sit properly, but I am happy how it looks. The logo behind the cockpit went on cleanly, needing only a single layer. A short section of the outer circle was cut for the tail, and it was put into place. Here’s how things look at the end of the day
Progress on the Buffalo consisted of a couple coats of decal softener on the nose anti-glare panel. I had the first layer of gloss on when I realized the decal had a couple of wrinkles. The wrinkles came out, but I tore the edge getting one bubble out. It was an easy repair, needing a little black paint brushed on.
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