Fire Apparatus Model Forums

One of the things I do on my Facebook page, is post shots now and then of the computer screen I use to draw decal artwork with. This is an example of how important it is to have straight on shots when you re replicating something. Any angle, distorts the image. It is not as important with stripes, because they are basically square, and the same height front to rear. The farther away the subject, like the rear of the Tahoe in the angle shot, makes the stripe look shorter. I know it isn't though. Its important to know so that you can adjust the height of the lettering to fit the stripe. Another important thing, is to have photos of both sides. In this case, the stripe appears to be the same angle on both sides. But the start and stop portions are much different. Without shots of both sides, you would not know, and end up printing the passenger side wrong. There is no substitute for good photos.

Awesome Rich are you making a TFS decal sheet? or is this a custom.

Hey Skylar, its going to be for a custom order in 1:43 scale. Right now, just Tahoe stuff.

Nice tip.
What software do you use to drawn?

I use Illustrator. Its pretty user friendly.

Rich you are absolutely right. The one thing I would say is even if the side shot is a bit on the skew, there may be a portion of it that is directly in front and would have the right proportions for copying. I transfer the image into my graphics program and then use that portion of the image to draw from. Doing straight lines are then much easier. That having been said You are spot on. There are never enough photos to assist in what we do.

Rich, I agree wholeheartedly. That has been the biggest problem I have had with some of my customers. It's just hard for them to understand the necessity for good photos. Can we make the decals with sloppy photos? Sometimes yes, but then it is a whole lot more work and we don't charge $200 minimum for the artwork like some of the major decal companies do. The more work that we have to do the higher the price we have to charge. Not to mention the better the photos, the better the finished product. You have always done great work.

You have to remember, what I do is not what someone with an ink jet or Alps does. Not trying to down play what they do, but commercially screen printed decals have to be layered and trapped. This is where it is a bit more critical in your art work, and where the time comes in that brings the cost up. You have to alter each piece of lighter color, under the darker color by .005, or five one thousands of an inch. It might take you 10 minutes to draw a logo, but an hour to trap it to commercial printing specifications. This too, is the reason for the high cost of commercial artist's at the printer. They charge based on $75 per hour, and it can take a boat load of hours to do a job. The requirements for commercial printing are not understood by most, and Microscale has just a handful of artists that they accept work from. They will accept drawings in Vector, but then they do the layering and trapping, and you pay for it. Commercial screen printing is not for everyone, due to the cost. Wish I would have learned earlier on, instead of watching South Park.