Aeronaut Diva-ish

I think this setting myself a deadline seems to work.

Here's one that's been sat on a shelf half finished for a couple of years. I decided on a deadline of today and here she is... the Helpless Dancer, finished and fully working. Well it was finished about half an hour after I took the photos, everything fixed in place and a flappy Spanish flag added to the staff.









I don't normally build kits but this one caught my eye for some reason. A lovely little inexpensive kit that I don't know why I didn't finish ages ago.

Whenever I think of Aeronaut i think of German Battleship kits but they turn out nice pleasure boats as well.
That's a nice clean build Vigo I have to name all mine after the wife unless there's no way of avoiding it, helpless dancer is a nice name though a bit left field.
Really nice build and finish.

It seems to be my latest thing, naming my boats after songs. Helpless Dancer is from the Who's Quadrophenia. My previous completion, the paddler Sugar Magnolia is named after a Grateful Dead song. I'm currently working on the icebreaker I started a few months ago. I need to come up with a suitably musical name for that now.

Hi Vigo,
Very nice indeed.
Sometimes it pays to shelf a model for a while.
It certainly payed off this time.
Well done.

Where did you get the name sticker made or did it come in the kit ?

Will you be posting a build log on your Icebreaker. ?

Martin555.

All the decals on the boats are home-made decal paper injket creations. I'm a great believer in why buy something if you can make it or repurpose something else.

The icebreaker (now called Stormbringer) is very much an on/off project and at the moment is off again whilst I concentrate on something else. I'll get back to it eventuallly.

Hi Vigo,

It would be interesting to see how you do your boat stickers.
Maybe you could do a little "How To" on the subject.

Will you be posting a build log on this something else ? LOL!!

Martin555.

The decals are no big secret, it's simply a case of mess about with an image on Photoshop (or similar) then print it out onto decal paper which is widely available from Ebay or most good arty farty type craft shops.
 
Water Slide Decal Paper A4 INKJET Waterslide Transfer Paper | eBay 

A quick spray over with a clear lacquer to fix it and you're away. They work in exactly the same way as the ones you get with Airfix kits and the like. You just need to remember to cut them out very close to the image because the lacquer also acts as a carrier film.
The only issue I've had is that without spending 1000's of quids on an ALPS printer, white and pale colours are next to impossible to produce. There is a workaround though, if you absolutely need a pale coloured decal then make sure that whatever you're going to mount it on is either white or very pale - that way the colour will show. OR... you could use white decal paper but I've found this to be problematic too, especially with intricate designs.


As for the build log...

Just for a change I've remebered this time  - See HMS VIGO 

Hi Vigo,

Thank you for the information and the link to the transfer paper.
All I have to do now is remember it when the time comes LOL!!

Martin555.