The Little World

I was a bit puzzled when I opened the box for the Hobby Boss Northrop P-61 Black Widow and saw that there were two sheets of decals; a big one and a little one.

The big one had all the usual insignia, tail codes, and wing lines ( BTW, I hate wing lines as they never seem to do what you want them to do.). The little one had a miniscule pinup of a girl in nylons. I seems that it was meant to be the nose art for ” Sleepy Time Gal II “. I chose this for my build and proceded to apply most of the decals to the satin black surface. I’m delighted to say, no silvering.

But the pinup was a complete failure – it was printed in bare ink on a clear carrier…and when it was applied to the black fuselage, Sleepy Time Gal disappeared in full view. I ended up just mopping her off and going with the visible lettering. Most disappointing.

I wish I had  laser printer and could make better decals for myself. Unfortunately the printer and ink costs far more than I would commit to a hobby item and as I use an inkjet now to get passable decals, the question is idle speculation.

But I do think that there is a place for a social decal exchange mechanism. We all have extras left over from our builds and some way of cataloguing them and exchanging them – possibly for money – would benefit the hobbyists as a whole. Must raise this question with the rest of the club.

Addendum: I did check with my scale modelling club and there was, indeed, a spare box of decals kept at the club rooms. I will contribute my never-to-be-used ones and look in there when I encounter a particularly difficult lettering job.

There are some aftermarket sheets kept at two of our local hobby shops  – I take a turn through the racks whenever I am visiting them. Sometimes there is a find, but often the things that look good are wrong scale.