markings on planes....

[fmansam]

Hi gents,
i have painted the odd plane in my time, but i always have one thing i cant suss out!!!

if i want to paint a particular scheme, take the new aerosoft F16, i want to put a specific sqn logo on the tail, i cannot draw it free hand, so i get copies of

plastic kit decals, and research on the net for actual badges.....

trouble is getting them the right size without severe distortion, i use the resizing tools but this can only do so much....and getting them from a decal scan is a real biatch

so my question to all the painters out there...HOW DO YOU DO IT?

Neil

[Garry Russell]

Hi Neil

Basically what you are already doing

The logo should not distort on reducing :think:

Rather than use the tool try reducing the logo by a percentage first to near enough the right size and only use the tool for fine adjustments

So if the logo is four times too big the make a copy of the original.....make sure you are working with 200dpi then reduce that copy to 25 percent and import to the main paint doc.

It will be better than using the tool ;-)

Garry

[Tweek]

What paint program are you using? It'd help in pin pointing the best method to use. ;-)

[fmansam]

i mainly use psp 7......

making an image larger is deffo a big problem.....

[Garry Russell]

That's why I am suggesting you reduce it as a document before you import it into PSP

Garry

[Tweek]

Am I right in saying you've got an image that's too small and you actually need to increase the size of it, as opposed to reducing? If that is the case, then I'd say your best bet is to increase the size of it, and then trace over it with whatever method you feel comfortable with. It's the only way I've ever been able to produce acceptable results from a pixellated/distorted image.

If I've misunderstood, then just ignore me!

[Garry Russell]

Sorry Tweek

I may have misunderstood :doho:

Enlarging it is out unless it is a very small enlargement....needs recreating

But again using the tool is not the best way

Garry

[SkippyBing]

The couple of times I've done it in photo shop is by using the path tools to trace the artwork to make a vector copy of it. Then when you enlarge the image you can stroke the lines the appropriate colours etc. it's probably easier in Illustrator which is more suited to that sort of work but it's a bit excessive getting a whole other package just to do one thing! I'm guessing PSP has a similar path tool tucked away somewhere.

[Motormouse]

i mainly use psp 7......

making an image larger is deffo a big problem.....

try updating to either psp8, or this freeware -------> http://www.gimp.org/windows/
I tend to copy things as vector layers, then use the stretch tools

ttfn

Pete

[CBris]

Sorry for the late reply in resurrecting this thread...

Why not visit www.simmerspaintshop.com and look through their downloads sections - they have a great library of downloadable markings that are all great quality and large enough that you only need to downsize them.

OK, so it's a pointer away from here, but it is a great resource site for a lot of useful painter things.