Saving Old Seagulls

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1930s ... Swa3ZZod4j
You need one Charles?

No I don't, thanks for that Keith. Don't know who's bidding, nobody on the wish list for one.

Nice early (pre 35) 78cc tank with good transfers & with the original tap, cap & rubbers!

If anyone's talking to the vendor ask if it's got baffles.

I need a good set of clear photographs of the decals that i might be able to copy for mine (ex A-J's)
This tank is in very nice condition considering its age.

Anyone heard from H-A recently as i'd like to talk to him about re-doing these older decals.Mine hasn't got anything left of the decal so i'm going to have to start from scratch.
Here's hoping...


Jon

Why when you could just buy the decal.

I know i could buy a decal, but are they a good copy of the originals? Do they match perfectly?
If a jobs worth doing right, its worth doing properly in the first place.


Jon

Yes I have made my own decals in the past and no its not easy, its not something you can do yourself at home on a printer and if you don't have an original tank logo at hand, it will be no better than any other, good luck with that one.

New decals can be designed at home and there are several people doing these nowadays, particularly to serve classic car, motorcycle, lawn mowers, stationary engines etc.

Can you send me a link or some details Oyster as i'd like to pursue this further.

First things first though, i need a good clear set of photographs to start from that show both sides of the tank in detail.

Anyone?


Jon

I would like to know also please. Software being the most important part. Printing can be left to the experts.

Have recreated several decals thus far using basic software tools such as MS Powerpoint etc, but they are never quite the same as the originals ie particularly when unique font styles and graphics are involved. Huge time investment required, for example I have approx. 22 hours in this Gold Cheetah reproduction decal. Sections of the original I copied from were missing so I had to improvise there. I also had to improvise the dots on the Cheetahs coat as it was impossible to copy those from the original decal ie due to their size and varying shape. End result is close to the original but not identical to.

Reproduction artwork
And printed on to extra thin layer of Gold Vinyl. I have printers use this because it is of similar thickness to the original decals which were generally water slide, and because it forms easily around surfaces that are not flat.
Lots of time and patience required.

Regards,
S

There is a number of ways to do them, find the matching font and reproduce, but you cannot use picture formats like Jpeg, it's never sharp enough, that's why I always use CAD software as you can do 3D as well as 2D.

Right then Keith, how do you fancy reproducing a decal for me. I'm utterly useless with computers, let alone anything like what's involved with this.
You seem to be the resident CAD expert on here, what with all your other drawings you've uploaded in the past. (and very well done they are too)
So, how about it! Nudge nudge wink wink.


Jon

Right then Keith, how do you fancy reproducing a decal for me.

Not really, if one is available already, me making another is no guarantee it is going to be any better, plus it's going to be an expensive one off decal.
As you have already said, I would need a very good picture of the tank logo and it is still not as good as having the real thing at hand, that's the only way to get a perfect decal.
Is this tank decal the right one for your motor?

It should be a flying seagull on my one.

I have no idea what it should be as i can't find any decent pictures yet.



Jon

Welcome to the world of pre war outboards. Not a lot of information available and things like decals have to developed from scratch. These things cost I'm afraid. Nature of the beast.... and all part of the fun.

Like I mentioned before the decals I developed for little 40 cost me around £70 to get the first couple produced. I did those on a PowerPoint slide to print off on paper first, to see how they looked, then tweaked them a bit to get the final "look" I then got David Sharp (sharpie on eBay) to produce the first off for me. John now sells the same ones which turned out ok.

Any use?