USS Andromeda Decals (help wanted)
 

There has been some question over time just what the color is of these decals, specifically the reddish,orangeish portions. I was hoping that someone here would be able to help in my pursuit of recreating the decals and would be able to take a picture of original kit decals or an original build with a color chart in the picture. Brodak.com has a downloadable chart on their dope page, or if you pick up a paint chip color panel from home depot that may work better.

Thank you

Bernie

:eek: :chuckle:

Not a bad idea for all of the future decal submissions in addition to the usual ruler.


.

Especially on the Andromeda decals I have heard (read) discussions on them being more reddish orange, or orangish red.

As to the "dope", it was always fun, as a young'un in the seventies, to let an adult overhear our discussions about using dope down in the basement. :eek: :D

If I remember my classmate's 64 count Crayola box correctly, there was a considerable difference between red orange and orange red. ;)

As for discussing (model airplane) dope in the basement: :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:

In the commercial printing world, any color that is not reproduceable using the CYMK printing process is printed using "spot color". A spot color capable printing press would have an extra ink handler to print the oddball color. The process does add a bit of expense to the print run. As Far as decals go, you would have an extra silkscreen for the color.

I have a four color screen printing machine. When I did the Estes Astro decals for Blackshire, I mixed the orange color by hand, ran a sample, then compared to a picture of the original decals someone had uploaded here. Doing the color that way is kinda hit or miss depending on the monitor, camera used and age of the original decals. I am sure that for 90% of the builders it would be good enough, But you always run into those that are like,


"that should have a red content of 254, not 255" :confused:

I mean look at all the controversy over minor points over the years, especially about fins in the era of fin templates. I really want to know if anyone making an Alpha back in the sixties added a sanding kerf to the outline traced on the balsa. And of course if you sanded just a sixty-fourth of an inch too much compared to the template, you threw that fin out and started anew.


Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a rant :o The problem is that often our perception of a certain hue CAN differ to a large extent from the original and adding a color swath to even compare a difference from can be helpful in getting a close match.

Well thanks to Gordy I know have a set of the decals to match the color to. Previously I had mixed a reddish orange for some Estes Astro decals. I kinda had the impression that the colors would be similar and I was going to use the Astro color if I couldn't get anything else.

I was matching the color off a picture supplied to me by John Brohm. When I compared my color to the picture, I thought I was close, but when I took a picture, you could see a difference.

In the picture below, I am shooting through the plastic bag, but you can tell the Astro decal is a little different .

Thanks for the kit Gordy. Since I have a kit to go with the clone I built, I'm thinking of maybe going with a different color scheme also.