Custom decal questions

[Monty]

A couple months ago I finally got my last holy grail kit when Round2 repopped the old AMT Mach Won '70 Mustang funny car.   I was elated until I opened the box and found that the original decal designs were no longer included.  I had planned to build the kit as a box art replica of the original design just to do an updated version of what I built as a kid,

https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/1217/17/amt-1970-ford-mustang-mach-won-funny_1_99930f145fd567a19a043f4d77ad1741.jpg

but the current decals are entirely different so that won't be possible at all. 

Given that, I wondered if a) I could have a decal specialist make a complete set of the originals for me, b) If doing so would be a copyright issue, and c) who actually does this kind of work?

TIA for all helpful answers

[Dave Van]

The link is not working.

That said there are folks that will create artwork for any decal you want. $$$ is the only factor.

Printing is another factor, many artist do not have the ability to print decals. Indycals does a great job custom printing FROM ARTWORK that is complete. 

Q is are you willing to pay for art and printing??

thx

[Monty]

That's weird about the link.  Works for me, but I had to go through several pictures before I found one that worked in the post.

TBH, I'm not in a position to spend Pentagon money on something like decals.  Anybody have a realistic $ estimate for what I'm trying to get?

[stavanzer]

Decals from Original Mach Won.

[robdebie]

THe good news is that a newly made custom decal sheet will look 10x better than the original decal sheet, I'm sure of that! Here's a sheet that I designed recently, and was printed by Spotmodel:

I do custom decal assignments too, a few every year. Here's a page about that service:

https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/customdecals.htm

It has six examples of decal projects, that hopefully make clear why drawing decal art takes considerable time. It's like Dave Van asked: "Q is are you willing to pay for art and printing??"..

Rob

Edited August 1, 2024 by robdebie

[Michael jones]

On 8/2/2024 at 12:19 AM, robdebie said:

THe good news is that a newly made custom decal sheet will look 10x better than the original decal sheet, I'm sure of that! Here's a sheet that I designed recently, and was printed by Spotmodel:

I do custom decal assignments too, a few every year. Here's a page about that service:

https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/customdecals.htm

It has six examples of decal projects, that hopefully make clear why drawing decal art takes considerable time. It's like Dave Van asked: "Q is are you willing to pay for art and printing??"..

Rob

Awesome work! BTW I have designed and printed a couple of sheets at spotmodel. The colours are very bright and vibrant which I love. The downside is you cant use decal softeners and they dont stick very well sometimes. I used some future to make them stick better. Did you have any secrets that I may not know about for them? I may try another company next time.

[robdebie]

On 8/4/2024 at 10:14 AM, Michael jones said:

The colours are very bright and vibrant which I love. The downside is you cant use decal softeners and they dont stick very well sometimes. I used some future to make them stick better. Did you have any secrets that I may not know about for them?

I have exactly the same experience. I always use Future under the decals, although I recently started using Tamiya decal adhesive. The edges of the clear film curl up a bit, and need coaxing down, usually with a little bit more Future. But other than that, I would give them the same note as the average silkscreen printed kit decal sheet. I'm happy with them.

Here's another model done with SpotModel decals, the 1976 F-16 model by Revell.

Rob