1967 Mario Andretti Daytona 500 winner

[MarkJ]

9 minutes ago, presnell said:

Mark as usual it is looking VERY GOOD!

Thanks for dropping by, Jim to share such a very fine comment. I really appreciate it.

[MarkJ]

Sneak peek. This was before the exhaust were painted. all I lack at this moment is one headlight cover which I lost and had to make a new one and the gas cap. After that I shall begin decaling. 

[Kevinjr26]

Very nice! can't wait to see it decaled so much i have a 1965 galaxy my first ever Darkside build on my desk!

[MarkJ]

4 hours ago, Kevinjr26 said:

Very nice! can't wait to see it decaled so much i have a 1965 galaxy my first ever Darkside build on my desk!

Thanks, Kevin. I'm looking forward to following the wip on your Galaxy.

[MarkJ]

Started putting the white inlays down so I can use my inkjet decals on the model. I thought I had cleared the sheets but found out quickly when I tried to do a color decal on a white inlay and the ink dissolved in the decal water. It's weird but the white laser decals don't have to be cleared but they are so thin it's a good idea to clear them as well. I had a lot of trouble doing the white inlays before I found out I had not cleared them either. Things should go more smoothly tomorrow.

[MarkJ]

I thought I had put all the white inlays down, but I still have a tiny hm decal that goes on the trunk and looking at these photos reminds me that I haven't finished the wheels yet. When the color decals are layed down the decals will appear much smaller.  I breathed a sigh of relief after applying those contingency whites on the front fenders. That was very tedious work, and I did not have much back up decals left if I made a mistake and surely did not want to print anymore sheets.

[Pierre Rivard]

This build is coming off splendidly Mark. I circled back and read the posts about creating your artwork for decals. Very informative... and lots of work for sure. A beautiful replica of a very special car  in the making

[MarkJ]

35 minutes ago, Pierre Rivard said:

This build is coming off splendidly Mark. I circled back and read the posts about creating your artwork for decals. Very informative... and lots of work for sure. A beautiful replica of a very special car  in the making

Thank you so much, Pierre for stopping by and weighing in on the build. It's been such a long time since I applied these decals that I kind of had to relearn how to do it, so I messed up all of one decal but had just enough to get that decal applied to both sides of the build. I usually have a lot left over so I'm glad I always make extra ones. Ink or in this case whatever laser decals are made of is cheap, but decal paper is not. The color ink jet decals should be a lot easier to apply. I could not find a good aftermarket sheet for this build so I was glad I could create my own. I hope you are still interested in making your own. Its really not that hard once you figure it out. A lot of trial and error goes into it learning the graphics program. Luckily mine is very old and pretty easy to learn.

[BK9300]

Mark, always a tremendous amount of research and design goes into your decaling - quite a process!  With your white inlays, do you ever have movement in them when you’re applying coloured decals over top of them, especially if any decal set solution is needed?  

[MarkJ]

4 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Mark, always a tremendous amount of research and design goes into your decaling - quite a process!  With your white inlays, do you ever have movement in them when you’re applying coloured decals over top of them, especially if any decal set solution is needed?  

Thanks, Brian for your interest in the build. The answer to your question is no. The white inlays are solid as a rock if you do all of them first and wait 24 hours to start doing the color. You just have to make sure you get the color ones lined up on top of the white exactly and you can tell when that happens because the decal suddenly appears clear as a bell when you achieve it instead of looking like you have double vision. It's a little tricky but if you put a little dish washing detergent in the decal water it makes them move easily and it's a good idea to use a toothpick to move the color into place over the white one instead of your finger that can actually have the decal adhere to your finger instead of the surface decal you're trying to get it to adhere to. Thanks again for joining in the discussion.