I recently purchased Trumpeter’s 1/35 scale Modern US Soldiers Logistics Supply Team Figure set. I’m attempting to build a diorama around Trumpeter’s M1078 and these figures were perfect for what I wanted to do.
They come with a decal sheet which depicts the early desert camouflage from 2003. They are pretty cool. I have never attempted to use decals for a uniform and I was wondering if anybody out there has ever done this, either with this kit or with another kit.
I have not used full uniform decals for figures,but I have used insignia decals for my figures.As any decal a gloss serface is needed,and a good solvent which allows the decal to soften and cling to the small raised details on figures.For me this was important bacause of the small size of the figure.
Thanks for that piece of information. I was pretty sure that I would need to give the figures a gloss covering. I use SolvaSet with my decals. Is there anything better?
Frankly, sounds like more trouble than they’re worth, I’d just paint the camo on using the decals as a guide. I can’t see any way they’ll conform to the odd shape of a human figure much less the details like the wrinkles in the uniform etc.
Course that’s just my two cents, if you try them and they don’t work out you can always soak them back off.
Your probably right,it was tough to get the Verlinden insignia decals to conform,I think it would be a real struggle to try to decal a whole uniform pattern.
While I never used decals for the application you describe, I think it’s doable - decal solvent can make really strange things with decals. But then you’d probably have to cut said decal into small pieces, mimicking the way the cloth for the uniforms is cut. Making those decals join at the uniform seams would be the hard part. It might just be that learning to hand paint the pattern could be easier. But you won’t know that before you try - so I wish you good luck with your projects and please be sure to post some photos, preferably in this thread, so I don’t miss them. Thanks for reading and have a nice day
Good advice there Pawel, I didn’t really think about cutting them to fit better. You might also try putting the decals on before assembling the figure so you can reach places like under the arms better.
Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. I am going to try it out on one figure and do it in sections as suggested. While it would probably be easiest to apply the decals before assembly, I am going to assemble sub-units, then apply the decals. Think the legs and then the torso. I feel I may screw up a good decal job by an over-application of cement. I will post pictures as I progress in this thread.
Hey Jake, I’m looking forward to the photos. I guess I shouldn’t have dismissed the decals till I’ve actually used them, I’m crossing my fingers they work out well for you.
Here is the legs of one figure, painted with Tamiya bottle paints based on the recommendations of Tamiya which jibe with my memories of service in Iraq in 2003. The legs were then gloss coated to help with the decals.
Those pictures look nice, the results are really good.
Let me see, if I can hotlink to the puictures on FB:
Well, yes I can. The way to do it, is to get to the point, where you right click a picture on FB and from the pop-up menu you choose “Display picture” or so. Then, when only the picture shows, with no text, you mark the URL in the navigation box on top of the browser. Then you go to the edited message here on the foums and go “use rich formatting”. Then you click on the “insert image” icon and paste what you copied before. A little complicated - but it works. Hope it will work for you too - thanks for sharing and good luck with your projects, have a nice day
