I’m getting ready to put the flags on my Snowberry and I was wanting to give them a little bit of a wavy, in the wind, look. I was wondering if anyone had any good tips on how to do this. I was considering making a little jig to do this but it seemed impractical to try to do this after the flags are installed. Should I be “pre-waving” them? Any help on this would be very appreciated. Thanks.
Are the flags decals? If they are, try this method:
Paint a piece of aluminum foil the base color of the flag (white in this case), and fold the decal lag over the aluminum foil. Touch the edges of the decal with clear flat to seal it against the foil, then trim it to the size (and shape) of the flag. Before it’s completely dry, furl the flag to the shape you want. The foil will retain the shape, and the decals are just along for the ride. It also makes them a bit more resilient to aging.
If they’re not decals, I’d try soaking them in a thinned white glue and water mix, or spraying them with hairspray and molding them into shape.
Jeff
I guess it depends primarily on the material you’re using to make the flags. If we’re talking about the 1/72 Matchbox/Revell Snowberry kit, my recommendation is to make them out of paper. I like thin drafting vellum, with the design painted in acrylics (such as PolyScale). Leave a little extra material at the hoist edge, to be folded over the flag halyard and glued (with white glue).
I do recommend putting the “ripples” in the flag in advance. Making the ripples look realistic isn’t quite as easy as it seems. Here’s a trick. Pick a breezy but not really windy day and take your camera, with high-speed film (or, if digital, a high ISO setting) to the nearest good-sized flagpole. (Try schools and car dealerships.) Spend half an hour snapping pictures of the flag as it ripples into various configurations. Then pick the picture you like best, and shape your miniature flag to match.
Hope this helps a little. Good luck. Flags can make or break a model.
thanks for the great info. the flags that came with the model are made of paper, not decals but i think that i will try the foil method with them anyway.
What about flags for the realllllyyyyyyyyyyy small ships, like 1/700? It was all I could do to fold the flag decal around a piece of thinly streteched sprue and get it to line up. Fortunately it was a Gold Medal Model decal that had a wavy look to it, but I wonder, is there any good way to make small, custom flags other than the agonizing custom decal route?
I would have liked some signal flags for my 1/700 Perry class frigate, but was not able to find any, and am not feeling confident enough right now with my 100 year old inkjet printer to try and make any.