Preparation for Reproduction of Vintage Decals

[sundevil67]

What is the best way to preserve a vintage decal sheet just in case I need to have them reproduced at some point? Anyone have a preferred method they've tried successfully? I am getting close to attempting to paint one of my bodies with a decal sheet containing several specific decals that are almost certainly irreplaceable, since the exact kit is so rare (Kyosho Plazma Limited α-2). I wouldn't do the actual decal creation/reproduction myself, but I want to scan them & make sure I prepare the digital file properly in advance, just in case I goof up the body prep or just want to produce a spare. I have a few other really rare kits in my collection for which I will wind up in the same situation (if I ever get around to building them), so I’m interested in opinions on the best process.

Thanks!

[tamiya]

Got a flatbed scanner?

Do a hires 600-1200dpi colour scan, as straight as you can.

In the old daze we'd add in a ruler or 2 for dimensions reference and maybe some spot colour dots; nowadays scanners are pretty accurate first shot. But just in case, scan it one way then turn 90deg and scan that too - to confirm X=Y axes.

Now save that huge file (non lossy RAW best) safely!
CD-R/DVDR dyes don't last forever, flash memory & SSDs can get Altzeimers, hard disks can crash...

[sundevil67]

Thanks! So I'm assuming you mean a PSD file when you say 'raw', or do you mean a .tif with no compression? PSD is probably the safe bet I'd imagine...

That's the easy part I suppose...I do have an old flatbed scanner I can dig out. Do you have any recommendations for someone to takes it to the next step and actually comes out with some good looking decals? I've seen near-perfect reproductions and some really crappy stuff out there...I'm virtually guaranteed to screw up at least some of them during the application. Thanks for the help!

[tamiyadan]

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[tamiya]

That's the easy part I suppose...I do have an old flatbed scanner I can dig out. Do you have any recommendations for someone to takes it to the next step and actually comes out with some good looking decals?

(heh! nah won't mention the B&W furball from 10y ago )

In an ideal world your "bitmap" scan would need to be manually traced into "vector" format, to get the ultimate scalability & sharpness. More importantly if your existing decals are on a white or coloured backing paper, your scanner wouldn't know to differentiate between backing colour & "clear" or white areas.

A straight clean hires scan helps better tracing, additional checks on dimensions & colour is nice... but worst case, it's not impossible to recreate 2D artwork even after it's been stuck onto a World Champs winning car, driven thru a race meet & survived the media/display thereafter... and all we have to work off are grainy snapshots from 20yo magazines.

Once traced, ideally artwork would be optimised for intended output device.

One other consideration is... dyes & pigments can fade or change colour over 25-30yrs, even if decals have been hidden in the dark kitbox. Oil fumes & gassing off from plastic/rubber can also affect. So do you reprint them exactly like how they look today? Or do you pump up their brilliance back to "how you remembered them BiTD"... haha some of those fluoro 1980s schemes were psychedelic to the max.

[TomEG]

I'm sure Nathaneal Ellis of http://mciracing.ca/ can help you, once you have done a scan.

[RedAggie03]

I'm sure Nathaneal Ellis of http://mciracing.ca/ can help you, once you have done a scan.

WOW! Thanks, I've been looking for these!!

[yellowdatsun]

Nathan at MCI makes escellent decals, and can custom order what you want.