My son wants to repaint and decal a HO Con-Cor semi as a gift for me. My father was a truck driver and my son wants to match Grandpa's truck. We need some advice. We have not attempted this type of project before. My son is a graphic artist so I believe he can do a great job if we know the appropriate approach...
The Con-Cor truck has green painted lettering on the side of the silver trailer & white tractor cab. The white cab and silver trailer are the correct colors so we would like to retain that color. It looks to be very difficult to disassemble the truck for painting without breaking the fine parts.
Could he simply apply matching white paint with a fine brush over the green lettering on the cab? No decals will be added to the cab.
Can he simply paint over the green lettering on the silver trailer? Should be relatively easy to tape over the trailer base and wheels to painting could be by brush or spray paint.
My son will create decals for the trailer. Any tips on the best decal material and printer ink for the decal?
What is the recommended method for applying the decal?
Thank you for any and all assistance!
I've applied a lot of decals over the years, and more recently I've printed a number of my own.
There are many companies out there making decals, so look first to see of the company name and logo you want are already available. If not, you can print your own. Remember, though, that home computer printers are designed to print on white paper, so they don't actually "print" white. They just leave it blank. Light colors are typically lighter than you might want for the same reason. However, you can get very good results by painting a white background on your model and applying the decal over that.
Laser printers use laser paper, and inkjet printers use inkjet paper. Make sure you have the right stuff or it won't work. I bought my last batch of decal paper online from decalpaper dot com. Inkjet decals need to be sealed to protect the ink. I use a Krylon clear spray from a rattle can. Your model is best sprayed with a glossy clear spray before application, and again with a spray coat after the decal is dry.
I use Microsoft and Microsoft solutions to get a good, conforming set to decals.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thanks Mister Beasley! Great information as always! I think I will spring for new unpainted tractor and trailer which should simplify things greatly for my son...