The final step in this build was to print up some custom decals. I used Bare-Metal Foil‘s decal film. This product is a clear film that can be printed on with a laser printer. They’ve a number of variations with different colours and laser printing options all available. It was simply a matter of creating some images and then finding a high enough quality printer to print them out. At this scale even the huge markings on these planes are still only 2-3mm across so you need a good printer. I printed the following image, note the three different copies. I ended up using one and a half.The instructions recommended spraying some Microscale Liquid Decal film. I was feeling lazy and so I didn’t get the airbrush out and just painted it on with a thick soft brush. With hindsight this was a bit if an error; the liquid film is meant to protect what you’ve printed and there were a couple of spots where there wasn’t enough protection and detail was rubbed off. Once the liquid film has dried it’s simply a matter of applying them like any other decal. I found that a couple of brushes of MicroSol were required to tone down the edges and they’re still there. However it was this step where I started to brush off the detail so they’ll have to stay as they are.

All that said, however, I’m stoked with the results. These pictures are ridiculously magnified, and they still come up pretty well. In the flesh this is a pretty solid little replica.Here is the Wedgetail next to my earlier JSTARS project. I think it will be a little while before I’m making another AEW&C plane. These two have been a lot of fun and I’m quite happy with how they’ve turned out.