Youv'e got me on that one mate. I have no idea. They were tested quite a bit bfore they went on sale.
Leave it with me for for an hour or two and I will get back to you.

Jason

Jason
Thanks for checking this out for all of us that have these new decals. Did anything transpire over night to resolve the problem?
Bill

Not a great deal of progress with mine.. brown base coat on.. its a little too BROWN! though... I used straight Vallejo 70874 USA Tan Earth..





Sam

Hi guys. While I'm holding off on decals due to problems the turret build has been completed. There was a few modifications that had to be made to the turret to build it as per photo. The comanders MAG 58 and swing arm have been blue tacked to avoid damage during the masking job.



One of the first mods was to cut the face out of an ammo can and glue in a piece of clear plastic. I think on the real thing this holds a camera?



Another mod was to make a spotlight and attach it to the gun mantlet. I used an Italeri Staghound headlight and styrene rod sanded in an elipticle shape.



I also had to add a third wire cutter to the rear of the turret.



Other than the rear stowage basket being removed and a smaller bin added the rest of the turret was built as per instructions.





It's time for prime and paint.I'll post images of the painted turret and car commander as soon as I can. Cheers, Jeff.

Hi Sam. The first coat looks good but I see what you mean it looks a little too brown. I did a test shot on an old Italeri LAV 25 using 3 parts Valejo MC USA Tan Earth and 1 part Valejo MC Flat Flesh and found it was the best match to my eye for the tan camo. I didn't use it because I was having real problems spraying with Valejo. Looking forward to seeing the other colors on. Cheers, Jeff.

Well I have tested the decals again on acrylic and on enamel clear gloss. No problem here at all I'm afraid. So you've got me on the reason why they are lifting Jeff? Sorry mate no idea.
The "CAUTION LEFT HAND DRIVE" marking on the rear of my car was from the same decal sheet you have used but the rest were Echelon.

Your car is coming along very well. A coulpe of things but, the (ACM) smokies are cast with the smoke grenade allready mounted. All ASLAV's in the MEAO have the grenades loaded.
The video camera box looks good, allthough it should be a 7.62mm liner.
As for your cam job, look good. The colors are fine.

Coming along nicely Sam. I wouldn't be to worried about the sand color being to dark. Once you start to mank it up the sand will look better I'm sure with a fair coat of dust.


Cheers Jason

Jason, thanks for looking into the decals. I have enough decals to try once more so hoprfully I can get them to sit. Cheers, Jeff.

Jeffrey
My offer still stands, I'll send you the set I have and you can replace when you order more stuff from down under. I would only hope is that mine won't do the same thing as yours did!
It is this set correct?

Regards
Bill

Hi Bill. Yes, that is the decal sheet I have. That is really stand up of you to offer your sheet up, I appreciate it. I have enough letters left to spell SCORPION KING twice so I'm gonna give it the old college try one more time. If that fails I will let you know.

Wayne and Jaymes, you asked about the masking I did. Here is some photos of the camo being applied to the turret:
Step 1- I roll out a long tubular piece of blue tac and cut a long strip of shop towel.


Step 2- I apply the blue tac to the desired camo pattern and press into the model.



Step 3- I apply the shop towel to the edge of the blue tac ensuring I leave some of the blue tac visible. The second photo shows the 8x11 sheet paper I use to help prevent overspray.



Step 4- I airbrush my camo color and immediately remove the shop towel and blue tac. Any little imperfections can be touched up with a small brush.



And anyone wondering if I did the front right turret camo wrong that is exactly how it looks on the real thing even though it looks odd. A few more photos of the car commander in his turret ( he's not quite finished yet ) and the turret on the hull. It finally seems to be coming together.

Sorry, the end of my last post wigged out and wouldn't let me insert any more photos. I don't know what happened. I can be a tool on the computer at times, anyway here's the photos I mentioned.





See you soon. Cheers, Jeff.

the blanking plates over the vision ports should be done on all vehicles here in oz now. i know most of them were done at the same time as the spall liners when i was still playing with the aslavs

Well Bill, this update is for you. I wrestled with the decals for about 5 hours to get them on using a technique I read in The Last Post from Model Military International issue #16 Augast, 2007. They suggested after taking the decal out of the water to dab all of the water off with a moist cloth then dip the decal into a cup of Future floor polish, take the excess future off the decal and apply on the model to an area that has been brushed with future while the decal is soaking. I did this and managed to get the decals on the model but I am not convinced they will stay, they just don't look right to me. I guess time will tell. Here is a few photos so you can see for yourself. Cheers, Jeff.

Lookin real nice
Just finish the build on mine
I am going to try and get some paint on this weekend

Jeffrey
They are on now, once the Future dries there is no going back. There doesn't seem to be any silvering, perhaps they will look better once the flat is on. Decals shouldn't be that much trouble, lets hope your problem doesn't reflect the whole batch of those decals. I'm sure you noticed the numbers on the rear door above the spare tire are hanging in the air, not much room there for the size of decals.
What's next? It'll be nice to see all the components together. I must say I'm enjoying your new found success with the photography of your model, congratulations on sticking to it.
Regards
Bill

been following with much interest. splendid work!

Hi guys. Thanks Wayne, Bill and Matan for your comments. I worked a few overtime shifts this month so decided I would pick up a portable photo studio with lighting and camera tripod. The turret camo paint is complete and it is filter coated and the car commander is painted and filter coated so I thought it would be interesting to experiment with the new photography gear on these items. I'm shooting with fluorescent lighting as opposed to halogen lighting so had to adjust the camera settings and fiddle with them as I was shooting.







I'm not quite sure whether these photos look much better than the way I was shooting them before. Maybe softer bulbs are required and different camera settings. The pursuit of better quality photography is keeping me as busy as the modelling itself but you are right Bill, it makes a world of difference.











See you soon. Cheers, Jeff.

Jeffrey
Can you show us a picture of your camera studio set up? I think perhaps that your lights need to be covered in tissue or filter mylar that will dfifuse the light and stop the hard reflections on the gloss surface of your model. On the turret pictures you can see the blue fabric in focus in front of the turret and then stops near the rear side of the turret, depth of field. You may want to increase the DOF which will mean increasing your speed, good job you have that tripod.
Both of your projects are coming along (photography and the ASLAV) I am happy you continue to experiement.
Regards
Bill

Bill, I did some adjustments. What do you think of this shot? I have to leave for work now but will post a photo of the gear tomorrow. Please explain to me how to adjust the speed as I can find no depth of field setting on my camera. Cheers, Jeff.

Jeffrey
Depth of field means the area in any given photograph that will be in focus. There is no depth of field adjustment on any camera but rather a combination of f stops or aperture adjustment that makes the lens on your camera behave in a certain way. Here is some reading for you when you get home.
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Depthoffield-explained-4631
I realize that you have a point and shoot camera but you can (or should be able to) turn off all auto functions and adjust (or set) manual functions like speed of exposure and f stop. Like this article says as well you can assign various combination settings to help control things that are important to your particular subject, in your case aperture priority. Try to find the aperture settings in your camera and set it to f16-f22 if you lens has these or the largest number available.
A good test as you adjust the various f stops is to line up all your LAV's in a long row then focus on the centre one. Take a sequence of pictures and change the f stop manually (start at the largest number and go to the smallest) each time you take the picture, you'll soon see the power of depth of field.
This new picture looks very good but it is so small I can't tell is the wire cutter and the figure is in focus. All your pictures of late are a quantum leap from the first ones and all of them do what you want them to do.
Regards
Bill

Hi Bill, I have some photos posted now of the little portable photo studio I purchased. The first two pics are the lights off and then on.





As you can see it is fully encased except for the face and the side panels do diffuse the light. There is a 15 Watt compact fluorescent bulb in each side housing in a fixed position which isn't a problem as I can move the subject if need be.





As you saw from the last posted photos even with the diffuser panels it gives to much light causing a glare and shadows underneath the model. So I put a box under the bottom of the blue screen to raise the model even to the level of the lights and I also placed a 8"x11" sheet of printer paper along the diffuser panel on each side of the housing to further soften the light which helped some but not enough.





Could the solution be to find a lower wattage and softer fluorescent bulb set if available or maybe use the Ott light bulbs you mentioned earlier in the thread? I would like to keep the studio I bought because returning it and upgrading would cost another $80.00 or more. Appreciate any input you have Bill. Cheers, Jeff.

Jeff
I think this is a great little set up, all you need until you start doing tank transporters. I'd try adjusting your white balance and set it to fluorescent to see if it warms the pictures up. The only thing that seems to be an issue is the glare and if you had an SLR digital I'd suggest a polarizing filter but that doesn't help you. You might have to experiment with some low cost gelatin filters from a photo store, they don't cost much for the size you need OR try diffusing your light by trying tissue paper directly in front of the bulb, looks like your set up uses filters.
Here's what I did post production.


Is this any better in your eyes?
Bill

Almost ready to paint
Got a quick couple of ??
Anyone have a detailed photo of the blast bag (canvas cover?)as it may be called behind the mantle
And what is the post attached to the mantle? is it phase II or Phase III

Wayne
Question one.
Is this what you're looking for?

Regards
Bill

Yes
Thanks
Is that common on all Phase II/ III ie. Trump kit OOTB?

Wayne
I couldn't tell you honestly. One of our Aussie friends will have to pipe up.
Sorry
Bill