How do i resize a decal sheet to make them larger?

[clancampbell]

Basically i want to resize some USS Reliant decals from 1:537 to 1:350.......i've tried doing it in Paint, but they turned out quite pixelated and it was more guess work than anything.....i'm not even sure what percentage the increase in size is......

Also, the background needs to be transparent, as the original decals are on a blue backing sheet....i asked Jeff at JT graphics if it was ok for me to try this with his superb decals, he said it was fine.

It sounds as though this should be fairly simple, but it's turning out to be a real headache....

Rich

 

[Propsjonnyb]

Ok you'll need some deskjet or laser printer Decal paper ( from and art store or print suppliers) (( assuming you have a printer)) it's available in white or transparent , as you say you want transparent, so you also need a scanner or a photocopyer, and a layout mask from any art store ( the mask stops the pixellation as you scale up) and a scale rule.

you don't need any special software , scan the image using the mask, so you get the image in your PC , measure the scale , to determine the final size of your print , calculate the % increase if you can't do this , then you can experiment with half and quarter and one eighth increases when you print out using you' re PC's print facility - do a few test print's on plain paper first, to check the size is what you want , then load you decal paper and off you go , you may also want to buy some Decal fixing spray at the art store as well , this will make it easier to get the decal off the paper and onto what ever it is you want to put it on.

 

[mslz22]

I think sizing would be the least of the challenges, getting rid of the blue background with a program like paint will take a long time, mostly cleaning up the edges of the decals. And then i would imaging that any pixels would become more apparent as you increase the size. A freeware program like paint.net may do a better job of getting rid of the background but still may need a lot of touch ups, and if you are not familiar with the program you will need to learn about layers etc. Have you asked JT graphics if they would be willing to size up the decals for you since they have the correct graphics file to begin with? May save a lot of headaches.

If you are set on doing it yourself you may actually consider painting a sheet of white styrene with gloss clear, transferring the decals to that sheet styrene, flat coating it, then scanning the transferred decals with the new white background.

 

[Cadeus]

if you want to up-scale from 1/537 to 1/350? Take 537 and divide it by 350... you will come up with 1.53... move the decimal over two places and, wallah! your new scale is 153% that of the original. So you would need to enlarge the image by 53%. And be sure to do some research on decal solutions. Once you have it printed on the decal paper, you can apply a over-coat to help strengthen the "decals"... I can't remember the name of it, though.

 

[Albertese]

...

Once you have it printed on the decal paper, you can apply a over-coat to help strengthen the "decals"... I can't remember the name of it, though.

I believe it's called ...."lacquer"... or at least every time I've used such sprays, they smelt just exactly the same as lacquer...

--Alex

 

[Cadeus]

I meant something like this:

microscale seems to be a popular product. I cannot endorse them, though. I have never used their products.

 

[clancampbell]

Many thanks for the help guys! My son uses Photoshop and said something about layers and being able to make the blue background a layer and choose an option to make it transparent.....as i don't have PS, i'll have to take his word for it!

Rich