More Decal Woes (Lifelike 48029 Fokker D-VII Part 3)

[skeeterbuck]

I recently purchased a set of Lifelike Decals to do Fritz Friedrich's plane. I believe that the set Lifelike produces is the most accurate made for his plane. I'm now at the stage to start applying some of the decals and as the lower wing's lozenge is complete, I decided to start there. Luckily I just cut out the cross decals before soaking them in water. I laid them on the wing to get an idea where they should go when I discovered they were too big. 
The lower wing chord on a 1/48 scale Fokker D-VII should be 25 cm. The decals are about 27-28 cm. Upon checking the other decals in the set I was able to determine that all the lower wing crosses in the set are too large. All the other decals seem to be sized correctly. I'll be sending an email to Lifelike and hopefully they are aware of the problem and have replacement decals of the correct size. The really disheartening thing is that I've already have the upper wing painted in the light yellow that his plane used. 

Sometime scale modeling when trying to get it as correct as you can really sucks! 

Chuck

[ondra]

Hi Chuck,

sorry to hear of your problems.

In case you do not solve the problem with Lifelike, send me a PM. I have a plotter and making masks of the correct size will be no problem.

Cheers

Ondra

[skeeterbuck]

Thanks Ondra for the offer. I'll let you know after I hear back hopefully from Lifelike.

Chuck

[skeeterbuck]

Well... I contacted Lifelike Decals in Japan via email and they replied that they were not aware of the sizing error for the underwing crosses.

Since they have no replacement decals to send me, I just decided to trim off the green/gray outline on two opposite ends and they apply them as is. They look rather good overall.

Life's too short to sweat the details too much. In the end it's just a plastic model. 

Chuck

[Juan]

That's a shame Chuck, your solution/outlook is inspiring.

[RAGIII]

I am trying to figure out why this cross change would have a grey outline in the first place. The wider cross configuration used the widest point of the white Iron Cross as the benchmark to make a straight white outlines. If this were the later more correct dimensioned crosses I would say yes frey outlines. Just a thought, what do you think?
RAGIII

PS: Or if any grey probably just at the widest point of the crosses?

[skeeterbuck]

Rich, I'm not sure exactly the point you're trying to get across. 

From my understanding, the original black and white of the Balkenkreuz was the full size including the area underneath the greenish gray outline. When the orders from above came down to reduce the area of the cross, the greenish gray color was applied to comply with the new directive to reducing the area of the black and white portion to the new specified dimensions.

I hope this somewhat makes sense. 

P.S. I think the application here is for aircraft that started with the large Balkenkreuz, not ones that were converted from the Eisenkreuz. Here's an example of what I referring.

Chuck

[skeeterbuck]

A good news update.

I received an email from Lifelike Decals. They have confirmed the mistake that the lower wing crosses for the Friedrich's Fokker D-VII are indeed 2 mm too large. They informed me that they will be making a correction set of lower crosses as replacements and will send me a set. They estimate it will take about a month before they are ready.

Unfortunately as I stated earlier, I have just trimmed down the originals and used them as is. 

Oh well, you win some and you lose some. At the least they will be correct for others going forward. It's gratifying to see Lifelike Decals acknowledge they mistakes and work toward improving their products. 

Chuck

[Borsos]

I am trying to figure out why this cross change would have a grey outline in the first place. The wider cross configuration used the widest point of the white Iron Cross as the benchmark to make a straight white outlines. If this were the later more correct dimensioned crosses I would say yes frey outlines. Just a thought, what do you think?
RAGIII

PS: Or if any grey probably just at the widest point of the crosses?

It is really good to hear of the reaction of Lifelike decals. But besides of that I have to echoe Rick's lack of understanding where the grey outlines should have come from. If they would just have reduced existing Balkenkreuze to the propper dimensions, these new ones would have had to be much thinner. Maybe you are exactly on the right path to have cut off all the grey 
Borsos