Miniature flags

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Aug 22, 2019
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Hello,

Have just finished building vintage Model Shipways kit of trawler Hildina from 1976 and just need to complete with a Red Ensign of size approx 15-20 x 30-40 mm. Brexit has not made things easier as it seems exhorbitantly expensive/complicated to order from UK shops. Any brilliant ideas whom to turn to please?
Kind regards,
Lasse
 
I'd love to find a way to print my own flags, so I could have a period flag on my Baltimore Clipper.
 
I download the flag that I need from the internet and load it into Powerpoint. After sizing it and creating a mirror image, I print it in color. Then I spray the image with several coats of clear enamel from a spray can to seal it. After carefully cutting out the image I fold it over the attachment string or cord, and glue the halves together with while glue. Voila! A flag. I usually make several copies of the flag to allow for mistakes.



Flag.jpg
 
That much I figured, but I wasn't sure how convincing it would be, just printed on paper. It certainly wouldn't drape like a flag.
I was hoping to find a way to print a flag on thin, translucent paper or silk so I'd only have to print one side and it would show from either side. Those materials would be 'way too flimsy to run through a printer but I did find reference to ironing fabric onto freezer paper and running it through the printer that way. I haven't tried it yet, since I'm a LONG way from needing those flags.

https://thegraphicsfairy.com/print-fabric-freezer-paper-method-2/
 
Airplane modelers used to use silk covered with butyrate dope for covering wings. I don't know if you can get fine silk like that any more, but it would be perfect for flags. You might try Tower hobbies. Then you would have to draw the details, probably with colored inks.
 
TheDonMI has it right. The method of printing a flag from power point...sealing it together...coating with poly...works great...I have done this as well. One secret is to "curl" the paper flag..either by hand or by gently scraping it across a rounded straight edge to curl the paper into a drape. Once curled into a drape form one would not readily tell it was actually printed paper. I have tried and I do not know of any paper, even silk span, that one could print on that would "show" through the opposite side. No matter what you use to print...you will likely need to print a reverse image as shown above and seal them together. No worries...when done carefully it will look fine.
 
Hello,

Have just finished building vintage Model Shipways kit of trawler Hildina from 1976 and just need to complete with a Red Ensign of size approx 15-20 x 30-40 mm. Brexit has not made things easier as it seems exhorbitantly expensive/complicated to order from UK shops. Any brilliant ideas whom to turn to please?
Kind regards,
Lasse
Try this: Get a flag image from the web or scan a picture. Size it with any image processing software to your required size eg 20x10mm
Print it on a colour printer. Take a cigarette paper and place it over the print-out image. Tape it down keeping the tape clear of the printed image.
Run the sheet throught the printer again to get the flag printed on the cigarette paper. Voila! The printer ink goes through the cig paper and gives a very nice slightly faded flag which can be bent to a suitable shape. Flags bigger than a cig paper need tissue of some kind - I haven't needed to try that yet so good luck and let us know if you find a good fine tissue. Maybe fine silk will work also.
 
I download the flag that I need from the internet and load it into Powerpoint. After sizing it and creating a mirror image, I print it in color. Then I spray the image with several coats of clear enamel from a spray can to seal it. After carefully cutting out the image I fold it over the attachment string or cord, and glue the halves together with while glue. Voila! A flag. I usually make several copies of the flag to allow for mistakes.



View attachment 221949
 
Try this: Get a flag image from the web or scan a picture. Size it with any image processing software to your required size eg 20x10mm
Print it on a colour printer. Take a cigarette paper and place it over the print-out image. Tape it down keeping the tape clear of the printed image.
Run the sheet throught the printer again to get the flag printed on the cigarette paper. Voila! The printer ink goes through the cig paper and gives a very nice slightly faded flag which can be bent to a suitable shape. Flags bigger than a cig paper need tissue of some kind - I haven't needed to try that yet so good luck and let us know if you find a good fine tissue. Maybe fine silk will work also.
Thanks, I will try your suggestion!
 
Try this: Get a flag image from the web or scan a picture. Size it with any image processing software to your required size eg 20x10mm
Print it on a colour printer. Take a cigarette paper and place it over the print-out image. Tape it down keeping the tape clear of the printed image.
Run the sheet throught the printer again to get the flag printed on the cigarette paper. Voila! The printer ink goes through the cig paper and gives a very nice slightly faded flag which can be bent to a suitable shape. Flags bigger than a cig paper need tissue of some kind - I haven't needed to try that yet so good luck and let us know if you find a good fine tissue. Maybe fine silk will work also.
Thanks for the information. I have achieved good results with pretreated Japanese paper (in German?), But in direct one-off printing.
 
Thanks, I will try your suggestion!
Try asking for silkspan which comes in two strengths at your hobby store, which is used for airplane frame coverings. You would want the light strength to try.
Just an idea which I initially asked about but did not purchase any of the material. Rich
 
Hello,

Have just finished building vintage Model Shipways kit of trawler Hildina from 1976 and just need to complete with a Red Ensign of size approx 15-20 x 30-40 mm. Brexit has not made things easier as it seems exhorbitantly expensive/complicated to order from UK shops. Any brilliant ideas whom to turn to please?
Kind regards,
Lasse
Hallo Lasse, alias @Lasse Wilhelm
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
Did you find a proper solution for your needed red ensign?
 
Hallo Lasse, alias @Lasse Wilhelm
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
Did you find a proper solution for your needed red ensign?
Thank you!
I found somewhere in the net a guy called Hans Blissenbach whom I e-mailed and after about a month of total silence an envelope appeared in my mailbox with the required flag together with an invoice of EUR 2!
Voila!
 
Thank you!
I found somewhere in the net a guy called Hans Blissenbach whom I e-mailed and after about a month of total silence an envelope appeared in my mailbox with the required flag together with an invoice of EUR 2!
Voila!
Great news - so we should remember the name Hans Blissenbach

and his web-page Exclamation-Mark


here the catalog in english

Unbenannt.JPG

 
Hello,

Have just finished building vintage Model Shipways kit of trawler Hildina from 1976 and just need to complete with a Red Ensign of size approx 15-20 x 30-40 mm. Brexit has not made things easier as it seems exhorbitantly expensive/complicated to order from UK shops. Any brilliant ideas whom to turn to please?
Kind regards,
Lasse
Hallo Lasse alias @Lasse Wilhelm
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
Happy birthday from me too. I hope you are well and your problem with the flag is solved.
 
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