Re: Decals

"Thomas.Barclay" wrote:
> 
> For a first sheet of names/numbers, do the standard classes
> ...

Most of which I've got, with the exception noted

"Bell, Brian K" wrote:
> 
> I would suggest CH for Heavy Cruiser because I have seen CA also be
used for
> Fleet Auxiliary Cruisers. Same thing for Heavy (Attack) Carriers CVH.

Since I've got six extra slots left in the sheet, perhaps I'll just add
six CA's
to the mix...

> That should cover most ship types.
> 
> Do abbreviation with a dash (as in "CVA-") and do the numbers (1-12)
in the
> same font and colour separate.

Actually I figured that having the numbers attached "CVA-1" rather than
"CVA-"
and "1" would be easier in most circumstances (with so called "standard"
fleets)
and no more difficult for people who needed different numbers.

Tht's what I woudl prefer in a decal set, but you're the second person
to ask
for the letters seperate from the numbers.  What's the general list
concensus on
the issue?
 
> Do a sheet of these in one font for each navy.

Other than some specialty fonts for Star Trek, I haven't found anything
really
interesting and different for the four GZG nations.  Currently, they're
in Ariel
Bold.
 
> These provide the "basemarking" most of us are forced to paint on...

That's the plan!
 
> If you want to do a sheet of names (quadranted) then use historical
names
> from FB/FT/MT and others from actual naval history. If I'm not
mistaken
> though, some navies use just numeric designations (NAC would have RNS
Royal
> Sovereign whereas ESU might have KV-144 (I don't know ESU designators,
but
> someone on the list will)and the germans might us KRS Graf Spee). Find
out
> what the typical format for each nation is, and try to do names of
general
> use. I think you'll want to really to a separate page for each
nationality
> to give a good variety of names.

Perhaps a seperate page would be better, especially given the suggestoin
that I
provide 2-4 copies of each name for redundancy.

How about a sheet full of names in the following format (4 copies of
each)

CVA-103 Ark Royal

...or maybe the following would be more appropriate:

RNS-1045 Ark Royal

Since that leaves out the difficulty of finding specific codes for the
ship
class...

> Now, for "onship" decals, national logos are good. So too is the hull
art
> idea (keep in mind the different ship shapes). 

Actually, the noseart was designed more for battlemechs and 1/300
planes. 
There's no reason it couldn't be on the side of a starship though...

> And the aforementioned ship names, if you can get them in a small
enough font. 

I'm planning on something very similar to what Tangents offers for their
B5
decal set, but with more to choose from...

> One of the downsides is few GZG ships give you an area to put a long
thin 
> decal on without too much hull detail to cause problems.... Jon likes
to 
> contour his ships...

Very true.  I'll see how small I can get readable text to print. 
Perhaps I can
find something that will fit and still be legible.

Tom

--
Thomas Pope
Human Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope