Scanning decal sheets

[CWD]

Can anyone offer some advice on scanning aircraft model decals for use in sim skinning? My efforts have so far proven much less than satisfactory. I'm specifically having trouble with nose art, which turns into a blurred mess, as you can see in the attachment. I'm scanning with the quality settings quite high. Someone told me if the sheet isn't dot-printed, I need to set my scanner setting to "magazine" but my software seems to have no such setting.

[adlabs6]

Does the image look better than that on the decal sheet when viewed with a loupe? The image looks decently sharp, albeit with modest details, which makes me question the quality of the decal sheet itself.

Failing that, I can only suggest checking and make sure any "enhancement" functions (image smoothing, etc.) of the scanner software are disabled. This way you should have more raw data avaliable to work with in your paint program. Also, on my last scanner, I had better results when using the maximum optical resolution, instead of the max software interpolated resolution.

I've not worked regularly with scanners in some years now, sorry if my advice is out of date.

[CWD]

Does the image look better than that on the decal sheet when viewed with a loupe?

Begging your pardon, but the meaning of "loupe" eludes me.

The image looks decently sharp, albeit with modest details, which makes me question the quality of the decal sheet itself.

The decal sheet looks fine when simply eyeballed, far better than the scan does. Of course, it's a 1/72nd scale decal sheet (which, inexplicably to me, claims to be useable with 1/72 or 1/48 scale models ), so the decal is small.

Failing that, I can only suggest checking and make sure any "enhancement" functions (image smoothing, etc.) of the scanner software are disabled. This way you should have more raw data avaliable to work with in your paint program. Also, on my last scanner, I had better results when using the maximum optical resolution, instead of the max software interpolated resolution.

Not being very educated about these things myself, I just heard "Turn up all your settings." Can do. Thanks, anyone else with any advice will be appreciated as well.

[CWD]

Well, I just tried again, increasing resolution from 300 dpi to 800 dpi and turning JPEG compression down as low as it would go.

The scan is now large enough to choke my PC, but it still looks as craptastic as ever.

If it really is something wrong with the decal sheet itself, I hesitate to buy any more decals because for all I know they'll do the same thing.

[Hunhunter]

Ok, I guessing that if the decal is 1/72 scale, its gotta be pretty tiny right? If thats the case, what you see could very well be whats there....i.e. not much detail. Either that or its so tiny that the scanner is having trouble picking up the detail.

Best thing to do is to use what you have so far as a base and fill in the details yourself. Its not easy and can be time consuming but the effort you put in will be well worth it when you see the results

[CWD]

I don't have the skill to "fix" it myself. Not even close. Looks like I'll just have to give up on these, and maybe try 1/48 decals from now on?

[CWD]

I find it really hard to believe that's just how the decal "really" looks, though. If it were as bad as all that, I wouldn't think it would look good even in its tinty 1/72nd scale form.

[adlabs6]

Ah, sorry about that. I loupe is a small magnifier, like a photographer puts to his eye to examine the fine details of a negative or slide. I've got a couple, they come in magnifying powers such as 4X and 8X.

If you can magnify the decal, and see very presicely just what it looks like, that'll help alot in solving this. Just from past experience with 1/72nd decals, I'd figure that's all the detail that's really in there. A 1/48 would be better, as you mentioned.

BTW, are these from a kit, or separate decal sheets? I'm guessing separates...

[CWD]

Yep, seperate. It's a Cutting Edge sheet, for any modelers who may be here (not a modeler myself, but...).

I'll see about digging up a magnifying glass and examining it.

[Serval]

I'm afraight you have to make the best scan possible and from there start working with filters.

Neatimage is meant to remove noise from digital photo's, but it also claims to be good at these kind of jobs.

It is a freeware program for personal use. Some registered version can be used as Photoshop plugin.

http://www.neatimage.com/