Supply Unit Waterslide Transfer Decals
The start of a new year and the start of another segment of this project today; creating a set of Waterslide Transfer Decals for the Supply Unit and Coils, Aerial Tuning front panels of the 52-Set. And to add a little extra excitement to the task, I am working towards having these decals fully functioning Luminous Green as per the factory originals, The postwar rebuild replacements from 1966 were Luminous Yellow on the Supply Unit, using too small a font and installed in a very sloppy manner. The decals used on the Coils, Aerial Tuning were Non-Luminous, with white borders and adhesive in application.
There is an excellent photograph on Page 60 of the Operator’s Manual for the 52-Set, Fig. 17 Supply Unit Front View, that shows what the factory original decals looked like and how they were placed. The problem with this photo is it is too small to work with for establishing the original dimensions of the decals, so the first step was to scan the photo from the manual and then print an enlargement of it with large enough dimensions to work with easily.
The second step was to dust off my High School Math Knowledge from the 1960’s, on the use of and working with ratios. The beauty of ratios is that with three known dimensions, it is easy to determine an unknown fourth. It is also easy to proof all of your known starting dimensions against one another so you know your starting data is correct.
To get things rolling, I needed to determine the actual height and width of the Supply Unit Front Panel in my 52-Set, and then the height and width of the image of the Supply Unit Front Panel from the manual. Hence the need for a clear enlargement of the photo from which to easily obtain measurements. The attached photo shows the end result with the actual panel measurements along the top and left side of the photo in blue ink and the photo measurements of the panel along the right side and bottom in red ink. An interesting discovery at this point was that the two SENDER HEATERS decals on the panel are different. I was expecting them to be the same as per the 1966 remakes, but as per the factory originals, the one at the top of the panel above the Indicator lamp for these heaters is chubbier than the one above the ON/OFF Switch for the heaters (second from left).
The other nice thing to see was the clear image on the left hand drop lead of the red RCA stamp on the rubber plug. I will be able to size a rubber stamp for that detail later on quite easily now.
David
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