Enormous painted signs

[Dizerens5]

This has nothing to do with motorcycling. I live in England near Dover, the major cross-Channel ferry port, the big car ferries move in and out all the time, quite a sight  from the cliff-top above. Now: those ships all carry their company logo and colours on the side, graphics maybe 15 or 20 feet high and much longer than that. How are they painted? They are far too big for any stencil. And far above the water (or the bottom of a dry dock). And far too big for any painter to get an overall view of the job. So how are they painted, so beautifully accurate? (Same for any really big paint job, I suppose.)

[nhmaf]

I am not sure, but one of my consulting jobs recently was to develop industrial inkjet printheads that are used on some very large printers - these printers can print on many types of material - inlcuding plastic laminates - and could print on materials up to around 40 feet wide, and more or less infinitely long if one didn't run out of ink.   I know that they are used to print out billboards, among other things.  Maybe they are made of these plastic laminate materials that are simply glued on to the side of the ship - after first cutting them up into more manage-able size pieces first, like they do with billboards ?

[Bob_Roller]

I work for Southwest Airlines, and it is amazing what can be painted on a Boeing  737, we have numerous specialty painted aircraft, and all of them are hand painted, hand masked, originally at the Boeing production facilities, then afterward at other painting facilities .

The few repaint jobs that I have be involved with, have  a set of 'blueprints', and the aircraft is measured by hand, then stenciled off for each color .

It's incredibly time consuming for the more complicated paint schemes .

Here's a link to a site for commercial aircraft, some of the work is amazing .

http://www.airliners.net

Put the name of an airline in the search box, and peruse through the pictures .

If you put Southwest Airlines in the searchbox, they have a few of the specialty paint jobs in the first 5-10 pages .

[Lucky_Lou]

Ex BP tanker man here......usually the name of the ship and port of registration are steel plates welded on to the hull then just painted over by hand. As for shipping line signs usually hand painted there just marked out on the hull, once they have done them the first time its easy to maintain the outline. The funnel emblem is usually an embossed plate welded on too.
The guys used to regularly repaint them while at sea (weather permitting)sitting on a wooden plank with a safety harness.Hey ho,
 no health and safety inspectors out there.
Lou

[montmil]

Pounce patterns. Heavy paper with tiny holes punched for the pattern. Attach the pattern and use your pounce pad and powdered chalk to transfer the design to a substrate. Mask off or cut in with a brush, then fill. Add shadows or whatever...

I watched the process of painting the exterior of new American Airlines Boeing aircraft at the AA acceptance center onboard Alliance Airport, Ft Worth, Texas. After masking, they use paint rollers and epoxy paint. Amazing. The finished job appears to have been sprayed on. S-l-o-w cure allows flow out and leveling.

I have hand lettered a number of aircraft during my graphic arts career. Pitts aerobatics, warbirds, classic antique restorations. I would be shot on sight if I showed up with a paint roller in my hand. Takes a steady hand tricking out a two million dollar airplane with the owner looking over your shoulder.

I always included a flight as part of my contracted services.   Monte

[Darwin_R65]

Had a friend who painted an entireinside room wall with artwork on an Overhead Projector, and then just traced the design.

Otherwise signwriters have computers doing laser cut vinyl on huge sheets in a workshop. Vinyl lays flat and computer drives cutting device across table,, for really large signs computer just does sections for the signwriter to assemble later.

Still occasionally see signwriters hand drawing with pencil or chalk on shop windows and walls

[Dizerens5]

Thanks, everyone. I suspect the method mentioned by Darwin is the one used for ship sides. Not only car ferries of course, we often see news shots of cargo ships such as reefers with the company name in huge lettering along the side. Perhaps the vinyl sheet section method is combined with a scale drawing of the ship with datum marks transferred to the ship side to assist the painter?

[montmil]

Imagine the design layout and painting on the turf for a NASCAR race or American football games. Do Euro futbol games have graphics painted at midfield? I once did a collegiate basketball court with the university's logo... on oak hardwood, then clear coated. held up far longer than i expected.

Monte

[Dizerens5]

Yes sports fields here often get advertising graphics at big matches...they are done in a very strange perspective so that they appear in correct shape to the tv viewers. It must be quite a complex business as the perspective depends on the camera position. Good money for the sport organiser I imagine.