Blondie Lunchbox - Part 1 (Patreon)

I shared this on Twitter a few days ago.

I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I decided to make a Blondie noseart-style lunchbox using waterslide decals.  Some of you older folks may recognize it as a commish I got (and later colored) from Roger Bacon some years ago....and also from stickers that I offered for sale a while back too.

Yeah, remember when you were ten years old, gluing plastic model airplanes together and all but destroying those tiny decals that you cut out and soaked in water?  Same thing, but in this instance I'm forty years older, the decal(s) are five times larger, and are printed with an inkjet printer.  The only thing that remains the same is that they're still just as big of a pain to work with as they were in 1980.

The one thing I didn't know going into this was that there are two types of printable decal paper....clear and white.  Clear is intended to be put on lighter colored surfaces as the printed image is opaque.  Anything other than black printed onto clear decal paper is all but invisible on dark colored surfaces.  White paper is of course intended for darker colored surfaces.   ....ask me how I know. *rolls eyes*

Bob Guthrie (of Looney Toons and Space Jam fame) suggested that I do a distressed look.  Seeing as I'm familiar with both military and civilian aviation, having worked in both for the better part of 20 years, I'm pretty sure I know what bruised up aircraft look like.  Putting that into practice with paints and whatnot....ehhh, we'll see.

As for the lunchbox itself, bare metal versions (without a thermos) can be found on amazon fairly cheaply.  I got this one (unpainted) off of amazon for just under $15.00US.  Ones with a matching 1960-70s style thermos will set you back about $20-30.

Now, to be clear, I'm not making this to sell them.  It's simply for my own amusement...and to see if I can actually do it.

Fun Fact: My hobby table is made from an old glass-topped end table frame (I broke the original glass years ago) and a piece of 1.5 inch bulletproof glass.  As for where I got the glass...in the immortal words of Sergeant Schultz: I know nuth-ink!  Nuuuth-ink!