Recreating the A1 Samurai Tank Emblem

As far as the tank curvature goes the easiest way I found to pull shapes off of parts like a tank would be a Bondo cast. Put cling wrap on the tank and set it so that area is "upright" then pour some fresh mixed body filler over the area. Once dry you can section it with a scalpel and measure it to get the curvature. Model the curvature to the back of your part.

Is there an issue with measuring the flag and modeling it in CAD? I use to reverse engineer parts all the time by measuring, tracing, or a combination of the two methods.

If you can find an engraver, you can cut the shape out of aluminum plate, have the design engraved on it, aneal, shape and paint.  Maybe rout out some of the material from the back...idk, thats one of those hands-on calls.
Dont like the lines behind the logo.

I can trace it, I just find that sometimes getting things like that to look “just right” is hard. I’ve gotta try though. 

Stereordinary wrote:

I can trace it, I just find that sometimes getting things like that to look “just right” is hard. I’ve gotta try though. 
 

Your probably going to make it better than the original.

I design a lot of parts for my builds on CAD first, saves a lot of trial and error when fabricating those parts. You can see what does and does not work very quickly then change it before you commit to cutting metal.

Surely all you need to do is to hollow out the back face of the emblem leaving just a couple of mm lip around the circumference. Doesn't matter what shape the tank is behind it then much like the kawasaki name tank badges. You'll probably be able to bend some curvature into it then without distorting the face. 

You might make a couple of custom spacers that one side fits the round of the tank and the other side is flat to cement to the flag emblem.
Easy peasy.

Squeaked in a little time between homework assignments to work on this. I've got a nice tracing of the flag I think, but it lacks the textured relief carving to give it that "billowing in the wind" look. However I was surprised that it still looks pretty good with just solid white in that area. 




I made it look like a flat sticker this time, since I'm leaning towards that. It works by offsetting each "layer" by about 0.001mm so they wouldn't interfere with each other. The border on the outside is now a consistent width all the way around, and there's no bevel. But the idea would be that this would hopefully work as either a sticker or a stencil for paint applied directly to the tank.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think. 

This is an interesting project - looks good so far.

To follow up on howardhb's idea, I can confirm that the clear adhesive printable decal material is quite sticky but will not damage the paint. (IIRC it was Avery brand.) The 'No-ton' logo in my avatar was done on an iPad and printed on an inkjet. It did need some small relief cuts to fit the concatenary curve but it was a prototype and not meant to be permanent.

When the weather is consistently warmer, I'd like to make some side covers with similar decals and see if they can be clearcoated. I'll be making the panels out of thin steel and they will be as flat as possible, so there shouldn't be an issue with gaps due to curvature.

If you're going to repaint the tank anyway, what about building up a flat area on the tank with body filler. The same size and shape of the emblem.Shape the tank to the emblem rather than the emblem to the tank.