posted July 07, 2009 08:16 PM               

Perhaps the LM patch project could be done one patch at a time...

In other words, place an initial 50 piece order of one patch, then if the interest is still there, go on and do the next patch, and the next, and etc.

posted July 10, 2009 07:51 PM            

As to why I would want them - these are history as the men who built these - designed these and were proud of EACH ONE they built before they received their flight names and mission numbers!

For some reason I would wear LM-3 on my jacket. I am proud of "Spider".

posted November 21, 2010 08:39 AM               

The idea is to produce patches that are faithful to the original decal artwork as much as possible, including the use of minimal color palettes and outline drawings, rather than updating these with colorful modern graphics.

My intention is to create patches for LMs 4 through 12 but whether I create the full set or not will depend largely on whether I can break-even on the first few patches. If they sink without trace I obviously won't be able to afford to continue to the end.

Anyway, the first patch has already been through the design and pre-production sample stage and should be available around the end of the year or early in the new year.

posted November 22, 2010 03:55 PM               

It may be that I release them one by one over a period of 9 months, something along those lines.

posted November 24, 2010 06:13 AM               

I'm pretty optimistic that these will sell well in any case as I've reached the pre-production sample stage with some of these now and they're looking very nice indeed.

posted December 29, 2010 04:08 PM               

At the moment I have a number of patches in various stage of production. I hope to be able to release the patches one by one with maybe a two week to one month gap between each.

It's important to note that if the initial patches don't sell well enough to give me some hope of breaking even in the long run then I will have to abandon the project as I simply won't be able to afford it. This means that if too many potential buyers hold back waiting for a full set then things may founder for no good reason.

posted December 30, 2010 03:20 AM               

I started working first on some of the designs I personally like the most but the design and pre-production process runs at different speeds for different patches as some need design changes after a pre-production sample, others need color changes, some need a second sample to be produced etc.

Then there's the time needed for final production and delivery, with packages maybe getting tied up in customs for a week or two.

The end result is that the LM-8 patch is the first available.

posted January 11, 2011 12:08 PM               

Sometimes certain details are just so small that they either need to be enlarged slightly or left out altogether. In many cases the original designs exist in more than one form, with the decal and printed versions of the artwork sometimes having different border colors (usually white in one case and yellow in another). In these cases I have to choose which approach to use in my patches.

Normally I'm happy to make my choices and hope that people will be okay with the result but for LM-4 I'm not so sure.

The decal version of this insignia is shown below:

Now obviously today we can produce embroidered patches cut by machine into any shape imaginable, so it's perfectly possible with modern machinery to have a patch shaped exactly like the decal. When Randy Hunt tackled this design about 15 years ago he had it produced as a cut design:

The problem is that my idea is to try to create a patch as it might have looked if it had been produced by someone at Grumman back in 1969, and I just don't think it would have been produced as a cut design at that time. That's why I lean towards enclosing the design in a regular round patch, which might look something like this:

posted January 11, 2011 01:24 PM               

I also think it looks better and more interesting using the original design than it would as a round patch.

posted January 11, 2011 10:25 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by lm5eagle:
I speculate here, that if the design had been produced at the time, it would have been much more wearable and sewable in the enclosed format (be it round or square).

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You're probably correct, and that's why after some consideration I've changed my mind on this.

In my previous post, I indicated my preference for a cut patch true to the original design. But I'm buying these patches with a view toward putting them together in a framed display, and that's made me more considerate of how they would look more attractive with a common aesthetic, since most of the LM logos shared variations of Grumman's blue & gold theme.

I realize this flip-flop on my part doesn't help Chris with his decision process, but as I've already said I'll buy, whatever decision he comes to.

posted January 11, 2011 11:35 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by randyc:
Look at the Apollo 7 patch; although the shape is not as complex as the LM-4 patch it wasn't altered (by adding a round or square backing) to make it easier to sew on a garment.

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The Apollo 7 crew patch ...was actually embroidered as a circular design with a white surround, as worn by the suit techs in S68-48789, and clearly visible on suit tech Clyde Teague in 68-H-936.

For the crew's jump suits the patches were trimmed around the emblem itself to leave the shape shown on the photos of the crew such as KSC-68PC-211.