Are Diecast plane liveries hand painted on to the model or printed on always been interested how it works

I have a few early decaled Aeroclassics, they're not bad but not a patch on modern tampo printing. Another feature of those early molds was an unsightly Philips headed screw on the underside holding the wing section on.
 
Those Gen One Aeroclassics are super fascinating, with the screw in the belly and some of the decaled ones too. I would love to find one.
I have a couple, found them at model fairs. They show up from time to time. I have a US Air BAC 1-11 and a Continental Baby 9, among the first of these to be pad-printed when AC moved to China in 2001. These early ‘spun cast’ moulds were made in England I believe, when AC first started.
 
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