Decaling Tips

I've made the following Decal Set Solution Compatibility Chart, based upon my personal tests and info I've gathered from bibliography and other people's experiences. So, here it is. I hope it'll be a useful reference guide for you, as it has been for me for years.

From the Fine Scale Modeler Forum

George Jr.

To place decals an my armor (ed. and others we assume) kits I use the following procedures after painting.

- apply future to the area where the decals are going to be located

- apply super-set decal solution

- apply decal

- apply super-sol decal solution

- spray with Testor's Dull-cote

- weather as necessary

From the Fine Scale Modeler Forum

Robert

I use both set and sol myself because I really don't want to find out that I have a problem decal after it's been placed on the model. So I kinda hedge my bets by using both. Sol does make the decal lay down better than set.

shermanfreak

I have never tried those products. I have always used Solvaset and have had no problems. Of course I always test an unneeded decal on a test model first.

MikeV

Place the decal sheet on a window pane, facing sunshine, and the yellowish thing will disappear. Make sure there's no condensation on the window!

To keep that from happening, it is a good idea to keep decals of kits you purchase into zip-lock kind of bags.

Domi

The first (comment) is the inclusion of another set of products from MicroSol, MicroSol and MircroSet, they are probably the same solutions listed under the Super product lines (long story).

The second is that the chart listed showing compatibility should only be considered for general information and not specific. You will find that they same model manufacturer uses many sub contractors to provide their decals so compatibility is something you are best left doing with test. The reason I know this Monogram had a stretch of new releases in the 80's that were really poor and would not work with any solvents.

Finally although the steps are listed in their proper order for application purposes, you can make some product substitutions and they don't tell you what I think is the key to decal application, that being time.

When applying decals, it has been my experience that you really need to give at least 24 hours, or more, between each of the steps listed otherwise you run the risk of solvents releasing and being trapped causing air bubbles or silvering. This is especially critical when working with enamels and lacquers because they are considered active materials. What this means is that they are constantly releasing agents but do more so in the first 24-48 hours. Acrylics are much better in that they are dried completely in about 24 hours. This also brings up another critical point, if you are going to use and Acrylic coat of enamels or lacquers you need to make sure the paint has cured well, so again at least 24-48 before overcoating.

rossjr (ScaleHobby)

Making Decals

1. Have the original decal sheet scanned. You want to scan True Color RGB at 300 dpi.

2. Edit the resulting image using Adobe Photoshop, PaintShop Pro or similar program so as to remove the unwanted background (pretty easy a task although some experience on using Photoshop is required).

3. Make color and saturation adjustments (if needed).

4. Preview and print the processed image. (Caution! Make sure that you choose the proper printer settings based on the media (i.e. decal paper) you'll be printing on. This is VERY important!!!).

George Jr