I’ve been working on a ho scale athearn blue box SD40-2 with the southern tuxedo paint. I’ve got it ready to be dull-coted, but the micro-set & micro-sol has left a little bit of residue on the black painted surface. plus it has a few fingerprints on it as well. will the residue hurt anything or will the dull-cote cover it up? how is the best way to clean a newly decaled object without removing the decals?
Residue? From decal setting solutions? That’s a new one to me. I use Solvaset myself, and it evaporates and never leaves any marks. Could the residue be white spots on the decals themselves? Those are usually air bubbles trapped under the decal. You can fix those by moistening the decal enough to get it soft again, puncturing the air bubble with a sharp needle and gently working the air out with a fine paint brush. Avoid fingers, the decal can leap off the surface and marry itself to a fingertip. By the time you have loosened the decal’s death grip on your finger, it is usually in tatters.
Or could it be hard water marks, calcium or whatever left behind when hard water evaporates? In which case they ought to come off if scrubbed with a wetted paint brush.
Fingerprints can be a problem. It takes soap and water to get them off, and soap and water will also take off decals. If you cannot keep the soap and water off the decal, you may have to redecal.
DullCote will cover a multitude of sins, but once on, it doesn’t come off and any sins trapped under the Dullcote are there to stay. I’d clean what can be cleaned and then give it a shot of DullCote and hope for the best.
I’ve had the same problem with Micro Sol leaving a bit of white residue. My solution is to wipe it off with a damp cloth which will not leave lint or fuzzies on the model (do not use Kleenex or paper towel). It is important to wipe it off, Testors Dullcote will mostly hide it but you may still see some residue. Where I really ran into a problem before was with some water based flat finishes, I forgot to wipe off the Micro Sol residue before spraying the flat finish, the residue actually became more visible. After some creative words, some touch up with a brush, and another coat of flat finish things looked the way they were supposed to but I was “concerned” for a few minutes.
I’ve been able to get that stuff off by putting the model under GENTLY running water and maybe GENTLY rubbing with a soft brush. This was after using the decal setting solution and pricking the bubbles and all that. Curiously, I never have had a problem with decals coming off, as it seems like they’d just float away. Anyway, it worked for me.
Ed
PS: Note the words GENTLY above.
All setting solutions leave some staining/residue (including Solvaset), so it is good practice to wash the shell after decalling. If a decal were to lift off due to washing, then it wasn’t properly set in the first place. A clear coat is not meant to keep a decal adheared to the shell, but rather protect it from handling and help blend it into the paint. I usually do the MicroSol (or Solvaset) and let dry cycle a minimum of 4 or 5 times, often 7-8 and then let it dry for 24 hours. (I do have that oven to speed things up).
In my 20 years of custom painting, I always wash a finished shell before sealing with a clear coat as it not only removes the residue (or staining), but also any oils from your hands and fingerprints left by handling while decalling and gives you a clean surface for the clear coat. Do use a soft brush as you don’t want to scratch the unprotected decal, (this is more of an issue with ALPS-printed decals). Use a couple of drops of detergent, wash, rinse thoroughly and let it dry, then clear coat it.
Testors Dullcote can sometimes neutralize the staining, but it can take several coats to do it, I prefer to keep the paint layers to a minimum.