I’ve heard people talking about the application of old decals (25 yrs old) and that they can be difficult and tempermental.
Is there any tricks or things I should know before I try this?
Fergie
Water decals, right Ferg? If so, put em in warm water, and pray they aren’t cracked from being dried out. Start out with a sample section as a test. If they are cracked, and break up, I’m not sure what to do. Maybe spraying on some kind of clear coating would help.
Microscale makes a liquid decal film… Walthers Cat# 460-117… Brush it on the decal before soaking… I’ve had mixed luck with it… If they are severely cracked, they may be beyond help other than piecing them together on your prized new paint job…
Good luck,
Jeff
Some guys spray the decals with dullcoat or some other clear protective before using. I have some ot he Microscale stuff, works real great. Brush it on and it dries in 10 minutes or so, ready to use.
Try a portion of your decal that you won’t be using first, to see how they will react to the water. I’ve had some that went all to pieces once in the water!
Bob Boudreau
The decals look like they are in prestine condition, saying that I may spray them with a clear coat.
The way these decals work is they will have to be layered as the gold leaf pin striping is on bottom, then red number boards or backgrounds and then the numbers or maple leafs.
I guess I should let one layer dry before I apply the second , then third.
Should put my patience to the test.
Fergie
I’d give um a shot of the clear coat. I’ve used it before. The trick is to mist a couple of coats on. If you spray to heavy then they start to come loose from the backing and they can move around. If the’re cracked when they start moving, well, I think you can see the problem with that. It doesn’t help that when they dry they’re stuck being messed up forever.
A couple of light misting coats is the way to go.
I had a batch of older-than-dirt decals that I used a while back, and they were fine. The day before I used them, I coated them with some of that Testors decal coat, the stuff that comes in the cheap kit at Wal Mart. No problems.
Ray
i asked this same question to jim hediger at model railroader and he said to use either dull cote or gloss cote. i did so and they worked just fine
hope this helps
tom