I have been getting into decal projects and have been having a lot of fun with it. Besides water and a pair of tweezers, what do you guys use to help make the process easier?
I find myself getting frustrated sometimes when I tear a decal or put on in the wrong spot and cant move it without scrping it off and cutting a new one. And sometimes I accidently pull decals off on accident when handling the car or loco. I fixed that by not moving it too much and spraying light coats of dull cote on the finished section on the car.
Trim each decal as close as possible all around. Then soak it in distilled water til the decal film starts to loosen from the backing paper. Place the decal, still on the backing paper, in just the right location. Carefully slide the decal film off the backing paper and tease it into position, carefully so as not to tear it. Let it dry enough to keep it in position. Then apply decal setting solution, Solvaset from Walthers, generously with a soft brush. Let that dry all the way. Do not attempt to move the decal after applying the Solvaset. It softens the decal film to let it snuggle down around rivets and stuff. If you try to move the decal while soft it will tear every time. Give the decal overnight, maybe a day and a night to get really dry. Then give the whole model a coat of DullCote to blend the decal[s] into the paint job.
I’ve been painting and decaling a number of cars lately, including the one above from a Moloco kit.
For larger decals like the road name, I remove them from the water with a sheet of thin styrene, then slide from the styrene onto the car. This helps prevent the decal from folding or tearing as it’s moved.
I don’t have this problem often. I tend to flood the area with plenty of a milder solvent like Micro Sol as I place the decal, so I have time to move it on the liquid before anything sets up. If I notice the decal got into the wrong position, I add enough water to counter the solvent action, and then carefully move it.
If decals come off readily, it’s typically an indication there was insufficient solvent applied to fully dissolve the film into the surface. A properly finished decal job should be more than durable enough to withstand normal handling. With plenty of solvent, followed by a final overspray of clear matte or gloss, the job should last a lifetime.
I use a small screwdriver with rounded edges for positioning decals. It helps finalize positioning without tearing the decal film or scratching the paint.
When working with white lettering, I use a darker container for the water
Once the decals are cut off the sheet, I place them on a wood block then use a fine tipped paintbrush to wet them down. Then I wait about 25 or 30 seconds for the carrier film to separate from the paper.
Then I pick the decal off the paper using the paintbrush, and set in place on the model. (Sometimes I put a drop of water on the freshly placed decal , to aid in positioning. )
I also use water warmed to 70 degrees. (Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I was told that decals are made by a photographic process. I use to developed my own film, and it requires the water tobe at70 degrees. )
I always glosscote the surface to be decalled , lay on whatever decals I need, then let them dry overnight. Then solvaset and again let them set overnight. Pop any air bubbles that developed, an lightly solvaset again.
When I’m happy with the way they look, I glosscote again to seal the decals. This last glosscote helps to hide the decals edges and makes it easy to weatherize after. Then dullcote to blend it all together.
As with soldering, or lubrication, or foam as a structural layout material, there have been some epic ‘technical’ discussions of decal ‘best practice’ here, and you might want to find and review them.
I’m on a phone, where you have to click the mystery-meat ‘three little horizontal black bars’ at the top, select ‘community’ from the bar choices that come up, and scroll all the way down to the bottom where a gray search rectangle awaits. Kalmbach IT got this working a few months ago after a long ‘hiatus’.
I always thought that decal application was easy, but when I saw some of my results (and those of some other modellers, too) I knew that it needed to be done better.
It turned out to be a more lengthy learning process than I thought, but I finally started getting better and better results, so my process may be a little more than you really need (or want) to know…
First, I would suggest that you wash the car (or locomotive, structure, etc.), using warm water and dish detergent, then rinse it thoroughly with water and let it air-dry.
Once it’s dry, airbrush it in an appropriate colour(s), then set it aside to let the paint dry/cure/harden, depending on the type of paint you use.
Once that is done, airbrush the entire areas which will be decalled with Glosscote (or your preferred clear gloss) then let it fully dry until there’s no odour of solvent present on the car. Don’t apply the gloss only where the decals will be applied - for rolling stock and locomotives, those areas are usually the sides and ends - cover them completely with the gloss, even if the amount of decal work will be very minimal. Allow the clear coat to fully cure/harden - there should be no noticeable odour to it, (this minimises the chance of the setting solutions reacting with the clear coat).
Next, use a sharp blade to cut the needed decals from the sheet, keeping as far away from the lettering as possible. Once you have all of the required lettering free of the main sheet, use a sharp blade (re-sharpen or replace as necessary) and working on a hard surface (I use a sheet of glass on my work desk for this), to trim away as much of the blank paper from as close as you can maneuver the blade to the lettering, using a straight down chopping motion, rather than slicing it away. If necessary, do this work under magn
I find the red stuff and blue stuff Micro Sol product to work very well. The blue stuff helps float and set the decal in the right spot and then the red stuff softens the decal over and around any irregularities.
For placing the decal the #11 exacto knife blade is exceptionally handy for micro positioning of the decal. Brushes and other recommended tools also work but I find that needle sharp knife blade tip a perfect tool for purpose. Bonus, the same tip pierces air bubbles.
Instead of blotting or pressing the decal in place I find it works better to use the capillary action of torn edge of paper towel to gently draw excess fluid out from under the decal. This in effect uses hydraulic suction (air pressure actually) to press the decal down without needing to actually touch it. Just be aware that this method can draw the decal towards the paper towel edge if you try to soak up the fluid too quickly or too close to the decal which will require repositioning. This is due to the same surface tension effect that allows removal of the fluid. Practice teaches you just how close you can go to the decal without moving it.
You should not use a hobby blade to remove air bubbles from underneath a decal as it is moved into position. This will create additional problems when you try to settle/bond the decal to the surface. The hole will actually let air back beneath the decal as the fluid dries, and it creates a weak spot likely to tear of you need to position the decal again.
If you have air bubbles under the decal, lift the decal, brush on more fluid, and lay the decal back in place.
Experimentation yields good results. That is how I ended up with so many decal setting fluids before I finally settled on Microsol and Daco Strong as my best options.
Thanks for all the help. I think I will wait to finish the other side of this car when I have the soutions and gloss cote. This side turned out okay and I am happy with it
I added the Milwaukee Road logo in the upper left had corner because I like it.
