decal sheen

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Hey,

I must be prepping my models after painting them incorrectly. After painting the scheme I wanted on my last project, a north africa bf109, I placed the decals without problem. They of course had decal sheen then, but I coated the model with two coats of testors dullcoat. This seemed to remove the sheen on the largest decals, but I was disappointed in the results of the smallest decals. any suggestions?

Thanks

Matthew

2

Matthew,
I’m not quite sure what you mean…it’s probably best to prep the model with Future before you lay down any decals…have you done that?
Decals must have a glossy surface to adhere properly and to prevent the dreaded “silvering” of the decals.
Most all of the military paints you buy will be flat, but just Future the model, lay the decals, then hit it with a clear flat coat. It usually hides most of the decal flaws.
Good luck mate.

3

I use the tecnique that Lee describes and haven´t got any problems since(but I use enamel clear gloss instead of Future because we don´t have it over here).

And of course… [#welcome] to the forum!!!

4

Try putting another light coat of Future over the decals before doing the flat top coat. I’d also suggest trying Polly Scale acrylic flat rather than the Testors Dull Cote.

Regards, Rick

5

Polly scale acrylic flat is really good stuff… another thing you could do is mix Tamiya Flat base (X-21) with Future. Swanny has some good tips on mixing ratios on his website in “The Complete Future” page. Scroll about half way down.

6

“Silvering” is probably synonymous to what I am referring. So if I am interpreting you all correctly the steps after filling and sanding should be:

  1. completing whatever paint scheme you want.
  2. Future or equivalent
  3. Decals
  4. Flat coat

is this right?

thanks for the help

7

I would add an extra step 3A -seal decals with gloss varnish.
This gives the entire kit the same texture and stops the flat coat from bleeding under the decal and lifting the edges.

8

That’s pretty much it. One additional step that you may already be doing is to use a decal solvent such as Micro Sol or Solvaset on the decals. Apply this once you have the decal where you want it, but before any overcoat. It will make the decal “snuggle down” and reduce or eliminate the “silvering”. This will wrinkle up the decal and it looks horrible. Just let it dry for several hours or best overnight and tomorrow it will look fine. The solvaset is pretty strong stuff so you might want to test it on an unimportant decal placed on a test subject first. It will actually destroy some decals.

Darwin, O.F. [alien]

9

I have started using the Gunze products on tamiya and hasegawa and they work better than micro sol/ set.
My Hase spit mk II was terrible until I switched to Gunze, the decals responded better.

10

All the above tips are great. What your’e seeing is probably silvering, where air is trapped beneath the decal. This is caused when you put decals on flat paint. If you were to be shrunk down very very small, you would see that flat paint looks like a mountain range. Gloss paint is smooth, so if you coat the flat with a gloss before you decal, it smooths it out and stops the air being trapped inbetween the “mountains”.