hi,
can anyone tell me the best way to apply decals to uneven surfaces/panal lines.
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Apply 1 or 2 coats of Future to obtain a smooth surface.
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Apply the decals using Micro-Set.
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“Carefully” blot with a soft rag or Kleenex. You might want to skip this step
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Apply Micro-Sol to get the decal to “snuggle down.” It will usually wrinkle up and look horrible at first. LEAVE IT ALONE AND LET IT DRY. It will straighten itself out and look fine tomorrow.
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In extreme cases, use “Solve-A-Set” for the final setting solution. It is much stronger than Micro-Sol and can disintegrate some decals.
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After everything is dry, at least 24 hours, apply another coat of Future for a gloss surface or a coat of flat clear paint.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
carefully [(-D]
You will need to have a good gloss coat down first. Decals like that. Than you are going to need some sort of decal solvent to soften them and let them conform to the surface. Micro sol, Solva set are the two most commonly used. Other than that, once that decal is applied, you use the solvent as little as possible. Once you do that, you can not touch, move, look at or do anything to the decal as it will ruin it. It may take several times of this to make it conform to the surface, but sooner or later it will.
Not all solvents work with every decal manufacturer. eg, Monogram decals. They are tough to get to settle down. The easiest (for me) are Hasagawa decals. If you are using aftermarket decals, micro sol will work fine as most brands are printed by microscale. They make the micro sol to work for their decals. There are exceptions, but for the most part micro sol is good.
[:-^]OK, fill in the blanks I forgot guys [:P]
sorry I dont want to hijack this topic or anything but why would one use micro sol or micro set for decals, I understand the using future for a smooth surface but I usually just use water for the decals and it seems to work pretty well
Priest, the Micro Set and Sol are used to help the decal conform to irregular surfaces. The set helps break the surface tension so you can eaisly move the decal around without tearing it, and once its there, use the Sol to soften the decal so it will conform to the surface, rather than standing proud of lowspots… panel lines, rivets, and high spots that if you dont get the decal to snuggle on, will show silvering around it where the decal is actually proud of the surface. Water is to just get the decal to come off the paper.
One more trick to really get the decals to conform, after you hit it with Micro Sol, let it sit for about 5 minutes, then start going over it with a hair drier on its lowest setting. Do that for a few minutes until the decal looks good and dry, then you can very, VERY gently help it conform even more with some gentle rubbing with a Q-tip.
If you do this it is best to roll the tip over the cotton swap over the decal. Reduces the chance of a tear.