I need to decal a 109 F2 soon and have a question regarding Microsol.
I have futured the plane and want to do the decals with microsol now, having never worked with it I am unsure about the prosses.
Can I use something like Tamiya “markfit” or even future as a setting solution ?(I do not have micro set)
How long after “setting” decal do I need to wait before putting the micro sol on? DO I simply brush a wet coat over the decal and watch it “shrivel” and then lie nice and flat?
Do I need to smooth it out with something like paper towel to help the micro sol allong or is this to risky?
How many coats of sol is needed? As I understand the sol basically just desolve the carrierfilm.
Does microsol affect future atall? How about over Alclad pollished alluminium?
How long do you guys usually let the future cure before decaling with microsol? It is weatherwize arround early spring 18 deg celcius or so.
Ahhh - Future + MicroSol, one of my favourite cocktails!
My usual process is to wait a day or two after application of the Future before applying decals + MicroSol. I usually apply the decals with water only, then when I’m finished for the session, apply the MicroSol & leave it for a day. If I spot any air bubbles or details (like panel lines) that are still troublesome, I’ll poke or slice with an Xacto blade, then apply some more MicroSol.
I wouldn’t touch the decals with anything after the MicroSol, you could lift some of the decal away. I apply mine with a fairly wide brush, and brush the MIcroSol away from the center of the decal. I’ve yet to have any problems. (knock on wood…)
The MicroSol is only slightly thicker than water - you want to get your brush wet with it, press a little bit off of the brush back into your container, then brush it onto the decals. I usually brush around the edges as well to make sure that it gets into every spot it should be, but don’t need to wick off the excess (unless you have the stuff running all over the place!). With that 1 or 2 days delay between Future & MicroSol you should be fine as far as avoiding reactions. As far as residue, the only thing I’ve really seen is adhesive from the decals themselves, and that can be wiped off with a water-dampened Q-tip / cotton bud.
Wrinkling decals - that seems to depend on the decal, I assume some manufacturer’s decals will wrinkle more than others. Haven’t paid much attention to that, but I’m thinking maybe 5 minutes to see wrinkles, then they start settling out again. Haven’t used Aclad before so I’m of little help there. [:$] I wouldn’t be surprised if there is information to be had on either MicroScale’s or Alclad’s websites concerning that.
The decals will start shrivling within minutes of applying microsol, but how much varies with the quality/thickness of the decal. Also, how much microsol helps the decal to lay down into surface detail varies for the same reason.
Whatever you do, don’t touch the decal once you’ve applied the solution.
I concur with Vance about letting the decal dry a bit (20-30 minutes or so) before applying microsol.
Those are lessons I learned the hard way. Also, Future helps you place decals by making it easier to slide them around on the paint, but follow Vance’s directions about letting the Future dry a day or two first.
You mentioned you Futured the panel to be decaled. I have noticed that if you don’t Future the entire model, a difference in finish and texture may appear after spraying the final flat coat. I use a wide soft brush to apply several coats of Future instead of using an ab, leaving a smooth as glass finish. I usually wait a couple of days to let the Furure cure before adding any decal solution.
I put the decals on as per normal , just water no microset.
Brushed on some Microsol and nothing hapened atall within 30 min or so. I brushed on some more, again nothing except the future next to the one wing roundal has become soft and desolved ARGGG!!!
You can see it just next to the roundal. Also the carrierfilm is still clearly visable and very far from being desolved
I will have to see if I can repair the future, but looking at this project I am getting very dissheatred now, almost everything seems to be going wrong with it !
My freehand ? also looks like the dog’s breakfast.
I tried a few other decals from different kits ,some old, some new and they didn’t really react to the sol as I expected. Some very faint shrivling arround the edge of one and nothing on orhets, even after 2-3 aplications. The carrierfilm is still there and the decals do not really conform any better to pannel detail than when aplied without it.
Can micro sol go “off” or “old” and loose it’s bite???
Your mileage may vary. Some decals respond well to MicroSol, some don’t. Some, like the older Italeri decals seem totally inert. MicroSol doesn’t usually go off -I have a bottle which dates back to the early 80’s which still works ok.
If you are getting a whitish haze on the Futured areas, another hit with Future will fix it.
If you work with a lot of Japanese-made kits, you may wish to look at the Gunze products, Mr Mark Softer and Mr Mark Setter. Mr Mark Softer seems a little stronger than MicroSol and Mr Mark Setter contains a mild adhesive which helps to suck the decals down, especially with difficult decals which have insufficient glue (Think Airfix/Heller). Mr Mark Setter can also be used directly on flat painted surfaces to prevent silvering without the need of a gloss coat. (however, it does leave a glossy area where it’s been applied, which will need to be flat-coated afterwards).
Contrary(ish) to Phils statement, I recently replaced an old bottle of micro-sol, just as a test, I used both bottles on different decals (same sheet, same model) and noticed a small difference between the two. The old one still worked, but not as good as the new one.
On decals that are on a completely flat surface with no detail/panel line, (such as that wing roundel), I wouldn’t even bother with micro-sol. I haven;t ever seen carrier film “disappear”…micro-sol just softens the decal, allowing it to snuggle down over detail and/or into panel lines…unless the decals are from Academy or Tamiya…not much help for those! I’ve soaked some decals at least a dozen times, and they still needed help, by sliding a finger nail over them, to push them down into a panel line. Most of the decals I have used don’t really wrinkle up much at all. I worry about the one that wrinkle a lot…many time, a wrinkle or two stays[:(].
I haven’t had micro-sol cause any problems with a finish, but micro-SET has given me similar issues on a laquer based gloss…my fault…I tried to decal too soon. The second gloss, to seal in decals, took care of the problem though.
It seems I had the wrong idea about Microsol then. I was under the impression it basically desolves the carrierfilm and just leaves the colour behind, hence the painted on look as advertized.
Now that I know that this stuff can’t really go “off” I will have to experiment a bit more.
Most likely the problem yes. It felt cured to the toutch so I assumed it was OK.
Does future become more “resistant” /harder as it cures more? I would have thought that if it is dry it has reached max “hardness” This is all new to me.
Yes, the more you let it cure the harder and more resistant to solvets it will become. The only things that will dissolve cured Future is Future itself or ammonia. Laquer thinner may attack it too.
I can answer your Alclad question. I recently did a P-51 & a P-47 in NMF using different shades of Alclad applied with different methods (i.e. preshaded, postshaded, “regular” Alclad & “polished” Alclad; Futured and non-Futured). In my experience, the Alclad shades go on smoothly enough that Future coat is not necessary. I used the MicroSol & MicroSet “system” on all of the decals, but I didn’t see any significant difference in how the decals laid down.
Here are a couple of pix showing how the decals laid down:
P-51
For more pix of this build, go here and scroll down a little.
