As my thread title implies, my most recent build has encountered some special silvering problems. I’m working on Italeri’s Predator MQ-1A/B drone and was doing fine until I got to the finishing stage. I applied a standard Future coat to smooth application of decals, applied the decals and then (perhaps because my solvaset chemicals weren’t handy) went straight to the second future coat. The first had at least an hour to dry before working on it. The second I left overnight and just discovered.
So basically what I have now is a nicely built Predator a glossy finish and some badly silvered decals. Its too bad too, because it ruins what I thought was a nice finish. Is there anything I can do at this stage to remedy the situation? And by “remedy” I mean a reasonably easy fix, not…heh…sand it all down and re-paint/finish it from scratch.
Any help, opinions, moral support or just random mouthing off will be appreciated.
One thing you might try is to slice the decals in the places where they silvered, and use a fine brush to work some Future into the decal. This should displace the air that is causing the silvering, and when it is dry, should disappear under your flat coat.
Just an IPR note about my trying to deal with this problem. I decided to just try some solvaset on the decals anyway, thinking it would be ineffective, but have found some remarkable results. In some physically larger specimens, the decals have settled down nicely, but on others the small, suppressed insignia have almost disappeared into the dark grey paint background. I’ve also been disturbed by what may be some chemical reaction coincident with reduced ‘pop’ in the decals–they disappear somewhat. In all cases though, silvering has all but ceased to be a problem.
MMmm that is really interesting to know BGuy and surprised that it worked too…!! You could of used a new sowing needle and pooked at the effected areas.
Then applied solvaset and the silvering would have gone away…
Unfortunately, the “affected area” was pretty much the whole area of most of the decals. I just got a bit frustrated when I tried solvaset. Oh well, live and learn.
