This goes to the point of just how attention to detail this hobby is, but I recently applied the gloss coat and found out when applying one of the decals that I didn’t get enough gloss coat on a particular area. The affect was that a serial number decal is a bit silvered. So now that it’s on and dried, is there a good way to fix it? I’ve experimented with things in the past and found that just flat coating it alone won’t take care of it.
poke small pin holes in the decal with the tip of your exacto blade, then dose it with Microsol. If the cause is due to rough paint or gloss application, you’ll have to start over, and wet sand and polish your painted surface.
I hate to say this, but such silvering is almost impossible to fix. Your best bet is to redo it. A recent article in FSM showed how to remove decals. Then, do a better job of gloss coating and apply new decals.
One thing I thought of but not sure how it would turn out, would be to sort of weather it, or do a light paint coat over it in sort of a splotchy way. I don’t know which would be the tougher task, that, or removing it
I have never been able to fix silvering to my satisfaction. Redoing it is the best way to go. I recently redid decals on a Hetzer. I removed decals with a piece of 3M tape, reapplied Future, waited 24 hours and reapplied decals.
Of course, if you want a dirty, heavily weathered look, you can apply dust or mud pigments over the decals and no one will see the silvering.
This happened to me not too long ago during the FW190 GB when I applied the decals to an Eduard kit. It only happened to the fuselage crosses at the centers. There are two possible fixes for this: You can either use a new #11 blade and carefully slice the affected area then apply Solvaset which is stronger than Microsol. The sliced film should allow the Solvaset to work its way in and melt the film down. The second method which is the one I used is to re-paint the affected area. U used my Renegade Badger with x-fine tip and reshot the area with the mottle colors. What little over spray that got on the black crosses I carefully removed using a fine brush dampened (almost blotted dry) with thinner. This method completely covered the silvering.
Is Solvaset the same as Microset? I recently had a guy in the hobby shop tell me to just use Microsol on it, which I did and it seemed to take the silvering away.
Yes, but Solvaset is much stronger. Glad you got it looking better.
The Solvaset is extremely strong and can damage very thin decals so care must be taken when applying it. But even the product’s strength didn’t get rid of the silvering in my case. Nathan’s 190 decals had the same problem as mine in the same spots when we were doing the 190 GB.
I find it almost impossible to fix silvering with solvent. The problem is that a flat surface is rough, so the decal does not touch the paint well enough in hundreds or thousands of places. I just cannot get solvents to nestle down in all those places. I find solvent works well when you have big bubbles, but not the myriad of microscopic ones that cause silvering. That is why I have to replace decals. Not too bad for national emblems and such, a pain for specific markings like squadron badges and such where you must get a replacement decal. I now regularly scan all decal sets in case I need a replacement for a decal and I can make an inkjet replacement.
I should say that it wasn’t a perfect fix, there still was a little silvering that remained, but it did at least not make it nearly as noticeable.
I have a question on inkjet printing decals. In the process of placing decals when you use water, doesn’t make the inkjet ink run?
It certainly does if you have not sealed the decal. You need to overcoat with a clear coat of a waterproof material. Many hobby clearcoats are waterproof. I keep hearing of certain printer inks that are waterproof, but have not yet found one that does not need clearcoating.
What makes it even worse is that many of the inks are also soluble in the clearcoat material! You have to try various inks/printers. I ended up buying a cheap $50 printer just for decals. The store said I had two weeks to try it and return it for any reason, so I went home and ran a little set of decals right away, and tested the set with several of the clearcoating materials I regularly use. BTW, that was an HP printer. My other printer is an Epson and I have had more problems with Epson inks.
So the combination of the HP printer/inks and the clear coating is a success? I have an HP printer so I could give it a try. Where do you find the source for the decals that you print out?
Many sources. Scans of old decal sheets, google image search, reference books. For lettering and numbers I just type them out with an art, CAD, or word processing program. Fonts that are needed can often be found online.
Micro spot paint at or inbeteren the affected area…then seal again.Gloss then flat.
There is a product that is sold at every art supplies store that is used to glue paper together and it is “Clear” glue, usually water soluble. I always dab a little on the area to be decaled, spreading it evenly, to the point where it is a thin “Film”, then place the decal on the glued surface and then do the usual pressure to remove as much moisture from under the decal possible.
The clear glue blocks/traps the air that is in the paint (as all matt paint has talcum powder in it that “stands up” creating the breakdown of the surface tension of the paint, eliminating any “shine”) and the clear glue smothers these “effects” and lets the decal blend with the glue, eliminating the “silvering” effect totally.
The same result can be obtained by using wood glue, (PVA) but it will leave a “cloudy” residue if not done properly, and that is why I recommend the Clear paper glue.
The clear glue is exactly the same product as Humblol “Clear Fix”.