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So, this is a little "out there", but I wanted to share to see what people thought.

I was trying to put decals on my IG for the first time. I wanted to put squad designations on the shoulderpads of my storm troopers. Well, I kept getting frustrated at that the decals didn't want to contour to the roundness of the shoulderpad. After dwelling on it for a while and trying to cut funny notches into them so that they would fold better, something reminded me of heat activated shrink tubing. On a hunch, I put a AOBR decal I knew I would never use on the edge of some sprue, covering the 90 degree angle. I struck a match and ran it about 3 inches under the decal back and forth. It actually managed to dry the water while leaving the decal perfectly in place. I've actually done this on my stormtroopers now and it's worked out well, though the deciding factor will be tomorrow when I check to see how they look after the 'ard coat has had time to dry. My question is has anyone actually TRIED this? I'm a little reluctant to try it on plastic models, for fear of hard work lost, but I'm going to have quite a few more decals to apply by the end of this. Does anyone else have a better method of smoothing the decals on things such as shoulderpads?

Look for MicroSol and MicroSet.

^What he said.

Easiest ways to get a flat decal to conform to a compound curved surface.

Though I did manage to get a decal to fit perfectly to a terminator shoulder pad using the heat method, albeit with a lighter, but i wouldn't reccomend it.

I'm thirding the suggestion for microsol and microset. little oz bottles that will last you a very long time..

You should be able to pick up a bottle of each for under $5 each, I think I paid about $3.50 for mine over a year ago and I haven't even used more than a few percent of the bottle. Unless I spill it, or my cat spills it, the 1 oz bottle will last me probably at least 5 years.

Thanks guys. I'm looking into it now.