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Anyone offer any advice for water transfers? Everytime I try and apply them to my guardsmens shoulder pads the lines from the decal are still visable. Is it because I varnished before I put on the decal? I've even varnished after putting on the decal but the edge is still visable.

There's something you can get which makes the decals look less decal-like, but I can't remember the name of it...

I've always found that a few layers of gloss varnish applied to the area that the transfer is being applied to and a few more layers over the top of the transfer usually help to hide the edges of the transfer.

When applying transfers to vehicles you can help then blend in more by adding a bit of weathering and dirt on or around them (although that probably isn't all that useful for actual Guardsmen )

I think that Hatticus is referring to the Microscale liquids; there's Microscale Liquid Decal Film, Microscale Micro Set and Microscale Micro Sol each of which have different uses when applying transfers.

Coat the surface with gloss varnish.

Then apply the decal, there are products like MicroSol to soften decals and make them conform to models better.

Once dry coat with Testors or Revell Dullcote to get the perfect matt finish with near invisible decal film.

Yeah, it was MicroSol I was thinking of!

Question on the gloss varnish. I've got a few pots of the gloss varnish from games workshop but they are semi-solid. That's how they've always come but seems weird to me. Is that how it's supposed to be? How do I use it like that?

Supposed to be runny, I use gloss enamel!

Howard A Treesong wrote:Supposed to be runny, I use gloss enamel!

Runny like the paints? Any way to run it up a little? Don't really have easy access to anywhere to pick some up and ordering some from anywhere will take a while to get here. Want to transfer up some of my guardsmen this weekend.

microsol.. i does wonders..

tilarium wrote:

Howard A Treesong wrote:Supposed to be runny, I use gloss enamel!

Runny like the paints? Any way to run it up a little? Don't really have easy access to anywhere to pick some up and ordering some from anywhere will take a while to get here. Want to transfer up some of my guardsmen this weekend.

I really don't know because I don' use current GW paints, it might be thicker than the paints but it shouldn't be semi-solid. You should be able to paint it on straight from the pot and not leave brush marks. Like acrylic paint I think you can thin it with water.

I use Humbrol/Revell enamel gloss varnish, you get a good smooth layer with it.

I recommend Microsol and Microset used together as directed on the bottles, very cheap (although can be tricky to get hold of where I am) and has transformed my use of decals completly, much better for following contours like SM shoulder pad decals etc as the solution softens the decals and makes them much more pliable.

What about Krylon? Anyone use that?

http://www.michaels.com/Krylon%C2%AE-Clear-Varnish/cp0414,default,pd.html?cgid=products-craftpainting-finishes-krylon&start=3

When I was using decals for Ork tattoo markings:

Decal/Transfer Information Download

I also found this: Decals 101

Winact - I got my Microsol/set from Antenocitis Workshop - when it is in stock

Couldn't one just paint over it using the transfer as a template?

I have a tutorial here:

http://www.winterdyne.co.uk/maz/winterdyne_tutorial3.pdf

Wish I had seen that earlier

So I went and added some hot water to the pot of ardcoat. There's still some clumpy parts but also lots of liquidy stuff that resembles the inks. I rested on a scrap model I have, looks like it worked on it. The small part I ardcoated is shiny. Looks like my random experiment might have worked

Just wanted to share. In the last hour I've done 15 transfers. All of them look pretty good, likely look a lot better when I finish all the transfers and then matte varnish tomorrow. I gloss varnished all the shoulder pads and also using the knife to make a small cut if I can't get the transfer to stay flat.