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Hey,

I don't know if there is a better way to figure this out but I have watched tutorials on this, I literally don't think it is possible to get these decals to lay flat. I trim the fat off the decal, I even cut lines into the decal itself so that it can fold over itself and weather the curves better, but nothing seems to work. I DO use hardcoat before and after, but at the end of the day there is ALWAYS a raised area of the decal and it drives me insane. It looks JUST bad enough to drive me nuts, but not bad enough to rip off and start over. Honestly, if this is the best can do, its the best I can do and I'll let Matte varnish cover it anyways.

But there has to be a way to make this work. Does anybody know if it is humanly possible to fit these GD decals onto the shoulder pads?!

You need decal solv stuff, almost every hobby store carries it. Its in a clear 4oz bottle with red lettering on it.

Patience, and repeated applications of Microset. Use a needle to puncture bubbles if you have to.
Here's a nice step by step.
Http://www.winterdyne.co.uk/maz/winterdyne_tutorial3.pdf

I normally hold the decal in place on the model and with a very sharp blade slice a few lines in the top of the decal to get it to sit flat. The end result isn't too noticeable imo.

Thanks guys. Love the tutorial. Never heard of this decal solvent stuff. I will check it out.

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Crimson-Fists-Shoulder-Pads

that is an alternative, although i imagine its not worth the effort at this stage of the game

Micro Set and Micro Sol are your best friends. They're both very cheap and will last forever. If you apply a gloss coat of varnish to your model before applying transfers with Micro Set & Micro Sol, and apply a gloss/matte coat of varnish afterwards, it will make all your decals look as if they were painted on.

Yep - it's all about the solvent when you're applying decals to complex curves (simple curves are no problem). Laid down with simple trimming, you'll get creases. Relief cuts avoid that, but you'll still get little points at the bases of the overlaps (you're basically forming a very shallow cone each time). A good softener will snug your decals down over even seemingly impossible surfaces, given enough time.

I had exactly the same problem with Marine shoulder pads a few years ago.

I found out about Micro Set and Sol on here last year, and having used them to apply about 500 transfers to Shermans and halftracks, I can say they make things so, so much easier, and never run out. At least, given how much I've used I think about 50,000 transfers would get you towards the bottom of the bottles

cant agree more.

micro sol and micro set are awesome.
so far i apllied ~200 decals and it looks like that none of it is missing.