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Need a tutorial on water decals. What is the best method? All Info is great. Thank you

This is how I do it. Works pretty well and I thoroughly recommend microset and microsol as used in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne0s2gsW8t0

There's tons of tutorials out there, plenty of good ones. Just google it and you'll find plenty.

My typical method is to...

1. Make sure the surface I'm applying it to is glossy (either with a gloss coat or by polishing the paint to a shine)

2. Hold the decal under warm water for 5-10 seconds (warm water softens the mild adhesive and lets the decal sit better, also lets it conform to the surface better). I usually take it out of the water and leave it on my bench for another 30-60 seconds so it slides easily off the backing.

3. (I do this while waiting for the decal to soak) Apply micro set to the surface the decal will be placed on with a brush

4. Slide the decal in to place and position it

5. Gently squeeze out the excess water and dab it down with a tissue.

6. Brush micro set over the decal.

7. After that's mostly dried, apply micro sol. This will wrinkle the decal and make it look horrible BUT DON'T TOUCH IT, when it dries off the decal will flatten out again and pull down in to the crevices.

8. Once dry, if needed I apply another coat of micro sol.

9. Repeat 8 as many times as necessary.

10. Varnish over the decal/model.

If you google tutorials you can probably find a video that uses pretty much the same method.

It can also be useful to trim off excess carrier film on the decal, especially if it has to go around a curved surface like a SM shoulder pad.

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

Microsol & Microset

https://vimeo.com/34716909

Read winterdyne's tutorial (above) Especially, pay attention to the part that says that decals aren't a shortcut.

If you want your decals to look nice, expect that they will take some time and care to apply.

Skink's advice on the carrier film is very apt for shoulder pads: you want to cut away enough material that when the decal folds on a spherical surface, the excess doesn't create huge pockets of air. Just take a square sticker and try to stick it onto a ping pong ball, and you'll see how horrible it looks. Now, cut some wedges out of each side, and it fits a lot better.

 Talys wrote:
Read winterdyne's tutorial (above) Especially, pay attention to the part that says that decals aren't a shortcut.

You'd have to be an extremely fast painter to be able to freehand faster than decaling (or an extremely simple design, lol)

@Skink - This was the paragraph in Winterdyne's tutorial that I was pointing to:

Take your time - putting on decals correctly is not ‘faster than freehand’, quite often it works out slower. Decals shouldn’t be viewed as a shortcut - they can be every bit as tricky as freehand.

I think he also points out somewhere else that decals can give you finished product that's just not possible by freehand, too. I think it's just a good attitude to start with when working with decals -- it takes some TLC to have them turn out looking great, and not, well, decal-looking

I could freehand a lot of things quicker than I could decal them, and I am not a fast painter. My decal skills are much better than my freehand skills at the moment though

I'm sure there's some things I could freehand faster, maybe a stylized number (stylized = don't have to have perfectly straight lines ). But I'm looking at a couple of decal sheets sitting on my desk (one for Space Wolves, one for an FW190, one for a Hawker Hurricane).... 95% of them I couldn't free hand at all and the 5% I could would take me ages. Maybe 30% of them I could do with masking but cutting the masks would take waaaay longer than decaling.

On my "to buy" list is an electronic cutter so I can start cutting stencils and reduce my reliance on decals as I don't like the way they look.

Yeah, I have a silhouette whatever the hell thing they are on my wishlist too - good for AB stencils

Thank you all. great info.

 edbradders wrote:
This is how I do it. Works pretty well and I thoroughly recommend microset and microsol as used in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne0s2gsW8t0

Good short video, easy enough!

kb_lock wrote:
Yeah, I have a silhouette whatever the hell thing they are on my wishlist too - good for AB stencils

I have one of these too they are just awesome. For cutting airbrush masks out of masking tape, too.

 Talys wrote:

kb_lock wrote:
Yeah, I have a silhouette whatever the hell thing they are on my wishlist too - good for AB stencils

I have one of these too they are just awesome. For cutting airbrush masks out of masking tape, too.

Definitely.

I bought one for my wife and now I use it more than she does.