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Bah! What genius thought it would be a good idea to make the CSM World Eater decals bigger than the bloody Berzerker pauldrons??? Time to buy some Decal Fix...

Yeah that's a pain. You can just cut them with a really sharp exacto. I cut mine when they'll sit on very curved surfaces anyway.

Flawless decal method:

Gloss entire area where decal will go

apply decal using microset and microsol

Gloss entire area where decal will go - again

Matte/dulcote entire area.

 Gunzhard wrote:
Yeah that's a pain. You can just cut them with a really sharp exacto. I cut mine when they'll sit on very curved surfaces anyway.

Flawless decal method:

Gloss entire area where decal will go

apply decal using microset and microsol

Gloss entire area where decal will go - again

Matte/dulcote entire area.

I'm yet to meet a flawless decal method, but that's pretty much what I do. Usually do multiple applications of microsol. I might also polish the area first but it depends on the model and how grainy the paint is.

But still not what I'd call flawless, which is why I try and paint most of my designs and only use actual decals when there's no way I can paint them.

I also apply microsol many times letting it dry each time before applying again.

For me it came down to using the right gloss. I need it to be REAL glossy for both before and after applications. Using old and new decals I've yet to have one where I can still see the "clear" part of the decal.

I can always still see the raised edge of the decal. From the right angle, the clear part can't be seen, so I can take a photo of a model and the decal will look fine, but in real life as you move around the model the light will catch the raised edge of it and make it look wrong. Even a reasonably messily painted design seems to look better to my eye.

I spent ages playing around with it until I saw in the flesh models made by a competition winning modeller and discovered their decals were the same too.

Of course there's some things you just can't get away painting and are forced to use a decal and from a distance or in photos it can look fine, but up close in real life a decal pretty much always looks like a decal.

My local store doesn't carry MicroSol / Set - got my hopes up after seeing the bottles on the owners bench, but they were his personal supply! None of his suppliers provide it. Picked up a bottle of the Humbrol Decal Fix, will give it a test.

Biggest frustration though is just the size of the decals. Even if you trim the clear edges off they're still just too damn big to fit where they're meant to...

Hi,
with Humbrols decalfix, gloss varnish the area as usual but instead of getting the backing off in water put some decalfix on a plate and use that, just a little bit. takes longer to soak in but it seems to give me better results. then gloss varnish followed by matt. YMMV