I've just finished my first attempt at putting decals on plastic/resin HO building kits. I used the decals as provided by the kit maker, so therefore do not know if they were some MRR brand name like Champ or Microscale.
I applied them to three types of kits; expoxy(City Classics), styrene sheets(Twin Whistle), and a Walthers kit.
The surface of the expoxy kit was first coated with a gloss spray. The surface of the styrene model was "rattle can" spray enamel, no gloss coat, and the surface of the Walther's model was as supplied with the kit with a slight wash of acrylic paint to highlight the mortar lines.
I used the techniques i gathered from searches on this and other forums; soak the decal off in luke warm water, apply over a wetted(water) surface, removed water from face of decal after placing with soft tissue, apply a setting solution(Micro Sol) and let dry overnight.
The results so far have been satisfactory, but I would like to have the decal be more transparent in some cases. So some questions.
1. Is it okay to use Solvaset now instead of MicroSol? I've read that this is a little "stronger" agent. Or do you just keep repeating the MicroSol applications?
2. Also once the decal is set to my satisfaction, is it necessary to coat the area where the decal is placed with Dullcoat or is it preferable to coat the complete structure, or can you leave the decal as placed with no coating on the top? The Walther's kit is the REA Transfer Building which seems to be a large structure to "Dullcoat" just for a few decals.
Thanks for any ideas, as usual.
George
I applied them to three types of kits; expoxy(City Classics), styrene sheets(Twin Whistle), and a Walthers kit.
The surface of the expoxy kit was first coated with a gloss spray. The surface of the styrene model was "rattle can" spray enamel, no gloss coat, and the surface of the Walther's model was as supplied with the kit with a slight wash of acrylic paint to highlight the mortar lines.
I used the techniques i gathered from searches on this and other forums; soak the decal off in luke warm water, apply over a wetted(water) surface, removed water from face of decal after placing with soft tissue, apply a setting solution(Micro Sol) and let dry overnight.
The results so far have been satisfactory, but I would like to have the decal be more transparent in some cases. So some questions.
1. Is it okay to use Solvaset now instead of MicroSol? I've read that this is a little "stronger" agent. Or do you just keep repeating the MicroSol applications?
2. Also once the decal is set to my satisfaction, is it necessary to coat the area where the decal is placed with Dullcoat or is it preferable to coat the complete structure, or can you leave the decal as placed with no coating on the top? The Walther's kit is the REA Transfer Building which seems to be a large structure to "Dullcoat" just for a few decals.
Thanks for any ideas, as usual.
George