Wood and Wire Decals

[Pete Nottingham]

Hi guys;

What methods do you use for applying the decals, I have painted the wing, applied 2 coats of Klear, let it dry, then I cut the decals from the sheet and put them in to soak, whilst they are soaking I brush some water with a couple of drops of washing up liquid in to the area I am going to decal, I then slide the decal in to place, the problems seem to occur when I try to trim up any excess decal, they just seem to rip and tear, is it my imagination or are they very fragile?

Cheers

Pete.

[Jan K]

Hello, just airbrush 2-3 thin layers of gunze clear over the decals, then it will work as expected.
Regards
Jan

[kornbeef]

Yes they are fragile, it's their one downside. I've started coating them with Microscale decal film but they are still rather delicate. For wing surfaces I've trimmed them to fit to the leading edge, and left an over hang that I shave away with a no11 blade once they begin to settle down. That said the final finish is gorgeous to my mind and worth the effort needed.

Keith

[Pete Nottingham]

Thanks Keith, I'll give the Microscale decal film a go.

Cheers

Pete.

[Pete Nottingham]

Thanks RB.

Cheers

Pete.

[Pete Nottingham]

Just tried a test run and it appears that a couple of coats of Klear on the decals when they are on the backing sheet seems to toughen them up quite a bit, perhaps this is the way to go.

Cheers

Pete.

[gcn]

I've just used some of these decals on my latest build and I found some pros and cons over WNW lozenge.

For application I painted the surface Gunze sail colour and glossed it up with Klear.
I did preshade with a light grey but that was too light and it didn't show through very much.
I then cut the decals to shape and dipped in warm water for a few seconds and let rest.
Liberal amounts of Microscale set and decals applied on top and pressed down with a soft cloth.
I used set in a few places just to get them to conform to raised details.
I waited until the decals were dry and trimmed with a new no11 S&M blade, this went fairly smoothly.
A couple of coats of future to seal and we're done.
ribs (pink) went down a treat. I understand using lozenge for rib tapes is a whole different ball game and doesn't work very well at present

I found they are incredibly thin and the attrition rate was quite high due to tearing when smooting down.
Due to their transparacy you can't overlap them slightly as you get a coulour shift. This is also true with small repairs.
They do look the dogs danglies however.

I will be using them again.

[Pete Nottingham]

Does clear change their ability to conform? They are more fragile than some, but that lets them conform around hinges etc very well.

Not to any great amount.

Cheers

Pete.

[pepperman42]

So am I getting this right - using Set is ok but dont use the Sol?

Steve

[gcn]

If that's in response to my post I used both. It's just the decals conformed so well I didn't need to use much sol at all.

[Pete Nottingham]

I found they are incredibly thin and the attrition rate was quite high due to tearing when smooting down.
Due to their transparacy you can't overlap them slightly as you get a coulour shift. This is also true with small repairs.
They do look the dogs danglies however.

I will be using them again.

I would second this, however to be on the safe side I would say to get 2 sheets of upper and 2 sheets of lower to cover the attrition rate.

Cheers

Pete.

[pepperman42]

Thanks GNC sorry I didnt id that post and thanks all for this thread - forewarned now

Steve

[Pete Nottingham]

These decals look really good, they are delicate, so I would strongly recommend that anybody using them should take their time in applying them, do not try to rush the application.

Cheers

Pete.

[jnzku]

I have a question about wood & wire decals. Has anyone tried to prepare these decals with Humbrol Clear? If you have, how did it work with them? Did you thin it or use it straight out the bottle (usually I don't thin it).

I have a set of W & W Lozenge-decals for my next build and I try to gain some knowledge about them. They seem to be quite thin...