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REVEL HERTZ MUSTANG DECALS potential problems.


TonyW

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There are a couple of potential problems with the gold Hertz stripes in the Revell kit.

I've just had a crash course in their faults. 

 

1. They are very thin and like to wrap themselves up.

 

2. They wrinkle quite badly on application. Sol and Set will work fine though. They pull down very well indeed after that. They look terrible until the solvents work  I brushed mine down very carefully with a wide, soft brush, about half way through the drying process. I don't know if that step is necessary but it worked for me.

 

3. When I first put mine on, the wrinkling was so bad I used a new scalpel blade to make slits through the worst areas in an effort to get the decals flatter. The cuts show after drying and were not needed. The cuts run across the stripes in this picture.

The black lines on the cowl vent decals are cuts I made. They looked like they would never settle down at first. They do, with solvent.

 

20210713-085421.jpg

 

 

4. DO NOT CLEARCOAT THEM WITH TAMIYA CLEAR. The clear attacks the ink making it start to separate. My hood decals now look like gold marble, darker than the rest of the stripes and now variegated  Clear the body first, then decal.

 

20210713-085411.jpg

 

If you go very carefully, use a lot of setting solution and trust the wrinkles to settle down, they look very good indeed. The decals that cover the cowl vents look especially good once on.

 

I'm going to have to remove my lot and start again, fortunately I have a second set left over from my blue car build.

 

Tony.

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1 hour ago, Six97s said:

Thanks for the tips.  I find large decals very stressful.

 Bright gold stripes, right up and over a gloss black car are never going to be a walk in the park. Very satisfying if it works though.

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Thanks for the heads up, I was planning on going over with Tamiya Clear so you've definitely helped me dodge a bullet there.

 

Although I have started testing decals on spoons (using the descriptive text which is always at the bottom of the decal sheet), this is only really any good for testing for wrinkliness and wouldn't indicate colour fastness so I would have found out too late. As it is, I know from building that 2006 Mustang a few years ago that the decals can survive Revell Clear. The problem: Revell Clear is harder to find than rocking horse manure at the moment. I've ordered in some Humbrol Acrylic Clear Gloss as that seems to be similar to the Revell (Tamiya seems more of a lacquer), but will try for wrinkliness first and then go very easy with the mist coats just to be sure.

 

Good to see from your build thread that you've overcome this.

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That's a bummer about the clear coat/ decal reaction.  I've never had much luck spraying Tamiya TS-13 clear gloss lacquer over decals. It doesn't seem to matter what brand of decals (Tamiya, Revell, AMT, IndyCals, Slixx). Even with multiple light mist coats and drying periods, I still often encounter decal damage when I hit it with a wet coat.  I've stopped clear coating over decals on my car builds.  Most of the drag car builds I do aren't super glossy so its not a big deal.  I'm more concerned with decal ghosting and often use a mix of SoluSet and white glue under them to minimize it.

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I'm new to using Tamiya paint products and I'm finding the learning curve quite steep.

I usually paint car bodies with real auto paints and I'm aware of most of the problems there. It's very rare for me to have issues with clear over decals.

 

I moved to Tamiya paints as I've found the real stuff doesn't always get on with new plastic. China moulded car bodies seem a bit softer than old ones and I've had primers wrinkle a bit on occasion.

Tamiya primers are a revelation, I'm completely sold on them. Likewise the colours, they spray well, flow out well and have a ton of pigment in the cans. The price is a bit of a fright though.

I like to stick to same brand, or at least same paint type, throughout a paintjob. Mixing brands or types adds yet another potential problem to painting in my experience. That's why I kept to Tamiya products for the Hertz car. I assumed Tamiya clear would be OK as it's made specifically for plastic models. Assumption can bite!

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  • 2 weeks later...

For anyone else using the decals, I will reiterate (and cannot overstress this) - once you have the decals in position don't touch them.

 

I've been applying them with Microsol plus a (relatively) generous amount of water, and in most examples have resisted the temptation to press the decals down. But today, I thought that the decals weren't sinking into the recess in the front valance so pressed it down with a cloth. Result - that side has some small wrinkles in, and with it holding in place at that side the whole thing has shifted off centre :doh:

 

In truth, these decals seem to be amazingly compliant regarding the curves if you leave them alone to just do their thing. But they really don't like being hurried! You really do have to ignore the air bubbles, wrinkling etc which develops int he first five minutes and just trust that they will sort themselves out.

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