Dealing with very thin decals?

[BikingLampy]

Hi,

 

I've reached the decaling stage of a 1/72 ICM kit and am having no end of problems with the decals. They seem to have a very thin carrier film, which all but vanishes as soon as it touches the model. Despite a good coat of gloss varnish, I'm having no luck sliding them around - they just wrinkle up or tear. I can manage the bigger ones (albeit with a lot of ) but the tiny little stencils are hopeless. (I'm currently having to mask and paint the "no walk" lines as I've knackered the long thin decals.

 

I'm using tepid water to soak them and a coating of microset before applying the decal.

 

The upside is, that once dry they conform beautifully to the surface! Every cloud etc..!

 

Advice gratefully received!

 

Thanks

 

BL

[bentwaters81tfw]

Tweezers and a wet flat brush. Position exactly, hold the decal down with the brush and slide the backing from underneath with the tweezers.

[lasermonkey]

For thin decals, especially for the likes of Propagteam, etc, saliva seems to be the best application solution I’ve found thus far. I can’t remember quite how I discovered it, but I suspect I was in a panic and it was the first thing at hand. It makes the decal easy  to slide around and if it’s folded up on itself, easier to prise apart.

 

Just make sure you have a supply of Opal Fruits, sorry, Starburst, to hand!

[spruecutter96]

Could the use of Microset be causing the issues? Just a friendly suggestion.

 

The previous poster's suggestion of keeping the decals on the backing-paper for as long as possible is a very good one. They need the extra support that the backing-paper supplies. 

 

Chris. 

Edited August 19, 2021 by spruecutter96
Correcting a typo.

[BikingLampy]

To come back to this - I seem to be getting somewhere.

 

Going with cold water rather than tepid - takes a bit longer but doesn't seem to "melt" the carrier film as much.

 

No Microset

 

The saliva idea is genius. The decals still don't want to slide around the way they normally would, but with enough prodding I can jiggle them into the right place now - its no longer a case of where they land is where they stay.

 

Hit them afterwards with Microsol and they still snug down nicely.

 

Thank y'all