inkjet decals

I have often found a tendency for inkjet decals to curl, usually when sliding them off the paper.  Once I applied them, however, they seem to stay down okay.  What are you using as a sealant? It seems to be the sealant that causes the curl.  To thick or too many coats of sealant may be a problem.  You need to apply enough that the water will not dissolve the ink, but not too much- there is a happy medium.

Also, thirty bucks is a lot of decal paper (about fifteen sheets?) What paper are you using?  There is a decal forum down lower in the list of forums, and the making of inkjet decals is a frequent subject in that forum.

 

Hey don good morning and thanks for the reply, I'm using the micro scale brand top coat and the paper was sold to my by my local hobby shop 3 sheets for ten dollors. I belive its dist. By bare metal foil co. I followed the instructions ie one light coat and a second heaver coat. It almost seems that

Oops don't know how that happened lol but to continue it almost seems to start curling affter I apply the micro scale fecal set, which is recomended for use by the mfg. I also noted that the decals come out translucent and not opake like the kit decals, may be my printer. I tend to aggree with you that maby I'm puting the top coat on to heavy? I will take your advice and look on the decal forum that you recomended. Thanks again eod guy

I've used the Bare-Metal paper without any problems (I used it to create the decals on this Airbus), but I used the sealant spray from a Testors decal kit. Are you brushing the MicroScale product on to the decals, or can it be sprayed?

I sprayed the first coat no easy task, did not now what to thin it with( now know alchol) so I diled up to 35psi but it was slow going, they came out perfect. Then for second coat I got lazy and brushed it on, that too came out ok. Strange I know I cobered the entire sheets, however when I cut a test sample the decal layed perfectly flat and accepted the decal solvent well but when I cut the decals to place on plane they curled? I notice that to get decal to seperate I had to soak a little longer than 10 seconds as rec. Could soaking to long cause this issue? Thanks for the input eod guy

I find the BMF foil fine- as good as any on market.

One big factor is the printer make and model.  Some inks dissolve readily in most sealers.  Interestingly some of the cheaper printers have inks that stand up better than most expensive ones.

I bought a cheap printer on sale for forty bucks (HP).  The store had a ten day return-for-any-reason policy, so I made a test set of decals immediately (worked fine).  That printer went belly up, but in the meantime I bought an Epson wide format printer for my photography, and it works fine for making decals.

It is not enough to buy a particular brand- I find with Epson, for example, that some of their inks dissolve in the sealers, others do not.  I typically use Testors clearcoats, but have also used spray cans of clear acrylic craft paints, and clear Polyurethane.  The later seems to be the worst for causing decals to curl, but that may be because the spray cans of it I use put down a heavy coat no matter how hard I try to do a thin coat.

 

I've had to same problems with translucent decals and discoverd 1 of 2 ways to fix that. You can apply 2 decals 1 atop the other or use white decal paper instead of clear for certain decals, especially the ones with white color on them.  I prefer the later fix.

I got my decal paper on Ebay from China, 25 sheets of clear and 10 of white for about 30 bucks.  They work just fine, but are a little thick.

The Migrant

I've used the Bare-Metal paper without any problems (I used it to create the decals on this Airbus), but I used the sealant spray from a Testors decal kit. Are you brushing the MicroScale product on to the decals, or can it be sprayed?

 

 

DING! YOU'VE GOT MAIL!  

Hey all, spent most of yesterday experamenting with decal paper for my 747 project. I cut three samples off the problem sheet, approx 2x2 innches each and applied all three onto .030 sheet styreen. The first with no decal solution, the second with microscale, and the third with walthers. All except the one.with walthers laid flat.and.dryed ok. The one.with walthers curled up . I then took another Larger sample and applied to the fusaloge of the 1/100 747 with no setting solution, and affter a few minn. It rolled up like a straw and fell off. So the only diffrence is that the 747 is slightly curved, and is painted with tamiya pure white paint. So why does it work on the one surface but not the other? I even tried cutting the decals out and painting them with enamel testors #1203 gloss red which seem to help with the currling, however it didn't look right well long story short I gave up and masked and painted the red stripe for the TWA livery directly on the model and it came out ok. I then cut the doors from the decal sheet and applied over the red paint, and they too rolled up so I applied testors window cement to the bck and applied and even then I had to use pressure to keep them down, but they did. Adhere. To answer wing nuts question, I tried both spraying and brushing micro scale decal fix and the brush leveld out just as good as the spray application. And Don I do belive that the printer may be the key to this. My ink jet printer leaves a lot to be desired. I checked with my local office max and they said if I supplied the decal paper they would laser print them for me, so I will procure some laser paper and give that a try. Thanks to all for your help and imput to my issue . EOD GUY

Jay Jay

I've had to same problems with translucent decals and discoverd 1 of 2 ways to fix that. You can apply 2 decals 1 atop the other or use white decal paper instead of clear for certain decals, especially the ones with white color on them.  I prefer the later fix.

 

The only trouble to the white decal sheets is the need, since the whole sheet is white, of having to trim the edges perfectly to prevent a white fringe around the decal.  One way to help this, if you are good at color matching, is to set the background color for your artwork to the color you will be applying the decal over.  You will still end up with a tiny fringe due to finite thickness of the white decal paper, since you will still see the edge of the decal.  However, this edge can be painted over with a very small brush or toothpick.

 

Just an fyi , I searched the web for replacement decals for the entex 1/100 kits ,I had contacted greg at Draw decals who had some for 1/00 scale but not the TWA livery. Greg put out a call to betsy at Atlantic models in Miami FL who has decals in 1/100 for TWA as well as the Entex Air Force One kits, although not intended specificly for Entex they are compatable. aditionaly they can also custom make decals, the TWA and AF1 run $20.00 for each pluss shipping and custom made upon quote from $50 to 125- also just to try I am aworking on a tip from the decal forum using regular photo paper and micro scale decal fix to see how this works. I would imagine they be super thin but if it works, in a pinch it be good to have. EOD Guy