I am building a ship, and had placed the decals on the hull. Afterwards I had given the hull a shot of Testor's lacquer Glosscote to seal it and prepare for futur weathering. This was several weeks ago. This past few days I masked off the hull, using 3M blue painters tape, in order to paint the decks and superstructure. When I took off the tape, it lifted off some of the decals, and partially lifted off others.
Questions: Would applying more coats of Glosscote, or something else, prevented this, or should I have just waited to apply decals?
How can I remove the remnants of the decals without removing the paint?
Finally, since the tape was able to remove the decals (with a coat of glosscote on them) will weathering (using thinned enamels and artist oils) destroy them as well? Is there something else I should use to seal the decals?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Ron W.