Glossing before decals

You will get a more uniform looking finish if you overcoat the entire aircraft in gloss as opposed to only the areas to be decaled. If you do only the marking areas in gloss, decal, the a flat coat, there will be a noticeable difference between the areas. Especially if you also do any washes or similar weathering techniques.

Or at the least, gloss coat to observable boundaries, like the entire wing surface. But stik is right, as usual. It will be observable. 

This is a challenge when putting a 24 inch numeral on a 700 foot long ship. You can mask the exact area. That might be a decent way to go on your Lanc with it's simple roundrels. Codes will be harder.

Bill

Thanks guys, I suspected glossing the whole plane would be the way to go. It was someone on another forum talking about glossing where the decals are that gave me some doubt. 

Maybe they were referring to this:

Decals seem to be formulated to be printed for correct colors over a white background. Thin ones esp. get dark on darker or patterned backgrounds, and camouflage can show through.

When I have the patience, I try to mask the decal area over the primer before painting on color. I'll photo copy the decal onto blue tape stuck to a sheet of paper and then cut it out and apply where it belongs over the grey or white primer. Remove the mask when you go to decals.

I suppose a corollary would be to spot a little gloss on that part of the primer before adding your mask. It might work. 

Of course the RAF roundrel and the code AJG are two different things...

Bill

Bullfinch

Building a 1/72 Lancaster bomber BII, I'm at the stage to prepare putting the decals on. 

Should I give the whole plane a coat or two of gloss varnish or just at the areas where decals are going. 

The plane will get a matte coat of varnish when done. 

One coat of gloss on the whole kit is suffice. You don't need 2 coats of gloss clearcoat.

Glossing is not necessary. See here:

https://youtu.be/L_rdwH1EGus

Space Ranger

Glossing is not necessary. See here:

https://youtu.be/L_rdwH1EGus

 

GMorrison

 

 

Space Ranger

Glossing is not necessary. See here:

https://youtu.be/L_rdwH1EGus

 

 

 

 

we don't get to see the results but I don't agree with that at all. Sure, tablespoons of micro set, Microsol and Solvaset help but gloss finish can greatly reduce all of that.

 

 

I have tried all sorts of setting an solvent solutions, heat, drops of detergent, etc.  Nothing completely eliminates the ghost effect like gloss undercoat.

GMorrison

 

 

Space Ranger

Glossing is not necessary. See here:

https://youtu.be/L_rdwH1EGus

 

 

 

 

we don't get to see the results but I don't agree with that at all. Sure, tablespoons of micro set, Microsol and Solvaset help but gloss finish can greatly reduce all of that.

 

 

I’m with GM on this. I also polish out the flat finish to smooth out the surface but that alone doesn’t guarantee a silvering free application. Some decal brands are a joy to work with and others are not.

I used to use the no gloss method, but getting pretty much any decal to snug down to the surface was a HUGE PITA.  Started glossing before decals and life has been much easier as far as that goes.  Haven't experienced the loss of detail mentioned in the video since I put on extremely thin paint/clearcoat layers.  To be honest, I also noticed a nice, soft, satiny (is that a word? LOL) depth to my finishes since I started using the glossing method.  To me, they just look more like real-world objects now, as opposed to looking like painted pieces of plastic.

Bullfinch

Building a 1/72 Lancaster bomber BII, I'm at the stage to prepare putting the decals on. 

Should I give the whole plane a coat or two of gloss varnish or just at the areas where decals are going. 

The plane will get a matte coat of varnish when done. 

 

 

 

A few years ago I did a Mig37 Ferret, flat black. When I did the decals, I applied them using future. I used a q-tip and dropped some future down, applied the decal on the wet future and then smoothed it out. After I was done the decalling, I applied a dull clear coat overtop. I figured it would all be matte and even. Boy was I wrong. Everywhere I applied the future for the decals was visible. The swatches of future showed up quite noticably. Gloss coat the whole thing, trust me.