DIY decal failure — why?

Ya Know!

         Many years ago I was having a problem. My Grandpa watched what I was doing. His comment set me on the path of easy decal placement in that day in 1952. His comment. "Them Kind of things work better with slightly warm water instead of cold!". "Leastwise that's the way we  do Decals at Bell Aircraft". he always worked two jobs. Post Office and Bell.

I think that missileman2000 is correct. I finally succeeded in getting the wing walk panels affixed, but with each one, despite being handed as gently as possible, flecks of ink still came off, revealing the white colour beneath. I hope I can retouch them with some black acrylic paint applied with one of my brass "toothpicks".

Bob

I  have found decals getting thinner and thinner lately, especially the inkjet DIY films.  They distort even with setting solutions,  I now use only water (sometimes with a small drop of detergent in water).  They are so thin they usually go down pretty well.  The detergent is a wetting agent like setting solution, but weaker.  It helps get rid of air bubbles.

Bobstamp

Thank you, gentleman, for confirming my theory about the cause of my problem. I've been using the damp sponge technique that Paweł first suggested to me, but,obviously, I'll just be using plain, warm water from now on

Heh...now that you mention it, I think it was that previous thread where Pawel recommended that method to you that convinced me to try it.  I'll never go back to dipping them in water again.  Thanks Pawel! 

Thank you, gentleman, for confirming my theory about the cause of my problem. I've been using the damp sponge technique that Paweł first suggested to me, but,obviously, I'll just be using plain, warm water from now on, for the initial application of decals, then using Mark Fit. M biggest problem in printing my own decals is the expensive Kodak decal film. The substrate is quite thick and usually jams my HP Officejet Pro 6978 printer on the first attempt to print.

Bob

I concur with Pawel about what to use when you apply decals.  I have always just used water as well, until I am absolutely sure I have the decal where I want it.  Even the weaker setting solutions tend to soften the decal a little too much for my liking.  Only after they're in position on the model do I use any kind of setting solution or solvent on them.  For getting the decals separated from the paper, I have a shallow Gladware dish with a big sponge in it.  I just get the sponge soaking wet, and lay the decals (color side up) on top of the sponge.  The advantage to doing it this way is that you can lay out a whole bunch of decals on it, and it gives you all the time in the world to work with no deadline stress.  You can even stop in the middle for a day or two and your decals will still be ready to slide off the paper when you're ready to come back to them.  If you forget about them and everything dries out?  Not to worry, just put some water in the dish so the sponge gets wet again and your decals will be resurrected.

As for printing, I decided to try an HP Color Laserjet printer and decal paper made by Sunnyscopa.  Had to sort through a few duds as far as paper goes...even the Micromark laser decal paper was a non-starter.  The Sunnyscopa paper, combined with the toner (instead of ink) from the laser printer, allowed me to print decals and go right to putting them on the model without putting any kind of clear coat on them to seal them.  That paper is the only one I found that I was able to do that with.  It makes the whole process much easier, less time-consuming, and you also don't have to worry about the nasty goo you come up with sometimes if you accidentally put too much clear coat on your decal and it reacts badly to your setting agents.

Hello!

Sorry to hear about your problems!

I personally only use "decal chemistry" once the decal is on the model, for taking it off the paper I just use warm tap water. Now some decals are really tough, I mean they resist most of the chemicals - in such case Mark Fit might be OK for taking them off the paper. But with thin delcate decals Mark Fit will will just start to dissolve them while still on paper...

Good thing you got the scans - this takes a lot of stress out.

Good luck with your builds and have a nice day

Paweł

And…I now think I know what the problem was (as outlined in my initial post, immediately above). I read in another post about this topic that Mark Fit could be used (as I knew it could be) to soften decals and help them conform to rivets and panel lines. I just assumed that Mark Fit was more effective than water in applying decals, but I think that's not the case. In any event, I just applied a DIY wing walk decal to a mule and it worked just fine. The learning curve continues!

Bob