Upsetting Decal Experience!!!

Can you describe how it marred the future finish? Solvaset type of stuff is intented to soften the decal to snuggle it up against the details, so when you brushed it on, did you put enough force behind the brush to move the arm of the star a little bit?

I just take a moderate sized soft brush and sorta dab it on and brush it very lightly to spread the solution evenly. 

sorry to hear about the mishap and good luck!

How long did you let the Future coat dry before applying the decals? It may appear to dry very quickly, within minutes, but it really should be left for at least 24 hours before decalling.

Some decal setting solutions can cause hazing of the Future coat. This can be fixed by applying more Future over the top.

When you apply a setting solution, the decal can (and often will) shrivel and wrinkle. Don't touch it while it's wet - as it dries it will snuggle down and smooth out on its own. If there are wrinkles when dry, apply some more setting solution.

If decalling a perfectly flat surface, often ther's no need to use a setting solution.

Thanks for the replies.  The Solvaset softened the Future.  It had been drying for over 48 hours.  Maye I shouldn't have played with the decal as it worked its magic or maybe I used too much solvaset.  Either way, in order to get it off I had to resort to Isopropyl Alcohol.  Tape, scraping and more solvaset would not remove it.  Now I am down to the plastic.  A little sanding and repainting and I will be good to go.  This is my first model, so I guess I can't expect everything to go smoothly. 

 

Hi Dan,

Since I just got back into modeling and bought a bunch of old favorite kits, I decided to learn about Future & decaling on a testbed model. I had great success in say, last March/April.

I was fooling around decaling again last week (90 degrees outside/90 % humidity) I let the Future cure for more than 3 days.......I don't think it ever fully cured! I noticed that I could scratch it very easily with a fingernail. Solvaset was not behaving either.

I'm in a basement when modeling and it's always 10-15 degrees cooler than outdoors.....but the humidity will still be here. I think that was my problem.

If you model in an A/C environment.....that problem shouldn't effect you. Simply FYI

Good luck! 

Man I've decaled within a few hours of applying Future! Our humidity is usually around 30% here though.

I've never used solvoset. The three decal solutions I've tried are Gunze Mr.Mark Softer,  Microsol/microset and pollyscale. IMO the best of those three is the pollyscale but it's strong. I found Mr.Marksofter beads on he decal and tended to leave a noticable water mark where as pollyscale sheets over the decal. Here's an example of the results I've had with Pollyscale:

 

 

Hey, guys, sorry to piggyback on this thread, but I'm having a similar problem with Micro Sol/Set.

I painted my F-104 with Xtracolor enamels, then sealed everything with a coat of Future. Although it is humid up here in New England, the future has been drying for over a week. So should be dry/cured, right? Right??

In any event, when I apply Micro Set and/or Sol, it's frosting the finish badly. I'm scared to put on any more decals because I'm afraid the entire plane will ending looking like a glazed doughnut. :-(

So will applying a bit of Future on the problem areas fix the frosting? Or should I stop using MicroSol/Set? Use another product? Or is there something else I can do?

Thanks!

PB

 

Hey PB!......being just into modeling again.........as I said above, humidity may be a problem. I forget where you live, but man, it plays hell here!

There are folks here that 'defrost' decals with some Future, though it doesn't always seem to work.

Swanny's Future blog may help. 

namrednef wrote:

Hey PB!......being just into modeling again.........as I said above, humidity may be a problem. I forget where you live, but man, it plays hell here! There are folks here that 'defrost' decals with some Future, though it doesn't always seem to work. Swanny's Future blog may help.

Yo!

I live in Boston, near the Atlantic, so humidity can be high here. This summer has been particularly bad.

Anyway, I tried brushing Future over the problem spots, and that seemed to work. Phew.

Thanks!

PB

PS--Almost done with the 104, should be able to post pics over in a/c forum sometime this week, barring any other disasters. :-)