Decal reviews

by Sally
with comments and text from Steven Marchant

Message from Sally: Steven got some of the first print runs of decals to play with.
As with any new product there are initial teething problems. This article deals with the ones we came across when testing the decals.


1 One of the problems when James started to print off the artwork onto the white-coated decal paper was that if the Laser printer was too warm then the plastic layer peeled from the backing layer too easily. We werent sure how this would affect the final result so we sent out the test samples anyway.
I found that these samples that had heated too much in the printer came off the backing paper in the water rather than staying put until i decided to slide them off onto the base.
I dealt with this by gently pushing it back onto the backing paper and then lifting it out of the water. It was very quick and easy to do.


2: One thing i had already noticed with the white-coated paper is that the plastic layer is slightly thicker than the clear-coated paper. This meant when applying to a slightly raised surface that i had to gently press the decal into the dips with a harder-tipped brush than i had been using for the rest of the application. Not really a major problem though and you would need a magnifying mirror to notice!


3 Steve's problem was a bit different. He had problems with the image 'fading' once applied to the figure. On investigation we found that this happened when the Laser printer wasnt warm enough !! (ever get the feeling that you just cant win??......lol)
He spoke to James and they decided to try coating the decal sheet with watered down PVA glue. As the images are printed on with a laser printer there was no 'image bleeding'.
This is the result:

'Hi James, I thought I'd let you know how the 'PVA' experiment worked...
Extremely well .

I watered down the PVA glue to the consistency of milk and painted over the front of the white-backed sheet of electricity warning symbols. I gave it 2 coats (allowing the first to dry properly, before applying the second) and let it dry overnight.

I cut the sheets this morning and went through the process of applying them. There was no bleaching of colour and I was able to cut without the colour flaking off. The only slight hic-up I had was when I left the decal in the water a little too long which allowed the PVA to lift slightly...but that was easily remedied by flattening the decals on with a brush.

These decals went on a flat surface. I tried them on a curved surface but they would have taken a lot of work to bend them. If I was going to use the decals on a curved surface I would only give them a single, thin coat of PVA (I may have been a bit over zealous with the PVA to start with ).

On the whole, I was very happy with the results, so a big thumbs up for PVA.

What I may do (at a later date) is try the PVA on the Warmonger decals to see if I can tidy up the more bleached ones on the mechs but I will probably do that when I've got all the mechs painted and embark on the mammoth task of decalling everything up .

The next mech-related task is to convert the other two Rifleman mini-mechs. Once they are done I will decal up the four of them together.

Cheers!
Steve.'


SUCCESS!!