Thursday, January 24, 2013

Decal Fix on the Cobalt Orange Part 1

I wasn't happy with the way the yellow colors showed up on the water slide decals I made for the "Orange" model. The yellow ink was too transparent and when placed over the orange paint the yellow color disappeared!
I read about this technique on one of the forums. I wish I could give credit where credit is due.
If you don't have an Alps printer, here's one way to get a white undercoat on homemade water slide decals.




On the left is the yellow and black ink decal applied to the nose cone of the "Orange" rocket.
To the right is a decal half slid off it's white backing paper. At the top you can see how transparent the light yellow ink is
First, the old decals had to be lifted.
These decals were done about a week ago so they shouldn't be hard to remove. If you haven't done a clear overcoat, sometimes you can lift them with masking tape.
I just wet the decals and lifted a corner with a razor blade. It was pulled up easily in one piece.
For the white background, gloss white paint was sprayed on a new water slide decal sheet. Two coats were applied with full coverage to the edges. A clear coat is not needed, just the white coats.

All you are really doing is making a transferable layer of white paint.
You'll be able to cut the white sheet to most any small shape to go under the yellow and black decals already printed up.
I sprayed white over an entire sheet. Even after this project is done, I'll have some white background material for another build down the road.

I always print up extra decals. I had plenty to make this correction.
Home printed water slide decals can be harder to apply than a silk screened decal from a kit.
Extra prints are handy to have, you might screw up the first tries.

2 comments:

  1. White decal paper is available on ebay and works a treat :)I used it on my Micro Der Red Max - http://www.flickr.com/photos/oflittleinterest/6603790375/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sasha,
    All I had was the clear decal paper! One day I'll put an order in for the white stuff. The method I used works in a pinch and if done correctly the overlay decal covers up the white edges.

    ReplyDelete