StraightSilver
New member
Hi everyone,
First of all apologies if this is a common question, I certainly know from searching the interweb that it's a common problem but I haven't managed to find if there's a solution to my problem.
Basically I try to stay away from decals wherever possible as I hate the sheen from the carrier film, but I hadn't really been applying them properly and so thought for once I would go the whole hog and use varnishes and decal softeners etc.
However model shops are few and far between in my area and I only like to use water based products where possible so my options for products were limited.
I needed to apply decals to a GW Valkyrie kit, but have run into problems after varnishing it.
I applied a layer of gloss varnish to the area receiving the decal. I used GW 'ArdCoat for this which I applied with a brush. This seemed to work fine.
I then used Humbrol Decal Fixer, which I first applied to the area where the decal would be, and then applied it to the decal once it had been set in place.
I left this to dry overnight and then applied another layer of 'Ardcoat, again using a brush rather than a spray.
All of this seemed to work fine, the problem came the next day when applying the paint on matt varnish.
The only paint on water based matt varnish I could find was Revell Aqua Colour Matt Clear (number 2 I think).
I mixed some water with it as instructed on the pot, in this case about 2 parts varnish to 1 part water, which I made sure was clean.
I painted it on and waited overnight for it to dry.
Unfortunately it has washed out my edge highlights, as well as blanching the colour of the panel a little too. However the most frustrating thing was that it left areas of fogging on the panel, and brush and tide marks too.
After consulting a friend who uses varnishes more often than me he said to apply a further thin coat, which I did and this has greatly reduced the fogging and brush marks, but not entirely. My biggest concern now though is that the panel in question is tonally different to the rest of the Valkyrie, the wing in this case, and my highlights seem to have almost dissappeared.
Is there any way to correct this now, or is it too late? I was very careful to make sure I applied thin even coats, but maybe I shouldn't have added water? Or is it just that I should have used better products?
It's a shame though as the decal looks good, no sheen or hint of carrier film, it's just the area it sits on now looks crap!
Unfortunately I don't have photos to show you at the moment as my camera is buggered, but could probably get some over the weekend.
Please could anyone advise me where I went wrong?
Cheers.
First of all apologies if this is a common question, I certainly know from searching the interweb that it's a common problem but I haven't managed to find if there's a solution to my problem.
Basically I try to stay away from decals wherever possible as I hate the sheen from the carrier film, but I hadn't really been applying them properly and so thought for once I would go the whole hog and use varnishes and decal softeners etc.
However model shops are few and far between in my area and I only like to use water based products where possible so my options for products were limited.
I needed to apply decals to a GW Valkyrie kit, but have run into problems after varnishing it.
I applied a layer of gloss varnish to the area receiving the decal. I used GW 'ArdCoat for this which I applied with a brush. This seemed to work fine.
I then used Humbrol Decal Fixer, which I first applied to the area where the decal would be, and then applied it to the decal once it had been set in place.
I left this to dry overnight and then applied another layer of 'Ardcoat, again using a brush rather than a spray.
All of this seemed to work fine, the problem came the next day when applying the paint on matt varnish.
The only paint on water based matt varnish I could find was Revell Aqua Colour Matt Clear (number 2 I think).
I mixed some water with it as instructed on the pot, in this case about 2 parts varnish to 1 part water, which I made sure was clean.
I painted it on and waited overnight for it to dry.
Unfortunately it has washed out my edge highlights, as well as blanching the colour of the panel a little too. However the most frustrating thing was that it left areas of fogging on the panel, and brush and tide marks too.
After consulting a friend who uses varnishes more often than me he said to apply a further thin coat, which I did and this has greatly reduced the fogging and brush marks, but not entirely. My biggest concern now though is that the panel in question is tonally different to the rest of the Valkyrie, the wing in this case, and my highlights seem to have almost dissappeared.
Is there any way to correct this now, or is it too late? I was very careful to make sure I applied thin even coats, but maybe I shouldn't have added water? Or is it just that I should have used better products?
It's a shame though as the decal looks good, no sheen or hint of carrier film, it's just the area it sits on now looks crap!
Unfortunately I don't have photos to show you at the moment as my camera is buggered, but could probably get some over the weekend.
Please could anyone advise me where I went wrong?
Cheers.
