Greetings,
I'm preparing some new M1 Abrams decals and I'd really appreciate your thoughts.
My question is only on the material, so.. Which do you prefer and Why?

Thanks in advance.

They both have their advantages and disadvantages, it's just a matter of what you prefer working with.

The biggest advantages of waterslide decals is that you have some time to work with them when you apply them. This is of course very helpful if you have applied the decal crooked or slightly off target. These decals also respond very well to decal setting solutions and will snug into textures nicely with some judicial applications of such solutions. They are also much more common so it is often easier to find your desired markings. The biggest disadvantages regarding these type of decals are that 1)they require a carrier film which is often tricky to fully remove or hide and requires careful manipulation of weathering so that your washes etc. don't highlight the clear film, and 2) when they age they present problems such as yellowing and becoming brittle. There are restoration solutions to help with this. You can also experience silvering if tiny air bubbled get trapped under them during application, but this is negligible if you apply a setting solution, which basically melts the decal onto the model.

Dry transfers, despite what some people say, are actually very easy to use. They do not require a carrier film, eliminating the clear film that you find surrounding waterslide decals and making them much more realistic. You don't have to worry about messing around with water or any type of solution. The disadvantages are 1) you only really have one shot at applying the transfer, and 2) You will most likely need to use paint to touch up the recesses when applying the transfers to deeply textured areas.

I personally prefer dry transfers because of their added realism, plus you don't have to fight the surface tension of water droplets when working with very small markings.
It's hard to knock a thin well-printed waterslide decal.

Again, just go with what feels most natural or enjoyable to work with.

That's a very fair overview of the two methods... well done.

However there are some things that I'd like to add.

Dry transfers can be applied wet using what we call Wet Medium Paper which is essentially a water absorbent paper with a water soluble release agent. Simply rub the dry transfer down onto the WMP, dip in water and then apply as a decal without the clear film or the need for setting solutions. We have a video tutorial on this very thing HERE. This tutorial also covers converting dry transfers to waterslide decals by rubbing them down onto clear decal film.

The preferred method is, of course, to simply apply them dry but it's nice to know there are options.

Thank you,
Woody Vondracek, owner
Archer Fine Transfers

I almost always apply dry-transfers using either clear decal film or the wet-medium paper described by Woody.

The wet-medium works well for single markings, but if you have a series of individual numbers or letters, for example, clear decal paper allows you to put all of them in the right sequence and alignment without having to handle the model so much. And if you do make a mistake, it's much easier to recover. This is really good for serial and registration numbers and road signs. You then just cut the single "decal" out and apply it like a normal water-slide decal.

In all cases, in my experience, surface preparation of the model is the key to getting good final results. A clean gloss surface followed by another clear coat or two to "level" the edges of the decal is what makes the difference more than whether the decals are dry-transfers or water-slide.

The thing is that you can't find all of the possible markings that you might ever want to use in either dry or water-slide mediums, so the skill to develop is to be able to work with either. That way, you're not restricted to one medium or the other.

My .02...

I find Woody's Wet Medium Paper very good for tiny dry transfers like uniform patches and instrument dials (Archer even discourages direct applications for small items like that in favor of WMP). If it seems counter-intuitive, it's not: the "decals" formed by this union perform like waterslide decals but look like dry transfers (no carrier film).

For larger things like numbers, I prefer DT. That's because the carrier film gets harder to hide with numbers like 2, 5 or 8.

Just one modeler's opinion.

I would love to see some DTs for M1A1s in both Iraq and A'stan, especially USMC vehicles. Other than the hard-to-find Echelon sets, there isn't much out there in AM.

That is really very informative! I've saved all your comments on a Word doc and they will surely help with my purpose. I'd have to rethink some of my decal combinations as at the moment it seems some sure indeed be made into dry transfers while others waterslide..

I appreciate your input. Thank You!

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