Hello everybody,

I have made a few decals using decal inkjet printer paper with varying degrees of success/failure.

The main problem is that the Humbrol acrylic matt varnish I’m using to seal the decal to the paper, and thus create the carrier film seems very thick. I’m decanting the varnish to my airbrush and have had better success when I've applied thinner coats of the varnish, but they’re still not great, and it takes a gallon of solvaset to get them looking something like decent, but far from perfect.

I’ve read in Adam Wilder’s Modelling Guide 2 that you can use Humbrol satin cote. Has anyone tried this? What were the results?

Or does anyone have a better solution?

Any hints, tips or tricks would be very welcome.

Cheers

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

did you try special decal paper? It is available for inkjet printers and laser printers, and there are clear or white variants. A friend of mine uses it regularly for making decals for his 1/87 scale bus models with very good results.

Made a quick search on GOOGLE, here is a link to get you an idea what I mean:

www.decalpaper.com/

Cheers
Thomas

Good luck!

Hi, Matthew!

That's some good advice from Thomas, in my opinion!

Hi Matthew, I sometimes print decals on inkjet paper and always spray a few coats of Microscale Decal Film and works perfectly every time

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=MI-12&Category_Code=FINPROD

A bottle lasts ages and you can pick it up relatively easily - I notice your in the UK like me and eModels have it for under £3 a bottle:
https://www.emodels.co.uk/microscale-micro-liquid-decal-film-msfilm.html

Hope this helps

Jim

Thanks fellas.

@ Thomas and Dennis: I use special decal paper already. The issue is with the varnish I use to seal the decal, I think.

@ Jim: Thanks! This is good to know. I’ll order a bottle of Microscope decal film and see if there’s an improvement.

Cheers

Matthew

Good tips from Jim.Think Hannants do decal paper and the Microscale decal jollop.Might have a bash myself soon.
Richard

I've just done a set of custom decals and forgot to mention when you seal the decal with the microscale stuff I just spray it neat from the bottle (not thinned)- you only need a few drops and the surface dries to a matt finish very quickly (so you know where you've sprayed then!)