First, sorry for the crummy pics! I have a basic camera but it gets me through so I can't complain. I just hope you can see enough to give me some constructive criticism. This is the old Tamiya kit that I picked up at the LHS for $10. It is entirely OOB including tracks and decals. I gave it a scaled down coat of MM O.D. and then hit it with a wash of burnt umber. I finished it off with a dusting of artist chalk that I ground up and applied with a stiff old brush. The one thing that kills me is how the bad the decals silvered! What you see is after a coat of Future sprayed at about 20 psi. What am I doing wrong? Also any ideas on how to tone the decals down now?

the bottom of hte tanks were the tracks are is very well weathered but i would have put some more weathering to match on the hull.

For the decals, when you applied them on future, did you use something like micro sol- micro set? and then seal it with another coat or two of future?

Frank

Looks great to me-maybe run some dust and dirt up the sides and Francios says.

Noooooooooooo!!! Is that what I've been doing wrong with the Future? CRAP! No, I only applied one good coat of future and then layed down the decals with "Poly Set" setting solution. Then hit the model with a coat of flat. I held off on the rest of the weathering until I could figure out what the deal with the decals was. I also noticed that when I lay down Future I always seem to get an orange-peel effect. Is this normal?

PS. Thanks for the criticism, it helps me get better!

Ususally Future works like a charm. The idea is to give a very smooth, gloss finish. Maybe your coat is too light. After one light coat, wait for it to dry and try a second coat (always better than one slimy,drippy coat).

This should decrease your chances of silvering in the future.

At this point, I would remove the stars completely. Or you can try to pin prick the silvered areas and add diluted white glue, hoping it will suck in behind.

Alternatively, use stencils and spray your markings or use dry transfers (www.archertransfers.com).

Good luck

I use MicroSol for me decals. I bruh MicroSol over the area of the decal, the slide the decal on. I brusk another coat of Microsol over the deal. It will "orange peel" before setting usually overnight. Note that orange peel is different from air bubbles. You need to pop the bubble. They will be more like blisters where as orange peel is like wrinkles. It's most tempting to mess with it while it's all wrinkled but let it be overnight

Old Tamiya decals really need to be beaten into submition or thrown out. Since I'm cheap I often use decals that come with the model so I learned how to deal with Tamiya decals pretty well. I do this for aircraft models and it works without a hitch, I've tried it on armor once and it worked alright as well.

1. using a small flat brush apply Future floor polish to the area where the decal will go. The thickness of the coat should be ample enough to dry smooth, but not so thick as to run. The best strategy is to work on one surface at a time and have the model lay in such a manner so the surface faces directly up at you (e.g., when working on the tank's left side lay it on its right).

2. Let the coat dry for a few minutes.

3. Apply the decal as you normally would to the . Remove water with a lint-free cloth, but before the decal becomes entirely dry apply a second coat of future.

If done right the second future coat will act like a solvent and "disolve" the decal into the matrix of Future coats.

Don't worry too much about brush streaks unless they are very prominent. Using an airbrush to apply a quality flat coat (ahem-- Polly Scale) will make them disappear.

Try it on a junk kit first until you get the futuring just right.


As for your M8, try brushing on some highly watered down white glue over the decals. It won't fix the problem entirely, but it will tone down some of the shine.