Just applied the decals to my first model, which so far I'm realy happy with and am realy enjoying. Problem is the decals dont appear to have stuck properly to the Klear . Half of it has stuck and the other half looks silvery. Is there a solution to this or can anyone suggest what I may have done wrong please. It's a Tamiya model if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

Tim,
you can try this:
if you can reach with a small paintbrush dipped in plain water the back of the decal where it looks "silvered" then leaving a bit of water behind the decal try to gently roll over it a cotton swab moistened in water. The silvering should go. if once dried the problem comes up again try to do the same but dipping ONLY THE PAINTBRUSH in a solution of water and white glue (just a bit of the latter), roll the water (ONLY WATER) moistened cotton swab on the decal and ithe problem should be fixed.
If you cannot put water behind it try to make a couple of micro holes in the silvered part of the decal with a pin and try the above process only with water...
Ciao
Fabio

While making sandbags out of chicklets (do a search, for this thread, its great), I came up with an interesting solution for fixing silvering decals. I noticed as my sand bags were drying, they left a sticky residue on my glass desk top. I thad just finished a BlackHawk that the decals silvered a bit on, and decided to use the water as a medium to stick the decals down with, and it worked great. So do this. Soak a couple of chicklets or pieces of gum in a little bit of water over night. What you will come up with is some sugary water without the grit of normal cane sugar. next, take a paint brush and apply the sugar water gently under the decal. use a cotton swab to clean away excess. This water works great for sticking down stubborn decals. When the water dries, the area stays sticky, so clean up any excess around the decal with another moistened swab. When it is dry, cover the model with some clear coat (dull, satin, or gloss, its your choice). That should fix your problem. Good luck!

The best thing to do to avoid this in the future is buy a bottle of Microset and Microsol.
Soak your decal in water, and before you put it on, brush some Microset onto the area that you are going to apply the decal too. Then apply the decal. Get rid of the excess water and airbubbles. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then brush Microsol onto the decal. The Microsol will start to make the decal wrinkle and bubble, which is normal. It will allow for the decal to fight tightly against the surface. Silvering should not be a problem now, especially if you then spray the model with a coat of matte or semi-gloss sealer.

I was gonna say set and sol should be as available in the work area as glue

With coat of future/klear it should never silver with microset. After the decal is blotted with a damp cloth to get out bubbles and has dried a bit, a coat of microset should go over the decal(you can NOT touch it when the sol is wet as it will soften the klear). After it dries the residue should be wiped off with a damp cloth before dulling. If the decal is very large or has a lot of clear carrier film between the colored areas of the decal(i.e. a large lettering decal), an additional light topcoat of klear should ensure there is no silvering whatsoever when its later dulled.

A good video tutorial on decals is on the scaleworkshop site video series(all the videos in the series are pretty handy)

http://www.scaleworkshop.com/workshop/video7bg_1.htm

There was a good artical on decaling in a recient issue of Fine Scale Modeler. It covered all of the issues that you have and how to prevent it in the future. Greg.

which fsm issue was that greg? i’ll try to get a copy. personally i’ve been using gunze sangyo’s mr. mr. hobby “mr. mark softer” (funny name, that). i just wet the gloss surface with water, position the decals, then apply mr. mark softer with the brush. and remove the excess with some tissue or cotton swab. it works great.

Be carefull microset and micro sol are not the same thing, get microset for most jobs, using microsol only for tuff to stick decals

The instructions are on the bottles

Mikes right about the microsol and microset. Bloody stinks but its good stuff for getting decals to sit right! If you can't sort it what decals did you use? I'm sure someone can help you out with replacements if they're knackered.

Thanks for all the advice guys I realy appreciate it. I now have no excuses for any decal disasters!