Making Inkjet Waterslide Decals Part 6

Making Inkjet Waterslide Decals Part 6

The next step in this process was to try Walthers Solvaset.  But first let me recap the process so far:

1.  Design the decals in Adobe Illustrator
2.  Print them on clear decal paper I got from ebay using an Epson Stylus 2200 with settings of:
  max quality, glossy photo paper, hi-speed off, edge smoothing on
3.  Light coat of Krylon Colormaster Clear Flat Acrylic
4.  Microscale Liquid Decal Film hand brushed on after the acrylic is dry
5. Cut, soak, apply....

Now we come to the Solvaset.

Microsol is good, but not quite as strong as Solvaset.  I needed something to deal with the fact that I sprayed acrylic on my decals in order to allow me to apply decal film.

The Solvaset is stronger, but it will wrinkle the crap out of your decals if you aren't paying attention.  I like to get a little Solvaset under the decal and then wait a bit before going over the top to avoid the extreme wrinkling.  But, that still doesn't quite make them totally deal with the look of the film.

There is another old school method that I haven't experimented with yet, and that's gloss coating the model then putting on the decals and then glossing and finally finishing.  That's the way I used to do it, but the problem is that it doesn't let me know how well my printing method is doing.  So until I get the printing perfect I won't try the gloss undercoating.

Once I get the perfect decal, we'll move on to the next step and that is finding the best after coating.  So far, Krylon has been having a great deal of difficulty completely curing under indoor conditions.  However, a couple model that sat by an open window did cure nicely.

The white ink and the gloss coat for the Alps MD-1000 has just arrived and there will be an update on printing the yellow and white decals on clear paper shortly...if you remember, I can't use the highest settings on the Alps without having the finish coating cartridge, but now that I have it we'll give it a try.