Clear decal film

[Raziel-TX]

Anyone know how to get rid of the clear film that some decals have after being applied?  I’ve tried micro sol as well as a couple matte coats but to no avail :/

Thanks in advance!

[Grotsmasha]

Unfortunately some transfers are just junk, the best course of action I've found is to take your smallest brush and carefully paint colour over the clear bits.

[Imren]

I wrote this response in a thread some time ago. Perhaps it can be of some help:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/369555-decals/

[Karhedron]

Anyone know how to get rid of the clear film that some decals have after being applied?  I’ve tried micro sol as well as a couple matte coats but to no avail :/

Thanks in advance!

The best way is to apply a couple of thin coats of gloss varnish to the area before you apply the transfer. The film is visible mostly because of microscopic air bubbles trapped under the transfer. The smother and shinier the surface, the less of a problem it will be.

 

Then use micro sol during application and matt varnish the whole area once everything is thoroughly dry. I normally get the transfer film pretty much invisible this way.

[Rik Lightstar]

There's a pair of products called Micro-Sol & Micro-Set which will eliminate the sheen outline from the clear film.

 

The short version of the way to use it is:

-Gloss Varnish and make sure it's totally dry

-Use Micro-Set in place of water to soak the transfer

-Apply a thin layer of Micro-Set to the "target" area

-Place the transfer as normal

-Use a damp cottonbud/q-tip to GENTLY smooth the transfer

-Once dry apply Micro-Sol over the top, and let it dry again. You may need to repeat this step if the film is particularly thick or glossy

 

There are a bunch of videos on YouTube too, but the process is pretty straight forward.

 

Rik

[Bryan Blaire]

After following Rik’s or Imren’s steps above, I like to give any areas I’ve put decals on a gloss varnish coat to merge everything beneath and hide the edges of the decal more, and then do a matte varnish layer above that.  It gives you a lot of layers, but you can put them on smoothly and I have found it helps to hide any shine from the edges that might be present, even on old decals that have a lot more clear edging.

 

I will also caveat that I still soak my decals in water before putting them on with the Micro-Set and -Sol products, not sure if you do the soaking in Micro-Set if that already attenuates the shine some.

[Rik Lightstar]

I tend to soak it in the Micro-Set mostly because I'll have it out already and it's always clean, I can't really say if it affects the amount of shine as I like to use a very light layer of gloss varnish between most of the major steps. I much prefer painting onto a gloss surface and it makes correcting errors a lot easier*. 

 

Something I would like to add to what I said above too, if you're planning to do ANY kind of weathering, battle damage or similar then make sure you do your transfers and any free hand markings BEFORE you start that process.

 

It may sound obvious, but it's one of those things where your mini will just look wrong if you do it the other way around, and until someone points it out you won't realise WHY they look wrong.

 

 

*If you've used a light coat of varnish after each stage then you can easily clean off any errors you make while painting with a small amount of airbrush cleaner and a clean brush. It's like regularly saving your work or computer game progress. Even if you don't need it 9 times out of 10, that one time when you do, you'll be incredibly glad you got into the habit.

 

Rik

[Raziel-TX]

Thank you all for the insight. I’ll take a whack with the gloss and hopefully that will ease up the film.