That is exactly the situation the modelling gods created Microscale liquid decal film for. Coat your decals on the sheet, let it dry, and apply them as usual.

I've got all the decals on. The deicing boot decals fought me and they're going to need touching up.


The DC-4 decalling didn't go very well, as may be seen

Jessica,
Is the staining on the right wing from the decal solutions? Did you seal the Alcad with their sealer before decaling? I would suggest that you seal the entire wing with Alcad II lacquer base clear gloss. Let dry for a few days, mask with some de-tacked Tamiya tape, then re-apply the Alcad Aluminum. That should solve that problem.

Do you have any more of those decals to repair the left wing, or will you have to mix your own paint to match? Is so, that would be the harder fix of the two.

Joel

I was intending to use silver Rub'n Buff to do the touching up, and yes, the left fuel tank marking will have to be paint and a new red dot from punched out decal film. I'm more concerned about the blue trim on the fuselage top and that horribly out of position anti-glare panel which stayed stuck and wouldn't allow itself to be moved into position. I'm going to have to mask and paint all of that.

Hey everyone...

and Jessica, thanks for the waring, but I'm afraid I read it too late.. . I just want to ask whoever designed these decals, if those edges are suppose to meet in the middle, then why do the decals have so much curve in them.. arrrrgggg...

I'm getting the decals on but I don't think that this build will be a show piece, just another practice build for me.

Later
Delbert

When I started to decal my DC-4 I was happy to find out that the decals were printed by Cartograph , are yours printed by them?
I started the main war bonnet at the top seam and worked down and front to back.
I left of dome and antenna until the end of the build.
Cockpit window frames I used both clear and black to fill any blue missed by the war bonnet.

wow bad luck all around! I know all these can get fixed!


I just have the landing gear to deal with now...

looks like a piece of cake, nice instructions.

Thx for the hint, Jessica, I hope the coating with Gunze's flat base will do the trick for me, because I haven't got that Microscale product yet. Otherwise I'll have to try to get me some US markings, because these special ones are hard to find if at all. By the way, I like your DC 3+4, well done

Jessica, glad you have a Plan of Attack to fix those errors. With the glare from the flash I missed the anti glare panel issues, but that is an easy fix.

Joel

I've been seeing alot of really messed-up decals on the forum lately. Those who are having troubles certainly don't stand alone.

If you noticed from the previous page, this was my mess:


Here's the repair attempt:


It was all sort of a trade-off. I kinda repaired one damage only to damage other areas. Look close and you can now see some wrinkles in the yellow. This is where the laquer Alclad squeezed through Tamiya mask and softened the enamel. The same thing happened on the green cheat line.

At this point, I'm giving it time to dry-n-set, and then I'll protect it with two light Future coats.

All in all, I still feel it looks very nice, and I'm hoping to the Future will help level off everything.


I have a question. In the absence of any close LHS, I'm thinking about decanting semi-gloss clear coat from a hardware bought aerosol can, and using that for the final topcoat. Has anyone ever tried this with success?

All I have on hand is Future(Too much gloss) and Testor's Matt coat(too little gloss). Thanks.

Ben,
I've never decanted any aerosol cans. The issue is whether or not those clears will work on the paints you used, or dissolve them. I would go with a polyurethane or Acrylic base rather then a lacquer based clear.

Going forward, I would suggest Testors Dullcoat and Glosscoat. Both are lacquer based, both work perfectly every time. I've used them for more then 40 years without any issues. I Use Pledge for a decal base, then seal the decals with Pledge. From there on it's either Glosscoat or Dullcoat.

With the Alcads, did you mist on the 1st few coats? That will also help to seal the heavier coats from getting under the Tamiya tape.

Joel

@Ben
Your DC-3 looks already fine, she'll be a beauty after finishing! Good luck!

The decals for my Skyraider finally let me down
Some worked, some continued to disintegrate, so I stopped for the time being. Was still lucky to find somebody on ebay in the USA to sell me another example of these, I hope they are in better condition and will work. So I have little hope to finish this campaign successfully, but at least I (hopefully) get my model right as planned.
The general isn't amused either and considering to court-martial me...
So everybody thank you and I'm looking forward to see your fine models in the gallery

Thanks for the quick reply, Joel.


In answer to your question, Joel. No, I did not mist. I do realize that I should. Unfortunately, I'm a rather impatient, one spray speed kinda modeller. Usually, all my mess is solely my fault, and not the products.

As far as a final coat goes, I'm going to experiment with thinned liquid Diamond Finish acrylic varathane. Why not, it seems to work good on furniture. I'll try it out on scrap first.

@Peter, you must have been posting at the same time as me. So sad your having troubles with your Skyraider. I requote:

Ben,
Always take your time, especially when airbrushing. The tack/mist layer or two helps seal the tape, & helps form a tack layer for heavier coats to stick to, which prevents runs to an extent. Any paint, especially a lacquer based paint will find it's way under tape, and into paint if there is no barrier layer to prevent it.

You're going to need to thin that decanted clear down some. What are you planning on using? I would suggest lacquer thinner. This time start with a few light mist coats and work your way up to a few heavier coats.

Joel

Howdy again.

Here is a progress photo.. still doing the decals, and I don't know if I should laugh or cry... LOL

these decals don't seem to have much grip.. cheers to Solveset..



back to work.. 2 days left. It will be finished.. then we will see if it is brought in for a landing or just crashes..


Delbert

good work man.

Ive been fussing over my landing gears for a days. nothing with photographing yet.

Looking good!

Well, your camera isn't magnifying the faults, I can't see any. Be patient, many campaign admins will grant a few extra day for nearly finished projects...

Delbert, The decaling came out suburb. Looking forward to your finished set of pictures.
Joel

I'm really impressed with the effort going on here. I like Jessica's CP orange, and Delbert's DC-4's colors are wonderful.

I'm very close to being all decaled up. I must say, I've had a bear of a time with it. The door decals disinigrated on water immersion, and the windows(especially cockpit) and anti-glare panel will give me nightmares for years to come.

All in all, I'm happy with it. Being only my 2nd near finishing 1/144, I'm considering it a learning experience.



I'm still working on her. There will be photo's placed in the gallery before campaigns end, though, as the fat lady is nearly singing.

It may be the inks they use, or the decal film, but nearly every Leading Edge sheet I've ever used has broken up on me if I didn't use it right away. Store one for any length of time and it's pretty much guaranteed to give you troubles if you don't coat the decals before using them. It's gotten to the point where I routinely coat them preemptively.

And it's worth the fuss for the subject matter

Your doing a good job Ben I really like the colours!

oh yeah, Ben, that looks great!


Im nearly done with mine as well.

after several days of fussing - and cussing, the landing gear is done. the wheel wells were ungracefully gouged out of solid milliput and the metal gear struts epoxied into the cavities. a coat of "oily grime" completed that misery. i am rather pleased with the scratched up oil coolers.

not quite finished. Id like to find some antennae of various types to stick on.

Thanks Richard and Jessica. It's nice when the effort your putting in a project is noticed, even when it's not perfection.




Coat them with what, Jessica. Wouldn't a clear coat crack if your decaling compound curves?
I really like Leading Edge subjects, and own many different sets. I'll have to do something to solve the issues.