Alright guys. I was trying my hand at decaling a model (40' boxcar) and all went well on the first side. On the second side, one small part of the decal right in the middle of the road name down the side had shrunk and distorted. Any idea what went wrong? Some specs: It's an old Athearn blue box car painted with a rattle can. Rattle can gloss coat applied 2-3 weeks ago. Microset applied where decals intended to go, although it simply beaded up on the surface. Had to soak the decal for longer than I expected to get them to release (about 2 minutes). Once positioned Microsol was applied and the model not touched until the Microsol dried. However, in this instance I kind of panicked, dampened a q-tip with a bit of microsol, and tried to tease the distorted decal back out closer to size. You can imagine how that went. I just don't understand what could have caused the decal to shrink and distort in one spot. Any ideas?
Mike
decals shouldn't shrink and / or distort ....
that would mean the backing paper would have shrunk also ??
or did it shrink once removed from the backing ??
Yeah, actually, that's when it shrank was after it was in place on the model and I walked away from it. I discovered it about 4 hours later. The road name (Copper Range) looked like the "an" was getting sucked into a vortex. The letters were about 2/3 the size of the rest and sort of twisting. Just bizarre. The only thought I had was maybe too much Microsol?
it might have been ... i've never had decals that 'shrank' that much, if any .. Neither real old store bought, or old home made .... dunno ??
Is there a chance the decal got slightly wet - and then dried out - before it was used? I am not sure that would cause shrinkage, but rather weakening of the decal's integrity. I know when applying the very small decals of ACI labels (I model the late 1960s) from time to time likely due to my ineptness it getting the wet decal off the backing paper I have had the decal kind of double up on itself and thus it didn't look long enough. But the decal paper is so thin that you would not readily notice a thicker middle of the decal, so to speak. So visually it would look like it shrunk but the reality was, it slightly doubled back on itself.
Dave Nelson
dknelson...the decal paper is so thin that you would not readily notice a thicker middle of the decal, so to speak. So visually it would look like it shrunk but the reality was, it slightly doubled back on itself....
That sounds a lot more plausible to me, Dave.
Wayne
I understand what you are saying, but would that happen in the middle of a decal as opposed to the edges? I applied the name as one long decal and it did its shrink/twist trick basically in the center. Or are you saying the sides sort of buckled in on themselves? Could have I guess. I didn't notice any thickness on the edges, but I admittedly sort of panicked when I saw it. Can it be prevented?
Sometimes decals distort... sorry, it is just a fact of life.
Sometimes it happens to decals you only have one set of, so you just have to live with it, like this RIVENDELL AND MIDLAND car, Route Of The Misty Mountains... too funny.
The large herald curved upwards along the bottom. Nothing caused it, I have applied decals like this literally hundreds of times using the same techniques.
I learned not to try and fix it, you will just make it worse. That is what happened to the number and data on this CASPAR AND SILVER CREEK boxcar... I tried to fix it.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Water Level Route I understand what you are saying, but would that happen in the middle of a decal as opposed to the edges? I applied the name as one long decal and it did its shrink/twist trick basically in the center. Or are you saying the sides sort of buckled in on themselves? Could have I guess. I didn't notice any thickness on the edges, but I admittedly sort of panicked when I saw it. Can it be prevented?
Guys,
Thanks for all the help on this. While I didn't get a pic of it before I panicked, I did grab one before I implemented my idea for a fix:
IMG_4806 by Michael, on Flickr
The deformed A in the pic is untouched, the N kept the same basic tilt/twist as when I found it, but I did manage to stretch it out to basically the original height. The G i totally destroyed. It was fine before I touched it. So my inelegant solution was that the boxcar sustained damage while out on the interchange and received a non-home road shop repair, hence the different color.
IMG_4818 by Michael, on Flickr
And hey, at least one side turned out okay!
IMG_4819 by Michael, on Flickr
Hmmm, maybe I finally have something to share in Weekend photo fun.
Thanks again guys!
dknelsonI guess being real careful, slow and relying on the power of prayer are about my only suggestions.
I think that's it right there.
Water Level RouteSo my inelegant solution was that the boxcar sustained damage while out on the interchange and received a non-home road shop repair, hence the different color.
That works! I like it. There is no mistake you can make that can't be overlooked or hidden.
I sent my COPPER RANGE freight cars out to be used as target practice.