"Painted on" decal look help

[dstarr]

You want to seal the raw wood with a coat of paint, or varnish.  Don't use shellac, the water in the decal does bad things to shellac.   A lot of people will tell you to use gloss paint, but I don't bother.  Decals settle down on Floquil, auto primer,  anything. 

  I have never used the Micro Sol stuff.  I have been getting excellent results with Walther's Solvaset for many years and I don't plan to change.  Solvaset makes the decal film go all soft and stretchy and snuggle down over rivets, scribed planking, lumps and bumps.  Make very sure the decal is in the right place before applying Solvaset.  Once the decal film softens, any attempt to relocate it will tear the decal.   Let the decal mostly dry before using Solvaset lest the decal float away.  Blot up any water droplets left over from applying the decal. 

[MisterBeasley]

I wanted these signs to look weathered.  They wouldn't be "paiinted" on as much as paper posters applied with glue, with relatively short lifetimes.

This advertisement would have looked new once, but it too has faded with time:

These are home-made decals.  Because inkjet printers like mine can't print white, and expect to be printed on white paper, I painted rectangles on the the surface with white craft paint and then applied the decals over them.

"Proper" decal application says to use a smooth, glossy surface.  I threw that rule out the window, and applied my decals to a rough, flat surface.  That's why they don't look new, but rather weathered, which is the effect I wanted.

[GP-9_Man11786]

A number of years ago, I read in MR's sister magazine Garden Railways, about how to make painted on signs using the iron-on patches for making t-shirts. Basically you paint out the sign on the iron-on transfer and  then hold it in position and apply a heat source.

for a styrene building, I paint on the color I want my lettering, the use dry transfer letters as masking. I then paint the second color over them. After the top color drys, I use masking tape to remove the dry transfers. This is how I made the "Angie's Diner" sign:

[georgev]

Here's a couple of thoughts, although I've never tried to apply decals on wood like you describe.  Several applications of Micro-sol (the softener) will certainly help draw the decal into the wood grain. 

What hides the decal film the best is first putting down a coat of gloss finish before decaling, followed by a coat of flat finish after all decals are complete.  The gloss gives the film a good base to adhere to, and the flat finish hides the film.  The brand of flat finish makes a difference also.  I have on occasion just applied the gloss finish to the area of the model where the decal would go.  That might work for you if you find you need something smoother than painted wood.  

I have found (like most things) that a couple of practice runs can help when doing something new.   Do you have some extra decals on the set you plan to use that you could experiment with? 

George V.

[gmcrail]

The thing to do before applying decals to a wood surface is to make sure the wood is sealed.  If, as you say. it's painted, that shouldn't be a problem.  You will probably have to make several applications of your setting solution, which could be a problem if the wood is not really sealed completely.  And, just as with a plastic or metal model, you'll need to overcoat the decal.

[dschroeder83]

I'm looking at using some microscale water transfer decals on a painted wood structure. Was looking at the microset/sol products and am thoroughly confused at which to use or if this will even work on a wood kit painted with polyscale.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)