hon30critter Hi Mike: MikeFF I've used all those techniques over the years... Sorry if I sounded like I was talking to a newbie. Its hard to tell what level of experience many modelers have. Please share your results with the tissue paper. I'm curious to know how you will prevent the ink from bleeding once the glue is applied. Thank you for your comment on my Blair Line kit. Its actually only half of the kit. I chopped the building in half so I can put it up against the backdrop. I turned the rear half into a small clapboard house which will go beside the store. Dave
Hi Mike:
MikeFF I've used all those techniques over the years...
Sorry if I sounded like I was talking to a newbie. Its hard to tell what level of experience many modelers have. Please share your results with the tissue paper. I'm curious to know how you will prevent the ink from bleeding once the glue is applied.
Thank you for your comment on my Blair Line kit. Its actually only half of the kit. I chopped the building in half so I can put it up against the backdrop. I turned the rear half into a small clapboard house which will go beside the store.
Dave
hon30critter Hi Mike: Dave, We're all always learning. Anytime I get thinking I know it all, a project humbles me. The plan for the glue is to use as little as possible and coat the back to the tissue decal. The RC folks seem to be able to contain the leakage. We'll see.. Mike
Dave, We're all always learning. Anytime I get thinking I know it all, a project humbles me. The plan for the glue is to use as little as possible and coat the back to the tissue decal. The RC folks seem to be able to contain the leakage. We'll see.. Mike
Mike
MikeFFI've used all those techniques over the years...
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Dave, Thanks for the info, and nice work. I've used all those techniques over the years...just never tried decals on wood. I found some really good info on an RC airplane site about making tissue decals that go on with white glue and they are getting nice results. I'm going to give that a try on some scrap.
MikeFFI think I am back to making it a sign that hangs on the building instead of being painted on the building.
Making signs that 'hang' on the building is easy. Just photocopy the decals on to thick paper or thin card stock. You will have to seal the signs with Dullcote to prevent the ink from bleeding when the glue is wet.
Blair Line supplies signs with their kits that work quite well. Here is a kit that I did a while age. It is HO:
Another approach is to use paper signs and sand the back of the paper so that it is thin enough to conform to the surface detail when the glue is wet. J.L. Innovative offers a wide variety of signs that are intended to be applied in that manner. If you don't want to attempt the sanding, their signs are thick enough to use as 'hung' signs too:
http://www.jlinnovative.com/posters.html
Doctorwayne's suggestion about using dry transfers works very well too, if you can find suitable signs. Clover House is one supplier:
http://cloverhouse.com/Store/index.php?cPath=64_74&sort=2a&page=1
Woodland Scenics used to make lots of different dry transfer signs but most are discontinued.
For a sign, such as an advertisement, that could be a better option. For simple lettering on a wooden structure, you might try dry transfers. There's no gloss finish needed, and no decal film, so no flat finish is needed to hide them, either. Woodland Scenics has alphabet and numeral sets, and they may have some advertising signs, too.
Wayne
I think I am back to making it a sign that hangs on the building instead of being painted on the building.
MikeFF....(does anyone know what is in Solvaset?)....
According to the label, the contents are methoxy-2-propanol and methoxy-1-propanol.
You can read the MSDS for it HERE
Thanks, everyone, lots to think about.
I think Solvaset would be the best way to go, but I understand your concern about using a lot of it on a stained wood surface.
My suggestion would be to try to first minimize the grain texture where the decal(s) will be applied. One way to do that would be to use a small flat blade screwdriver (or a burnisher if you have one) to burnish the wood siding where the decal will go. You could use masking tape to mark off the area that needs work so the surrounding area still maintains it's texture. Burnishing will flatten out a lot of the wood grain that will hold the decal off of the surface and create bubbles. Then, with the area still masked, you could apply a few coats of Glosscote to the decal area to further reduce the irregularities. With the Glosscote in place, I think the Solvaset would have minimal effect, if any, on the wood.
I would definitely experiment first because one of the potential problems would be having either the Glosscote or the Solvaset bleed under the masking tape. If you use several VERY light coats of Glosscote you can minimize the bleeding. The problem with Glosscote is that the spray cans put out so much paint so quickly that getting a thin coat is a challenge. I would spray from at least 12" - 15" away from the model and then only make one pass with each coat. Let it dry between coats.
As for the potential effect of the Solvaset on the stained wood, the best procedure would be to stain a scrap piece of wood, let it dry, and then apply multiple coats of Solvaset to see if anything bad happens. Hopefully not.
Another thing you could do to minimize the appearance of the wall having been decaled would be to trim the decal film as close to the edge of the actual decal as possible. Doctorwayne uses this technique to eliminate the visible edge of the decal very effectively. I believe he uses a fresh single edged razor blade on a sheet of glass to get a nice clean cut. His decaling skills are amazing (as is everything else he does too).
Regards,
Edit: I forgot to say that you will still have to finish the decal area with Dullcote, but I'm sure you would have figured that out.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/4988.aspx
Dave Nelson: Clickable link.
You could apply a gloss coat to the decal area, then the decal, followed by a matt coat.
There was an article last year about printing a picture on tissue paper, then applying the tissue paper to the wood with white glue. You try a test on some scraps to see if the decal would adhere to the tissue, then glue to scrap wood
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I made a wood plank fence out of coffee stirrers, and put on some decals.
I used Microsol for these. The did settle in pretty well, but the wood is pretty low-grade and doesn't have much grain detail. These were home-made decals printed on clear decal paper and sealed with Liquid Decal Film, so the decals themselves were pretty thick. I painted white backgrounds to get the color balance to come out right.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Perhaps you are thinking of this thread that I started a long time ago.
I tried to make the decal snuggle into the rather rough grain of the wood in the Ambroid kit (and that rough grain DID and does capture very nicely the look of an authentic GN "plywood" sided caboose that has some years on it) with limited success and it still looks disappointing. At some point I am likely to have to remove the decal, gloss cote the caboose, decal it, and then dull cote it but it will not have the nice texture that it does now, alas.
Dave Nelson
I'm building a wood structure and would like to put a decal on it. I've done this on plastic, with the usual gloss, to decal, to flat spray technique. But, I don't want to add any gloss to the nice stain job on the siding and I'm concerned about the impact of using a lot of Solvaset to make the decal conform to the board and batten siding and stick to the wood (does anyone know what is in Solvaset?) Can anyone advise me on this? There was an earlier thread, but it ended without a post on how the project came out. Thanks.