Decals...

   I've never been a fan of decals.  From the mythical days of my childhood and building model cars and airplanes to the current times of retired professional, I just never had good luck with them.  Waterslide transfers, or decals, just never 'do it' for me.  I don't like the way they leave the border, the way they shine against the matte model body, or the way they look too 'clean' compared to a hand-paint job.  But I want to use them as I have hundreds of sheets of them lying around.  But they never work out and I just default to freehanding (which I am talented enough, just not motivated).  

  But I decided to paint up an old tank for my Chaos Marines and figured to do some research and give the pro methods a try.  Flat surfaces (Space Marine shoulder pads are the bane of decals!) make for good learning.  And, as promised in the post about that tank, the attempt would make a great post for later!  So after watching others' videos and reading their blogs on the process, I found that I wasn't far off- the process hasn't changed much in 40 years!  

  As with any hobby project, you have to first gather the materials.  For this, you will need a small tub or cup of warm water (they're called 'waterslide transfers' for a reason), a small paintbrush (I used a new 'layer'-sized brush), paper towels, a set of tweezers, a sharp hobby knife, the decals (of course), and a couple of products from the interwebs- 

  Once you have all those materials and some calming music playing in the background (I tend to enjoy some Bach or Mozart, or early Metallica), it's time to begin the fun.  The first step is to coat the area of the model with gloss varnish (or 'ardcoat in this case).  Be sure to use quite a bit of water in the varnish as the goal is to make a very smooth surface.  While that varnish is drying, cut out the decals (as close to the image as possible) and drop them into the warm water.  

I cut out the decals and staged them 

Applied 'ardcoat to all the target areas...

And started dropping decals into the water.

  As the decals are slowly washing off their sheets, and obviously well after the 'ardcoat has dried completely (I rushed this and I'm not confident that it didn't have an effect), brush some Micro-set onto the area.  This vinegar-smelling chemical is a very weak adhesive and allows the decal to cling to the surface better.  Then, remove the decal from the water with the tweezers and, using a paintbrush, slide the decal from its sheet onto the surface that you'd like it to go.  

Lay down the 'set...

slide the transfer/decal to the area...

and adjust as needed until the decal is placed perfectly.

  Once the decal is placed on the model where it's meant to go, use a paper towel to gently smash it into the surface.  This is to flatten the decal, remove the excess water and Microset, and push out air bubbles.  If the decal is being placed on a rounded or irregular surface, this may still leave folds and bubbles as the flat decal doesn't fit well.  This is where that sharp knife may be necessary to cut some micro-slits, but that needs a video to show.  Otherwise, applying the other 'micro'- the Microsol, will help as this chemical slowly melts the decal.  There is a risk that the image may be faded off, but focus the brush with Microsol around the edges and any folds in the center.

So much 'feathering'...

  Once the decal is completely dry and fits on the area it's supposed to, go back and slather gloss varnish over it again.  This is to 'fill the edges' as well as seal the decal onto the model.  As warned before, be sure that the decal and chemicals are all dried as the effectiveness could be lessoned if you move too quick (ask me how I know...).  

And slather the 'ardcoat again!

  This post is wholly motivated by my Predator tank and the attempt at this stuff again.  Therefore, pics of said tank and the placement of all the decals must be shown:

I even 'stacked' the decals for this one!

  Once all of everything is dry and the decals are solid and set, it is time for the final step.  At this point, spray the entire model with matt varnish (I used the Munitorum stuff from GW)- this will 'flat' all the shiny decals and join the texture to the rest of the model.  Be sure, of course, to retouch anything that was supposed to be shiny with 'ardcoat after- those headlights got me!

  I haven't taken any pictures of the end result because I'm not a fan of the final result.  All of the reasons that I don't like decals, as listed above, still showed.  Now, I have to give credit in that the decals did fit quite a bit better than past attempts and they are certainly sealed in (I did the chip-corner test and nothing moved!), so there was some obvious success.  But the glossiness still showed and many of the decals still had 'edges'.  This could be because I rushed much of the process and didn't have the patience for the results, and it could be that I'm VERY paranoid with spray varnish as I don't want to ruin a good paint job with the fog (PS- that's what happened to the Termie Lord you see above- I'm a little upset by that), so I always go too light.  

  Overall, I'm certainly closer to conquering the decal-life, but I'm still not a pro at it at all.  Through trial-and-error shall I learn this, so what will my next victim be...

Happy Hobbying!