Overspraying decals...

[Maximus]

Gday all.

As most of you know most Spark F1 cars come with a super secret set of dastardly tobacco decals tucked under the base for those evil buggers amongst us that like our F1 cars to look like the real thing. I now have quite a few of these cars and would like to start adding the ciggie ads to them. However, never having done this before I was wondering if the S143 community could give me some advice on how best to do this. Of most importance is:

1. Should the freshly applied decals be clear coated?
2. If so would that require coating the entire bodywork? Or can I , as suggested elsewhere, just brush clear coat over the new decal?
3. And what is the preferred clear cote for the members here?

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated as these cars are way to expensive for me to go buggering them up.
Thanks in advance.

[David MG]

Not bein a racer but an observer, I would just leave the decals as they are. I used to be involved via Texaco with McLaren an the decals applied were of different “shinieness”.

[Maximus]

Not bein a racer but an observer, I would just leave the decals as they are. I used to be involved via Texaco with McLaren an the decals applied were of different “shinieness”.

Hmmm...but dont the new decals need to be "protected"?

[scalainj]

I don't coat mine at all and they have stood up fine so far.
I understand clear coating on model kit decals is the norm and yes it needs doing but with these i'm not sure

I think if you are going to coat them then coat just the decal

[Jager]

My experience so far with 20 year old Minichamps decals is that ones applied to painted surfaces are fine and have no problems. However, the ones that were (factory) applied to plastic parts like wings, spoilers, mirrors etc invariably lift. Some of the worst are the decals applied to the unpainted rear wings of my Minichamps Le Mans BMW LMR's - I actually decided to peel them off my '99 Le Mans winner because it looked so bad.

[Tom]

There are decal softeners and fixatives for sale in hobby stores that might help.

[Serafa]

You don't really need to do anything, besides having a picture of the real car in front of you and a small cup of water to release the decals from the decal sheet. I would search for videos on YouTube first to study the technique if I were you.

The coat will protect your decals from lifting in the future, but this is restricted to only some bad quality decals. Unfortunately I have seen many Minichamps with this issue as Ian mentioned, even when the decals came with the original model.

I think you just need to really be careful with light. It can get your decals suffer from discoloration.

[Maximus]

Thanks everybody. I know the horror of the decals lifting from unpainted surfaces as i have a lot of late 80s/ early 90s Onyx models. It tends to be a real problem on those. I do have a couple of Spark and Minichamps cars that have the ciggie decals already applied and i thought they looked like they had not been coated but wasnt sure.

There are decal softeners and fixatives for sale in hobby stores that might help.

Tom. Any suggestions on which decal softeners and fixatives would be best for Spark decals?

[Tom]

Sorry, no experience there. Every Spark that I have came fully decked out.

[David MG]

Any suggestions on which decal softeners and fixatives would be best for Spark decals?

Microscale Microset & Walthers Solvaset

[Jager]

Microscale Microset.....

I've used the same with good results as well. Easily obtainable in most good hobby stores.

[Maximus]

Thanks everyone. I reckon this is a good starting point....now lets see how many ways i can bugger it up before i get it right....lol

[Jager]

If you lack experience, one tip is to practice applying decals with a cheap 1/43 Heller F1 kit.

[raystaggs]

If you lack experience, one tip is to practice applying decals with a cheap 1/43 Heller F1 kit.

Nice idea - I'll be doing that before going for the real thing...

[Maximus]

If you lack experience, one tip is to practice applying decals with a cheap 1/43 Heller F1 kit.

Yep I have a few cheap diecasts that I will be experimenting with first

Im not without modelling experience but most of that involved dirty rusty old military stuff....shiny and neat is the difficult bit.

[reeft1]

Micro Sol/Micro Set are fine. I wouldn't use them unless you have panel gaps or you are bending round corners in which case these help the decal snuggle down in to the gaps .

For a painted on look there is a more powerful softener called solvaset but use sparingly as it can cause the decals to warp before they settle down - very disconcerting at first!

I wouldn't bother clear coating.