Nate Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 (edited) I'm looking for any insight into why this might have happened, if anyone has seen this before, or if anyone has suggestions on recovery options? The short story is that when I applied the clear flat, the paint noticeably darkened only around the edges of the decals. The long story is: 1/200 Hasegawa 737 Primed with Tamiya Gray Surface Primer Fuselage airbrushed with Tamiya acrylic green No gloss coat - green was pretty glossy to start with Draw Decals 2nd generation Digital Silk decals per their instructions - warm water, no more than one or two applications of Micro-set/Micro-sol, and they looked pretty good. Sat on the shelf for a month or so... Today I went out and topcoated with Testor's Clear Flat out of the spray bomb (my goal was to buff the fuselage to give it a satin look and keep the wings flat) and I got these super weird shadows around all of the decal edges, a tiny bit of dissolved paint and a boatload of wildly consistent ghosting/silvering. I get the silvering and maybe the tiny spot of dissolved paint is likely my fault, but what is up with the shadows? The green paint darkened only around edges of the decals, the rest of the acreage is fine. The areas around the "kulula fans" and "throne zone" text show it best. It's almost like something in the flat pulled something out of the decal film and discolored everything. I don't like my "Spanish school" 737....any ideas?? TIA Nate Edited February 9, 2018 by Nate Fixed image link Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dnl42 Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 No picture is showing... Don't you have to clearcoat the decals first? Did you leave some clear carrier around the color? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nate Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 Thanks, fixed the picture. I'm fairly certain the decals don't require a clearcoat ahead of time, but they are printed on a continuous carrier and needed to be trimmed. There is a LOT of clear carrier left because of the windows and text relations - hopefully it will make sense why now that the pictures are up.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spejic Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 I would wait a long time (a few weeks at least) and then try using other clears on top of that and see if that has an effect. It might be that the coating of the decals dis something to repel the Testors clear you used, and another kind of clear (like an acrylic clear) would even things out. I've had Testors Dull Cote create random "silvering" when used on humid days - it wasn't traditional decal silvering, but moisture trapped in the clear. That worked it's way out in 6 months, and looked fine after that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nate Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 That's interesting about the Dull Cote clearing up- I'm in WA, and it (shockingly) had just stopped raining before I went outside to spray, so I'll definitely take that advice and see if it gets a little better with time.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RichardL Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 18 hours ago, Nate said: No gloss coat - green was pretty glossy to start with There is your problem. Always gloss coat the entire model after decaling to give it a uniform sheen and to protect the decals from the harsh flat top coat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bob Beary Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 My best explanation would be that the area around the decals (or more accurately, under the clear film of the decals) was protected from the dull coat. That paint did not get dull coated, thus remained the original color. Bob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nate Posted February 11, 2018 Author Share Posted February 11, 2018 Well, spejic was right about things clearing up with time - the decals and paint now look almost the same, but I still can't figure out why paint would only have dissolved around the edges of the decals. You would think I would have issues all over the plane if the clear was too much for the paint. My last build I used Tamiya acrylic, Tamiya decals, and the same can of clear flat with no issues.... Going forward I'll definitely take RichardL's advice to heart and remind myself to stop thinking I can get away with shortcuts!! Thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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