Decal's onto a flat colored surface.

I have a question about putting decals onto a flat surface. now, if the vehicle in question, is intended to be flat colored, would the decals stick to it easily? Should I spray the area to be decaled with clear gloss, then decal, then spray with dullcoat? what is this future that I hear about people using.
also, the flat color, was sprayed on with an airbrush. I don't know if that makes a difference compared to brushed on. thanks.

to make decals stick to a flat paint, you should use some micro-set setting solution.

then once all your decals are on, give the model a coat of dullcoat clear to protect them.

if you want to use future(which is an acrylic floor wax), you will need to mix in some tamyia flat base, and spray it on with an airbrush

If you apply decals to a flat finish,many times the edges will "silver". Either start out a gloss paint,then decal , and finish with a dullcoat...or use flat paint, then glosscoat,decal,and finish with dullcoat.

Hope this helps.

to make decals stick to a flat paint, you should use some micro-set setting solution.

then once all your decals are on, give the model a coat of dullcoat clear to protect them.

if you want to use future(which is an acrylic floor wax), you will need to mix in some tamyia flat base, and spray it on with an airbrush


so then all I do is brush on the mircoset? how much do I use, alot, or just a few drops, then do I soak the decal as usual. should I let the microset dry, or keep it wet? would using this combat that "silver" edge that was mentioned? when applying the dullcoat, how long should I let the microset and decals dry?

you apply the micro-set to the area of the model where you will be putting the decal enough so it stays wet. this stuff prepares the suface to give the decal's better adhesion to the model and prevents tiny air bubbles from occurring and results in an invisible carrier film or the so called "paint on look".

you put your decal on the wet micro-set and blot up any access water
then you allow the decal to sit overnight, then you can apply your dullcoat overtop

If the surfice is not gloss there is a great possibility that you will have silver lines around the decals no matter if you use Microsol or not, but if the decals are solid with no see through on the edges (or if they are solid you could cut that edge) you won't have so much silver lines. At the other hand if you have many see through decals (like letters on clear decal then it is best to make gloss clear coat before. The problem is that Microsol will perfectly lay down the decal on the surfice but matt colour has this tiny not smooth finish that the decal is to "fat" for even with microsol. So my suggestion is to spray gloss clear coat first, then decals and then matt clear, the effect will be perfect, because even decals are shiny and you have to apply dullclear affter them any how.

The best wy as Privateer said is to apply the decals to a gloss finish then spray your matt or dullcoat over the top. I wouldnt recommend the microset method as it is likely to leave residue on the paint which is almost impossible to remove on a matt finish. However if its just small decals being apllied to hard to see areas, like interiors for example, then this shouldn't matter.

On WWII airplanes I sometimes do:... shoot the model with the colors you want, clear coat with future or anything else the entier plane (or you'll have different kind of flat). Then dacals... let dry a couple of days then a mist of Clear/Flat base mixed all over the shell again (be carefull). Followed by 2 or 3 wet coats and voilà. There's more than one way to do this... the important thing is to get the air out of the back of the decals and a flat paint will emprison too much of this air letting the clear area of your decals kind of silver.

As above, either use a gloss paint, then decal and flat down, or use flat paint, future to gloss up the area the decal will go and then flatten it back down. Decals are likelly to silver if applied on a flat surface and microset/sol won't help with that (read the instructions on the back of the bottles!). Decal solutions are to help decals conform to surfaces, they only work well on a gloss surface.