Video: Applying decals

[Scefen]

Hi,

I feel I'm starting to understand the basics of painting, so now I'm moving on to decal applying. I'm building a Ferrari Enzo 1/24 Tamiya, and there are some carbon fiber decals included which I'm going to use.
My question is how to apply the decals properly. I checked the Tutorial section and the very good How to apply decals.
I searched youtube for some videos as a complement to the thread, and stumbled onto this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cue_p...eature=related

I want to know if it's a video that covers all the parts in the process of applying decals? Could it be a good reference for my Enzo decals?

And another question. The back of the seats should be covered with these decals, should I paint them first to make the decals stick better? (Because the guy in the video mentioned he gloss-coated the airplane in preparation for the decals)

Cheers,
Fred

[Madish]

Yep, he's right.
For cars and big decals try to use hairdryer and damp cloth. Put the decals as shown in tutorial but if they can't curve into some place, use hairdrayer for approx 30 seconds and then press it with damp cloth so that it would copy the surface. It need a lot of patience

Also if they are complicated, you can cutt them on the edges with x-Acto knife so that they will copy the surface without unnecessary stretching

For that seat, it's better to paint them with any color. Since it would be covered by CF decal it could be black gloss color or just gloss clear. Whatever

[Scefen]

Thanks for the info

[TRBJ]

i use olfa hobby knife.. olfa is also has some veery high quality blades..

[MidMazar]

One thing i noticed in the video was that he never cut out the decal film around the decal. I always try to cut as close to the decal as possible as you get rid of the excess decal film that will get noticed on the final product.

[Madish]

Yeah but they can tear if you want to cut the edges

What I do is that I just left it as it is, then clearcoat it with 3 thin layers of clear and then sand these edge with sandpaper 1000 and higher to get a smooth surface and then polish it.