- The Airfix Tribute Forum -

... yep I know it would keep me warm, but as you know its the matt cote I'm trying to avoid (but doubt if I will).. so any advice please?...I'm nearly at the end of a 5 month experience at the shipbuilders yard (aka my front room) with HMCS Snowberry... just the mast, rigging and decals and ready for launching onto the sideboard for display... (special dispensation from Her Majesty for this honour as it shall be in the public domain of the house for all to see!). Usually I paint the decal areas with gloss cote... apply the decals with or without setting solution depending on the surface, then paint the whole model with matt or silk cote, (whichever cote the model needs)... Because Snowberry is very large with lots of area to cover I'm trying not to do my usual process so I can save some time, effort and copious amounts of varnish, (and also because it looks fine just with the paint. I think my options are 1/ apply the decals straight on and when dry cut and scrape the backing film away from the lettering... risking them breaking etc and looking a dog's dinner 2/ apply the decals and when dry paint around the lettering with the appropriate colours...(although most are a mix which would be hard to replicate)... or 3/ apply the decals and suffer the silvering.
Any other ideas or is it back to my usual process of gloss cote..(I prefer this to Klear) on the decal areas... apply decals.. then matt cote overall... followed by a cup of tea... or in the Snowberry's case a large tot of brandy!!
thanks for any thoughts !

Ayup Clive...

Given how large and complex this model is (having seen the size of the Box !) I would tend to play safe and just do my normal thing, however much extra work.

You'll know then that all your lovely paint and Decalwork will be protected.

Remembering back to the age before clear-coating, I recall two approaches to the problem. One was to trim away all clear film from the decal, soak and apply the (trimmed) decal as usual. The other approach was to get dry transfers and replace the water-slide variety. Letraset made model decals in those days, so you could actual replace the decals with those. This was an awkward process, so Letraset wasn't very popular, however, for something like the big letters/numbers on the side of a ship, you cans still buy dry-transfer, rub on lettering at any decent art supply or some good hobby shops (or on-line).

Hey all

Must say I agree with feanor it'll be a job but best to do it your usual way. It's the same way I do decals and I can't see a way of getting them to settle down without ending up with some kind of gloss surface that will need to be matted over.

All I can say is don't pass out from the fumes of all that matt cote.

thanks for all your answers... on balance I think I'm going to follow what I know works for me and thats the gloss cote before the decals followed by overall matt cote.... just got to make sure I've got all the (5month, 13 day, 7 hours and 43 minutes) layers of dust off first,.. now thats another topic for getting advice on !! cheers

Gloss coat just the decal area with your favourite gloss and then get a can of Citadel Matt Varnish.