"Any way to rescue the decals

Most of those look like they could be saved with a bit of weathering over them so maybe you can just try again on another car. I'd just cut one decal from a different set and see if it works before committing to do the whole car.       

I've had old decals that silvered badly, not sure if it was the age or the type of paper there were on but they were thicker than newer decals.

Future won't make a bad decal better but it's worth trying a small sample job to see how you like the process. It does take a bit of practice to learn but is worth it to have another arrow in your quiver. For instance Future even lets you decal on bare plastic which is handy at times :> ) .....DaveB

Did the other side today

I think someone mentioned on this forum using a coat of gloss

over the entire car after the decals are applied before using the dull coat to avoid silvering.

Round two turned out better

This is the otherside. Not as much silvering as I need a much neater job trimming the decals. Still needs some Micro Set to settle into the groove some more.

Those look fine.

Trimming closer leaves less area for silvering. I use a tiny pair of scissors or a sharp bladed exacto knife and straight edge to cut close to the line....DaveB

20+ years since the last decal job

Decalling Technique

Craig--

Try using Future instead of the Krylon if you want, but I don't think it will make a difference as long as you are decaling onto a gloss surface. I think your decals are not "snuggling" (I think that was a Champ term) down into the surface so that there is air between the decal and surface.

I always use distilled water. Let the decal soak according to the manufacturer's directions. Usually the more modern thin decals need only a few seconds in the water while older Champ needs the decal "soaked off."

After removal from the water, I place the decal still on the backing onto a paper towel, allowing excess water to be wicked off. Then brush on a small amount of Micro Set (blue label) at the desired location on the model.

The Micro Set allows a little time to precisely position the decal. Once satisfied it is positioned correctly, leave it alone.

When it is nearly dry, a little Solvaset on a small brush is placed around the edges where it will be drawn under the decal by capillary action. Any air bubbles can be pierced with a sharp needle or single edge razor blade corner and treated with Solvaset.

I do not use the red label Micro Sol. Once the decals are thoroughly dry, a cotton swab dipped in distilled water is used to clean up any decal glue residue.

Everyone has their favorite technique; this is mine, happily and successfully used on many, many decals.

Steve Hoxie

Pensacola FL

If you watch the decals

If you watch the decals carefully as they set you can catch the silvering before it sets in place and fix it. I use white vinegar full strength to wet the decals and place them on the model, then Micro Sol once the decal is located where I want.

I allow the Micro Sol to evaporate and snuggle the decal down to the model surface. As this is happening, you should be able to see areas where the decal is silvering. This is caused by not having any liquid between the decal and the model surface.

If you see it occurring, put a drop of Micro Sol next to the decal taking care to avoid disturbing the decal and distorting it. I use a soft brush and apply pressure on the decal straight down perpendicular to the model face to avoid sliding or distorting the decal.

I've found that I have better luck getting the decal to settle properly when I get the Micro Sol to flow under the decal vs. when I poke holes in the decal and bring the Micro Sol through the holes.

One key to this process is to not let the Micro Sol evaporate completely, but to catch the silvering in the act, so to speak. It will seem to do nothing for a long time before you notice any evaporation, but once the evaporation starts it goes pretty quickly.

If I am unable to get a decal to snuggle down completely using Micro Sol, I try another round of Micro Sol just before all the liquid evaporates. If the decal is not settled down by the end of the second round, I'll try Solvaset using the same process.

At this point it's imperative not to touch the decal at all since the Solvaset is so aggressive the decal can be easily damaged and distorted.

Sometimes there are small bubbles left over so I pop those and allow the trapped liquid to escape but only when the decal is just on the verge of drying.

A minute or two later a drop of Solvaset on the popped bubble will almost certainly settle it down.

MicroSet/Microsol

Microscale recommends a gloss surface to receive the decals, followed by a wash of MicroSet  (blue label) on the model where the decal will go to "soften the decal & improve adhesion" before applying the decal.

"On highly irregular surfaces and for the tightest adhesion" apply MicroSol (red label) to the entire decal with a soft brush. At this point the decal will soften and may wrinkle. Don't touch it! Upon drying the decal will flatten down and conform to the surface.

On some surfaces (louvers, ribs etc.) I've had to apply MicroSol two or three times before the decal settles down. MicroSol makes the decal very fragile until it dries.  Once it sets up and looks right, I give it a light coat of clear finish -- gloss, satin or matte depending the desired effect.

There are nine steps on the back of every Microscale envelope. Follow them and you're good.

. . .

Microscale MicroSet and MicroSol is a two part system.

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/graphics/Instructions/MSISysteminstr.pdf

You use the Microset as the base. The decal is floated onto a bed of MicroSet and final placement established. 

Once dry it should be followed by application of MicroSol to further work the decal.  Once MicroSol is applied, do not touch decal at all.  It is a solvent.

Some suggest almost boiling water should be used in some cases.  I would also add a drop of detergent to the decal water. This breaks surface tension of water and will be added to the MicroSet when you lay the decal down.

Your SET and SOL are how OLD ?  Might they be due for replacement.

Doing a web search on the subject really brings up solutions from mild to wild.  Nitro Cellulose or NC Thinner was also suggested as well as nail polish remover..  These all soften the decal.

Frankly, looking at your pictures, it must be more visible in person. I could only make out silvering on the black portion of cross. So much reflected light in pics. 

I agree with who ever mentioned weathering.  How often are you so close and personal with the car  :- )

Marc

Saving silvered decals

I've managed to save several silvered decals by applying 50% Solvaset diluted with distilled water on top of the decal.  Use minimal amounts, brushing over a small area at one time.  While the decal is still damp, make short  parallel slices into it with a new Xacto or razor blade. Gently dampen over the cuts as they are made.

Do not "work over" the decal, as it is likely to bunch up and be ruined.  Let the decal dry for 24 hours and then see if the silvering is gone.  If not, repeat the process making cuts in the same direction as originally.  Avoid cutting crosswise to previous cuts.

If the silvering is gone, apply full strength Solvaset and let dry.  Finish with gloss, Dullcote, or whatever is regularly used.  If the silvering isn't gone, remove the decal and apply a new one or, as suggested in other posts, weather over it.

Sol & Set are new

Silvering

The problem seems to often occur with decals that have become extremely dry, as if they had been stored close to a heat source. Had this problem with some old Champs from, literally, a fire sale of hobby shop stock. The decals had quite a bit of curl, were brittle, and were hard to position.  Floating them onto a surface 60% Solvaset and 40% water from the dehumidifier helped. This was before Microscale's products were generally available.

Post-mortem fix

I sometimes have a problem with silvered decals.  It's usually caused by trapped air under older decals or newer decals that have soaked in water too long, excessively dissolving the glue.  It is hard to fix by treating the decal edges alone.  After the decal is set in place (I use Walthers Solvaset) and fully dry, I simply use a sharp hobby knife to slit the silvered decal surface in a few places, preferably along a color separation, and apply a bit more Solvaset. The slits allow the solution to flow behind the film where it's really needed and the air to escape, just like a pin prick would in the case of a trapped air bubble.

The technique works well most of the time, though I occasionally need to go back and do it a second time for some smaller residual areas.  This approach might even work after the finish clear/flat coat is applied, but I try to fix it beforehand.

Just be careful: the silvered portion of the decal is NOT adhered to the surface, so it will readily flake away if too much is sliced or the knife blade is not sufficiently sharp, ripping the surface.

***Oops, I just realized that's pretty much what Don Mitchell recommended a couple of posts above.***

Dominic Bourgeois 

Not sure why this popped up as a new post yesterday...

Dom,

That is for the reply. Before you reply the thread was dead from Oct 2019. Not sure how it popped up as an active post, unless someone edited their response from earlier. Or it's a glitch in the forum software...

I think these decals are just really old and aren't the highest quality. Unfortunately I haven't gotten back around to this build since I had all these issues. The boxcar got stripped back to bare plastic.

Craig

We did it

Every so often for our email blasts we will search our forum for good how-to discussion threads. This time, we searched on decaling, and this thread popped up. So we edited it a bit for the best wording (that will bring it back to the front again) and then featured it as one of the two decaling how to threads from our forum in this weeks MRH registered reader email blast.

So the “blast from the past” on certain old threads each week is very deliberate. If your thread gets picked to be featured in one of our weekly email blasts as a great how-to discussion, some amount of new posts is guaranteed no matter how old the thread is, and that will tend to keep it on the front page of recent posts again for a while.

Thanks Joe

Gotta. Now that makes sense.

Boy this is sure motivation to get back to a project started in 2019... Darn life getting in the way of hobby stuff ( along with building a layout, etc).

Different take

From what I have experienced, the amount of time a decal spends in the water dish prior to application makes a lot of difference whether a decal leaves a silver finish or not. I let the decal soak until it is ready to float off the backing, then apply

In fact, I never gloss coat a model ever. Paint, decal, solvaset, dullcote… bing, bang, boom. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making a case against gloss coating, but I haven’t found it to make a big difference for me.

  "I never gloss coat a

It depends on the paint job. If it is smooth enough you won't need a gloss coat.Some paints are better than others in this respect.  One can also eliminate the gloss coat by laying the decal in a thin coat of wet Future, the Future fills any microscopic roughness and prevents air pockets from forming under the decal. ....DaveB

Great Tips - Thanks for “Re-activating”

Thanks for bringing this back to the forefront Joe, and thanks to everyone for their techniques!  I’m getting ready to try some decaling for the first time since I was a teenager (a mere almost half century ago - gulp).

@Jeff

I see from your blog that you live around the Kitsap Peninsula. Shoot me a PM if you want to exchange contact info. I'm down in South Kitsap building a outdoor railroad.

Random Learning about decals.

I'm in a plastic modeling and weathering group on Facebook and recently a discussion about decals got started. 

Long story short, a variety of opinions were expressed about gloss vs matte vs flat and decal silvering. 

So one fellow claimed that it's not the surface but rather the decal. He then shot a series of photos of a decal application on 400 grit sandpaper with no clear coats and using of the shelf decal products like Mircoset. No silvering.

Another fellow said that the base of decals is cornstarch based and this is the reason why decals silver. If you leave the decal in the water for too long, too much of the cornstarch dissolves and thus doesn't have anything to "attract" to the model surface. I had been letting decals float in the water for a while so this is something I might play around with.

  "Any way to rescue the

Maybe they look worse in person but in the photos they look okay to me. You could try a light weathering and see if that helps?  I've found old decals to usually be thicker and more brittle so harder to install than newer ones. A smooth paint surface is the goal, either with a gloss paint or a clear overcoat, most of the time this will work fine. Future works well for many applications once you know how to use it but it's not good if you need to decal over rivets or ribs, etc. Future doesn't soften decals like Solvaset does so decals will try to bridge over raised details. Future just seals the decal to the surface without any air bubbles so silvering doesn't happen. For anyone just learning to decal models I think the Microscale application instructions are the best way to go, master them then branch out to other methods. ....DaveB

@Dave

This boxcar got paint stripped shortly after I posted this question 2 years ago. I posted a update today after I read a comment on Facebook about decals. See above.

I have been doing some experiments with these older decals and am trying to figure out the best method to make them work. I bought a 10 lb box of decals from the estate of a modeler for the price of a few archer decal sets. So it's not the greatest lost if I can't get them to work.