Custom Decals

Dan-tot wrote the following:

There is a spray especially made for covering ink jet printed pictures, if that's what you made the decals with.

Bill In Hamptonburgh, NY In the original Orange County. Est. 1683 To email, remove the double zeroes after @

You don't need a special spray. Any fast-drying clear lacquer or acrylic should do the job. You just have to dust on the first few coats so it dries almost instantly; if it stays wet more than a few seconds, the ink will bleed. After you've built up a few coats, you can start spraying it on a little heavier.

I should think Future would also work nicely, or any acrylic flat or gloss clear.

Testors sold a paper kit, the spray could be bought separately, its found in Hobby Lobby. Don't remember it being in Michaels, could be wrong. And there's mail order. There are other options.

I bought some make your own decals kit for inkjet printers online. The sealer was a spraycan of Krylon clear gloss.

In the artists' Supplies store will be a product called an Acrylic Extender or an Acrylic Retarder (both are the same product.) Its a clear mousse like gel that is completely miscible with water based acrylic paints. You will find lots of other uses for it including putting on a coating for your home made decals. Applying it over regular water slide decals will make those decals look like they have been painted on as it will make the clear carrier film disappear. It will do the same with the rest of your model's paint job, like making paints with a different reflectance (some matte some glossy), look like it has been painted with the same batch of paints.

Would you use this product before or after applying decals??

T2