DocRob

 great result on a stunning build. The contrast between the bright coloured plane and the plain coloured figures and base is enhancing the visual drama of the scene. Cheers Rob

Hehe, so true . Let's hope the canopies stay clear, when removing the transfer film and the seals stay in place. I didn't dare to use Micro Sol on the clear parts, just water and a drop of liquid soap. Cheers Rob

Phew, stenciling is mostly done. Only the weapons pylons and the missiles are missing, but this will be addressed later. After thousands of cuts, my bench looks like this and in between, I cleaned a little. It felt as if they put Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' on the plane, separated by sentences . Another Job, I was not looking forward to, is using wet transfers for the pink sealings on the canopy. Today I managed to apply the outer ones and the outcome will decide, if I do the inner ones too (the pic shows the seals still with transfer foil, which will be peeled of tomorrow.) Cheers Rob

Thanks Mike, the Fokker E.V/D.VIIII will be one of my next builds. I read your great build log and plan to use flattened brass for the struts as well, because the supplied ones look really flimsy. Other than you, I will use pre fab connectors for the tubes for soldering. I got some of the Aviattic goodies for my build and hope that the Lukgraph engine will fit under the resin hood. Your log will be a nice guideline for my build, so thanks again for the work. Cheers Rob

I feel your pain, but when put on the model, they are just great, better than all the decals I ever tried. Patience though is the key to success with these wet transfers and I'm not very good at patience. When I think about past jet builds with silvering stencils applied after many hours of good work as one of the last steps, to get an unwanted result in the end, I opt for the wet transfers and go through that pain. I always hated decaling, because of the possible fail potential towards the end of a build, but these HGW's are predictable in a way, if the surface is prepared and you follow the instructions you get what you ask for. Cheers Rob

Back to the Mig, step by step, I apply the stencils. As much as I like the results, as painful is the process. It takes even longer, then with normal decals. You have to cut every single stencil, apply it carefully with a little setting fluid, wait for some hours to remove the transfer film and clean off the glue residues with a dampened cotton swab. With the hundreds of stencils, you need some structure and discipline, not to miss a nearly invisible transfer film here, or forgot to put a stencil in the right place. The removal of the transfer film should be done very gentle, because it's easy to rip off parts of the stencil (believe me it happened to me, but I guess a heavy weathered Mig will not have factory fresh looking stencils ). I do the stenciling in sections, which is really time consuming but safer and 3/4 are done. Don't get me wrong, I'm fascinated by the product, the stencils are like matte printed onto the model, no shine, no borders, absolutely no visible thickness and no silvering. I will use wet transfers where I can in future builds and I have some sets for other planes. In the next two pics you can see the quality of the stencils vs. the very good kit decals. The blue MIG-logo is a decal and has borders and shininess, as has the red number in the next pic The grey rectangles in the first pic are wet transfers too, and they match my dark grey perfectly. Even large wet transfers like this are perfect after careful application. The chips in the middle are chips, no bubbles, because there is nothing to bubble . From far away, you obviously nearly can't see a thing of the work of hours. Cheers Rob

Some packets from Germany just arrived, the last ultimate wish I had concerning WNW kits was the Fokker D.1 and I finally managed to get one of the last and added some Gaspatch 08/15 for the Junkers and anothe Fokker. Sometimes I've to ask myself, why I haven't ordered the D.1 before . The Camel was more of an accident, just because it was there, or because my WNW stash is to biased to German planes. The reason for that is in the least a kind of nationalism, but interesting paintwork, great design and no flat rigging . I considered all the different Camels and went with the Le Rhone one, because it has a brilliant paintjob, the blue 'Suds' and will receive a Lukgraph resin engine (if it fits) and some other goodies. Last but not least, I got a T34/85 with added bedspring armor. One of those was in front of my grandparents house in the final days of WW2. It will be fitted with at least one figure in front as a little dio. Cheers Rob

Thanks Mike, I will order one and decide then where the need is the biggest. In a WNW Camel, there is a lot of cowling around, the Roden DR.1 engine doesn't look to shabby on the sprues, but the Fokker D.VIII from Micro Mir is a likely candidate. Cheers Rob

After no changes in the appearance of the cloudy surface around the decals, today I dabbed some Pledge around one of the stars with a brush and after drying, everything looks fine to me. There is still a slight difference in shinyness, but that's because the surrounding areas are airbrushed. When the stencils are finished, I seal the decals with another coat of Pledge and this will be gone. Thanks again for your encouraging help. Cheers Rob

The engine looks great, and seems to build up good. I considered buying one for my Clerget Camel or one of my Fokkers. Cheers Rob

Nice looking engine and great progress. Do the resin tires look so much better? By the time I bought my Scammell artillery tractor, I looked at the kit ones without building them up and decided against resin, because I found no information about a bulge in the tires to indicate load. The pics don't show it clearly either. I really like figures from the bodi range. These here are not specially for your purpose, but have great poses and add some drama. I got the guy with the helmet in the Hand for a future SAS dio. https://thebodi.eu/model/TB-35162/souvenir-hunters-ww-ii--desert-rat---australian- Another one, where the driver might fit with some surgery https://thebodi.eu/model/TB-35114/british-driver---tommy-western-desert-ww-ii And these two are priceless https://thebodi.eu/model/TB-35097/british-nco---scottish-highlander-western-desert-ww-ii Cheers Rob

Very beautiful Spitfire John ,I like the paintjob. Very tempted to build a XVI in 1/32 as well. Cheers Rob

Sounds a little like 'Den Teufel mit dem Beelzebub austreiben'. I know you like German sayings, but that might proof tricky to translate . Cheers Rob

Thanks for your experiences Gaz, but your idea is to use the most possible culprit to solve the problem, if I understand it right. Mr. Mark Softer is the equivalent of Micro Sol, which I suppose is responsible for the clouding. Not in the least, it's good to broaden the perspective. We work with a lot of different chemicals, so i's really helpful, to understand what happens here. I never hear about the problems concerning AK' Real Colours and decal solutions. On the Mig I have used Real Colours for the first time, so maybe my Pledge coat was not thick or dry enough and the Sol got through somehow and reacted with the colour. That would explain, why I didn't ran into this problem before. For the HGW stencils, I used only warm water with one drop of dishwasher to break the surface tension. It seemed to have worked well, but I noticed, that I had to wait the suggested drying time of at least 6 hours to not pull off the stencil, while removing the carrier film. In your great 'How -To' about HGW wet transfers you experienced faster drying times, maybe because of the use of setting solvent. I think you have a point here Graham. As I never ran into these problems before, I applied both Set and Sol in 'large' amounts, let's say little pools on the planes surface. With future (no pun intended) use of Sol, I will dab the decal only a little with the solvent and redo it as often as necessary. Your theory about the white block drying though, I believe is not applying in my case. Maybe five minutes after I applied the Sol, I saw the first clouding and immediately rinsed the said areas with tap water. By that time the Sol was not dried, so the cause of the clouding seems to be a reaction with underlying layers. Honestly, I wouldn't try the X20 on Pledge/Klear/Future, without trying on a dummy. The kit decals I've used were relatively thin and good to handle. I try to avoid the Tamiya / Hasegawa thickies where I can @ All, thank you for your great input and telling me about your experiences. In the last weeks, I had the feeling that there is not that much modelling discussion happening here. Sure it's a forum and had happened before and after a while there are new discussions, great WIP's and new faces. Your taking part in this discussion about the nightmares, decals could develop into though, showed me again, that you are a great knowingly bunch, willing to share their experiences and that makes me feel proud of you lads. Cheers Rob

Thanks Phil, but there is always a way, which includes the bin as ultima ratio, but that's how it is. Exactly my thoughts Steve, first some Klear onto the areas, then the heavy treatment. Cheers Rob

After running into the problem that seemingly my Micro-Sol clouded my Klear coat, I managed to get the decals on. The kit ones behave ok are thin and good to work with, but I use only the stars and some bigger markings, as I use the wonderful HGW wet transfers for the stenciling. They have no silvering, no protruding decal borders, a matte finish, which seems to be tattooed into the surface. Basically, I don't understand, why the crews couldn't learn their manuals on these modern jets, otherwise, there would be no stencils . On the Mig there are hundreds. I don't need a lot of stencils on my car or on my turntable. Luckily the worst of the decals are on the underside, so that's how the big bird looks now from far.

The sunbath was fine for me, but not for the Mig, It seems, that everything was completely dry before. Look for that stencil there, these HGW wet transfers are great, no silvering at all, no surrounding decal sheet and no reflection, even in the brightest sun. I have one set for my F4 kit, but has to check for my planned Mig-21 builds If I ever do a heavy stenciled jet again, I would look in advance if there is a set of wet transfers available, because I ever ran in trouble with decals, one way or another. Cheers Rob

Thanks gentlemen, you're a great bunch, helpful and reassuring, even funny, I like to fail here on LSM . For the moment, I will stay with option 1-3 , before I will go nuking the stars with heavy ordonance . We have a humidity here at about 85% today, so this maybe is a factor too. The sun is out since an hour, so out with the Mig under the open skies. Cheers Rob

I never had these issues before, but your theory about the chemics may be right. In a day or two, i will give it a slight coat of Klear and see how that works, if not, I make a mask and mist some base colour on. If that isn't succesful, lets see how far a Mig can fly. Now there is another solution, some of Smittys IPA's and I don't see the clouding anymore. But tomorrow is another day and can't stay boozed for the rest of my life . Cheers Rob

Thanks, I will give that a try, the harder, the better. Cheers Rob After 24 hours nothing went away on mine, before I do anything, there will be another day, but I don't think it will self cure. No CO2 in my Klear , be it IPA or not, but for apres modelling... Cheers Rob

Thanks a lot, nice wording with the c/Klear . I will try to dab on some Klear in a hidden area for testing and will prepare some test parts soon, which will receive a heavy dose of Micro-Sol, after waiting longer for the Klear to cure. Cheers Rob

I used warm water for the stencils and it seemed to have worked with the HGW wet transfers, puh, there are thousands of them abd til now, I applied only the bottom ones. For bigger decals, which have to follow contours of panel lines, don't put lots of Micro-Sol on, just dab a little bit onto the decal, avoiding the paintjob, this will work. If they are not laid down enough, it's better to repeat the application. I haven't done so, because I never ran into this problem before, lessons learned. Cheers Rob

Have you ever tried them dampened, that is an area, where I like them even more, than in dry use. You can work with them like a multi colored wash, amazing. Cheers Rob

Hola Señhores, I need your help. Yesterday I decaled my Mig-31 and after dabbing off the residues of Micro Set and Sol got some white clouding in the clear coat around the decals, which are still there after cleaning everything again with clear water and let it dry over night. The gloss coat under it is Klear, which should be similar to Future and left to dry 24 hours before decaling. I suspect, it's more the Sol's application, as I applied some stencils only with Set and can't find any irritations there. My Mig nearly did the dart stunt, but I hope there are suggestions, about what to do from you. I'm considering to try to apply some Klear on the said areas, but am not sure about that. Cheers Rob Here is the worst decal And these are the culprits

I can even see, that there are some exhausts missing , second best thing after the invention of the wheel John. Now we will see the fastest quality builds in Hi-Res. Cheers Rob