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  2. Applying Decals

Re: Applying Decals

Tony Higgins
 

I once had Champ solvent ruin decals on a F&C gon and shunned it in favor of Micro Sol. However, I found that M-S did not work as aggressively as I liked, leaving the decal visible, even on smooth surface applications. I went back to the Champ stuff recently for some Sunshine models (Rail Graphics) and it worked fine, full strength, multiple applications. Then, I used it on an F&C wagontop box car. It worked great.
This makes me wonder about shelf life. I didn't mark the purchase date on either of these solvents, but they're years old. Has anyone heard of a shelf life for decal solvents?

Tony Higgins
pittsford, NY

--- In STMFC@..., "marcusphil" <marcusphil@...> wrote:

I prefer Solvaset to Micro Sol, but both work about the same.
What does make a big difference is the decal film. Over their
lifetime Champ and Walthers used different decal films. Today
there are many different products on the market. You have to
experiment to see what works best with the decal you are using.
It is a lot of fun when you are mixing decal suppliers on the
same car. I have also found that wood sheathed cars require different
techniques than steel cars.

Phil Marcus
Modeling 1953 in "O" gage
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