Vertical Vengeance: A Dive into History. Dive Bomber Group Build

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Done with the vintage 1/72 Airfix Helldiver. Fun little build. Not happy with the color of the Vallejo USN Sea Blue. Too gray/purpley. Oh well. Now back to the Dauntless.

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Haven't posted in about a week because I got aggravated with my clear coat and started over. This time I got a successful clear coat and got the decals on at this point. Am I the only one who hates putting decals on? It's automatic that I will screw at least one up. And do you guys use micro sol? I put it on one of the decals on the bottom. Didn't seem to do anything and just slightly discolored the area around it.

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Am I the only one who hates putting decals on? It's automatic that I will screw at least one up. And do you guys use micro sol?
Hate it, no, but I understand the anxiety—everything is fine up to that point, so the pressure is on not to make a mess of it. The problem is: not all decals are created equal, sometimes even of the same brand.

So what I do is pick a decal or two that I'm not going to use, sometimes just the manufacturer's name on the sheet. I cut the unused one or ones out, sometimes cut them into smaller pieces, and then apply them to a piece of plastic or paint hulk that I've put a gloss coat on. Then I try every different setting solution(s) I have in my collection on those pieces. I note which ones perform well with those decals. That's where I start.

I then apply the decals to a gloss surface, apply the setting solution of choice, often more than once if the surface is irregular. I let that set overnight (sometimes longer, though I try to avoid that.) Then I overcoat with the same gloss coat I used initially. Then I use a flat, semigloss, or sometimes gloss coat over the whole model, depending on what is needed.

Another approach is to use the gloss coat as the setting solution, an approach first proposed and used by Paul Boyer, former Senior Editor (now retired) at FSM. I know this approach worked very well with the old Future™, but I haven't tried it with any other gloss coat, yet.

Forgot to mention, that's looking great so far—including the decals! ;)
 
Thanks, I appreciate that. I'm thinking I'm just going to use that idea of a gloss coat as a setting solution. Kind of afraid to use micro sol again although honestly it looks fine now that it dried. I was going to gloss coat it again anyway before putting a wash on it.
 
Haven't posted in about a week because I got aggravated with my clear coat and started over. This time I got a successful clear coat and got the decals on at this point. Am I the only one who hates putting decals on? It's automatic that I will screw at least one up. And do you guys use micro sol? I put it on one of the decals on the bottom. Didn't seem to do anything and just slightly discolored the area around it.

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Looks great!
I used to use the Micro brands until I found that Mr. Mark Setter & Mr. Mark Softer work better for me. They seem a little more aggressive.
 

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