Water slide decals, oh how I hate thee

[jimilee]

fwiw, i never clearcoat Before i apply the decal.

Ditto.  I use laser decals now, but even before I got my laser I never clearcoated first.

this works with inkjet also, but the colors aren't nearly as vivid.;-)

[GhostofJohnToad]

Well I'm going  to get some different paper, I think testors quality control may be the issue.  Early on I had no issues, but it seems like this new pack just sucks.

[Gledison]

Im using lazer print decal and does not require the first clear coat process! I dont know if i was lucky ( im not a lucky guy) but it work great and u can grab ur finger to adjust it iver the substrate with no problem! Have u tried the lazer print ones?

[billstein]

Has anybody tried the sheets Smallbear sells?

[GhostofJohnToad]

I have not tried laser.  I don't have access to one.  Stuck with ink jet for the moment. Curious about the smallbear paper as well.

[Bret608]

I've used the clear waterslide from Small Bear. It's good quality--any goofs were due strictly to me.

[haveyouseenhim]

I have not tried laser.  I don't have access to one.  Stuck with ink jet for the moment. Curious about the smallbear paper as well.

Get a graphic and I'll get one lasered for you.

[ch1naski]

I've had issues where the edges would curl up as it slid off the backing paper....unless the edges had ink printing on them. So now I always print a border and cut at the edges of the border.

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

[pryde]

I have not tried laser.  I don't have access to one.  Stuck with ink jet for the moment. Curious about the smallbear paper as well.

I tried the Smallbear stuff and honestly it was very stretchy compared to PPP stuff. I could not get along with it very well. But YMMV, never know till you give it a try

[gtr2]

I use Micro-Mark decal paper (lazer), I've had very good success with it.  I've done some very large 1590DD enclosures without stretching issues.

Josh

[pedalman]

Any problems I had with Testors was usually due to rushing the process

[Pointy]

I have some laser decal paper from decalpaper.com, and I'm not very happy with it. The decals are extremely fragile.

However, I recently picked up a 10-sheet pack of bake-on laser decal paper from papilio.com, and I'm very impressed. The decal plastic seems *much* sturdier.  I also bought a little squirt bottle of "decal mounting fluid", which is a somewhat goopy substance that makes it way easy to arrange the decal after placement. Even after most of the decal mounting goop dries, it's still possible to work bubbles out from under the decal. Baking the decal on seems to seal it very securely; even a test decal on which I did an absolutely terrible job baked on quite firmly even though it has huge bubbles in it.

I also ordered a cheap printmaking roller ("brayer") for bubble removal, as that's a pain in the neck.

[Jean-Rock]

I ordered papillo paper like Pointy. I get it from ebay. It's just great and it never failed....exept when I apply a very tiny logo on the front.....but it's my fault....maybe I should try the stuff mentioned in the previous reply...

Smallbear sheets seem good, but I still have a bad experience with it.....probably because I just ordered 2 sheets and it's been damage in the shipping 

You can safely buy from this link : http://www.ebay.ca/itm/10-Sheets-Waterslide-Decal-Paper-You-Choose-White-or-Clear-Inkjet-or-Laser-/110908378050?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item19d2a78bc2

They take care when they ship the merch and they give good service !

Cheers !

[Jean-Rock]

They take care when they ship the merch and they give good service !

Cheers !

And most of all....they're not 2$ each sheet !! That's a point ! 

[chromesphere]

Hey Toad, you might already know all this, maybe your problems are the brand of paper your using, or something like that.  Just thought i would put it in for you / anyone else having trouble with waterslides.
Dont get me wrong, im not a pro at it.  I still have the odd  moment.  But i have gotten much better at it with practice.  Hope it helps!

Paul