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Old 01-15-2019, 04:43 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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I thank you all very much for your suggestions! I'm helping a British fellow who is just starting in model rocketry, and hints & tricks for ensuring adhesion of this common type of decal will prevent frustration (and in club, school, and youth group model rocketry activities, too).
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrism
I have had the same problem with the stickers on several Quest kits as well. You an try using some old fashioned Elmer's white glue to stick them back down. If your adventurous, you can make a copy of the stickers on decal film that you can print off of your printer and apply them like any water-slide decal. Testors has a decal making set.
Hmmm...the Testors decal making set sounds like the print-on decal film (it's available with both clear and white backgrounds) that Bare-Metal Foil and others sell: http://www.google.com/search?source...i10.vd5nbxz-VF4 ). Having some old MPC water-transfer decal sheets that I want to duplicate rather than expend, trying the decal film has been on my "to-do" list for a white, and:

Thank you for reminding me about the Quest kits, which also use peel 'n apply decals. I hadn't thought of white glue (I'll try Elmer's and Aleen's Tacky, with scrap peel 'n apply decal material).
Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanj
Heh-heh.

Last year I had the darndest time trying to peel OFF some stickers on a Estes EAC Viper.

Proper prep might help:

Smooth finish, aided and abetted with wet sanding and compounding.

Clean surface with alcohol to remove any dust, etc.

Let dry and polish with clean paper towel / tissue.

After applying sticker, burnish thoroughly, all-around, with a coffee stirrer or what-not.
If I may return the favor: My mother once read (and when my father tried it, it worked like a charm) that *mayonnaise*, of all things, would de-bond self-adhesive labels from plastic containers such as Cool-Whip tubs (for re-purposing them). "Your Mileage May Vary" for removing self-adhesive decals from glassine or painted body tubes, of course, but it might work just as well with them. Good surface preparation--for getting good decal bonds--had occurred to me as well (cleaning it well, and I'm glad that I wasn't alone in thinking of sanding the bonding surface very "finely," to give the decal adhesive more to "grab onto").
Quote:
Originally Posted by sandman
Try Aleen's Tacky glue instead of white glue. The stuff is really cheap and drys clear.
Thank you--I've had good results with it for regular bonding purposes. It does dry clear, as you mentioned (and it even takes paint well).
Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeR
blackshire,

How about just a clear coat to seal them? I use Krylon UV-Resistant Acrylic Clear over my waterslides. I’ve not tried it over peel ‘n’ stick decals (I just don’t use them, with the exception of the Alpha VI I got at NARAM).

The only stick-on decals I use are vinyl from Stickershock. Those things bond like crazy. I cannot imagine them ever peeling up.
I've wondered about that, too. As long as the clear coat doesn't "fog" the decals (and acrylic shouldn't [even enamel might not, but I suspect that lacquer wouldn't be advisable]), I'm hoping that it would stick the self-adhesive decals down well. When it warms up here (so that I can spray paint outdoors), I'll try it--I think I may even have a spray can of Krylon clear acrylic spray (I can try the surface prep/white glue "bond-down" even before then).
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