Decals on a wooden deck

Ships WWII
1

I have a kind of a newbie question. I’d like to know if it’s possible to use regular water slide decals on a wooden deck and, if so, what kind of preparation is needed to avoid warping. I’m specifically thinking of using Starfighter decals deck striping on an Infini Models deck blue deck for the 1/350 Enterprise.

I know the Infini deck comes with masking to paint the stripes, but the Infini deck for the Big E is for her Santa Cruz fit and I want to do Midway, which has some differences. So I’m thinking of using Inifini’s Yorktown deck. But it has very different deck stripe patterns. Thus the idea of using the Starfighter decals for the Enterprise on the Yorktown deck.

Anyway, sorry for the dissertation and thanks for any help!

Michael :woozy_face: :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hi Michael,

Waterslide decals on a wood deck is doable, I had this back when I built CVL22 using the Pontos deck. That came with rub downs, except they wouldn’t stay down. I went back to using the kit decals. I laid down several mist coats (I had a couple of practice shots at the left overs on the backing sheet) of tamiya gloss clear out of the rattle can to seal the deck. Once dry, I left that overnight to be sure it had cured, fitted the decals, then sealed them with a couple of mist coats of tamiya matt clear. I tend to seal wood decks with a matt varnish as a matter of course, since I have been doing that I have had far less issues with decks lifting at the edges.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Si

1 Like
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Thanks Si, just what I wanted to know!

Michael

4

You;re welcome Micheal.

Good luck with your build.

Cheers

Si