If you want to make a thin decal that you can pick up and handle, poly is the only thing I've found that will do it. There are glues that will do it, but I don't want to get into the chemicals needed to thin them so they can be brushed on thinly.
Do this simple test;
Brush a thin even coat of gloss poly on anything from a magazine. Let it dry.
Soak the paper with water and rub it off.
Brush a thin coat of oil based white paint over the decal. The spray paint I tried on one caused some wrinkling of the paper so I stick to brushing a thin, even coat of paint.
Some papers, particulary high-resolution papers leave a whitish haze after the paper is removed. This is fine. It means you need less paint.
Thu, Dec 23, 2004, 2:50pm snipped-for-privacy@ncweb.com (Stewart=A0Schooley) claims: If you want to make a thin decal that you can pick up and handle, poly is the only thing I've found that will do it. There are glues that will do it, but I don't want to get into the chemicals needed to thin them so they can be brushed on thinly. Do this simple test; Brush a thin even coat of gloss poly on anything from a magazine. Let it dry. Soak the paper with water and rub it off. Brush a thin coat of oil based white paint over the decal. The spray paint I tried on one caused some wrinkling of the paper so I stick to brushing a thin, even coat of paint.
Water based, or oil based poly? Which side does the paint go on, front or back? What's the paint for? If you want a clear decal, won't the paint prevent that? How could the spray paint cause wrinkling of the paper when you said you already removed the paper?
JOAT WYGIWYGAINGW: What You Get Is What You're Given And It's No Good Whining.
Your questions prove I didn't write a good post. It proves I was in too big of a hurry.
Oil based poly. BTW, what is water based poly? I thought water based finishes were acrylic emulsions with Rhoplex being one of the biggest suppliers. Who is mixing urethane into what kind of emulsion to make water based poly?
You put the paint on the side of the decal that you removed the paper. Its purpose is to kill the transparency of the decal and give you the true color of your image. Unless you have an ALPS printer, white isn't printed and you need the paint to provide the whites in your image plus ink jet colors naturally have a transparency and the white will make them appear the way they should.
The next part is where I really screwed up. I must have been thinking about my other post where I talked about using decal paper and wrote paper instead of decal. I should have said the spray spray paint caused some wrinkling of the decal.
And I should have written more about the papers you can use. You need paper that you can brush a coat of poly on and it won't soak into the paper. High-Resolution and photo paper usually work well, but do a small test on your paper.
Another thing about poly decals. After 5-6 days they start to get brittle, which gives me a clue to the curing time of oil based poly. Apply them when they are fresher and still flexible.
JOAT, I hoped I've answered your questions. Try the poly on magazine paper first as a test. I'll put up two photos on the binary page.
JOAT, this isn't my day for writing about poly decals. If you saw the photos on the binary page you might get confused about when to put the paint on. If you use clear poly only and remove the paper totally, you will be able to see the image trapped in the poly from either side and you could put paint on either side.
Remember that the magazine picture is just for a quick test so do it the way it shows in the photos.
I'm sorry about all this. My excuse is that between writing posts my wife is running my butt off with all this getting ready for Ghristmas stuff. Bah Humbug! Just to be sure, I re-read my other posts. THey are OK.
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