Tissue decals

[Ken Pugh]

Here's some photos from my first scratchbuild that show how I make decals from tissue.  The tissue is from Guillow's rubber kits.  Any tissue for these types of models will work.  The wrapping tissue you can get at the craft stores turns to mud when exposed to water.  Silkspan fibers wick the ink and they come out very faint.

To start off, use your favorite graphics program, I use PaintShop Pro, and make your markings.  I center them on the paper and print things until everything is perfect.  Proper size, proper location (center), and all looking good.  You then glue the edge of the tissue to the carrier sheet of paper.  I use regular purple gluestick.  The purple color shows where you have applied glue and it dries clear.



When all is printed, just cut the tissue from the carrier sheet.  Remember, only glue the edges!!!

I also print more than I need so I can reject inadequate prints.  If you look closely you can see ink smudges on the army markings.  You have to learn your printer to learn what settings give the best image without smudges.  By the way, the US Army markings are from a word processor.  Print out the font size number with the text and print several sizes.  When you find the one that fits, then you can print out several of them of the proper font size for the model.

When you run this sheet through the printer, you may notice the tissue and carrier sheet bowing and looking like they are separating.  The two are together where it counts, between the plateen and the ink jets.

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Ken Pugh

[Ken Pugh]

The markings will be transparent so you need to take that into consideration on the model.  A white background is best.  Make sure the paint is properly dried before gluing on the decals.  Again, I used the gluestick.  Gluestick can be removed by alcohol.



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Ken Pugh

[Ken Pugh]

Here's the way everything looks on the top wing.



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You will need to put a clear coat over these.  Be careful what you use.  I dust them lightly with a couple of coats of Krylon Crystal Clear.  Just don't use some water based paint or it will smear your ink.  With a couple of light coats of clear, you can then apply clear coats to everything if you like to use water-based acrylic finishes.  This clear lacquer on the tissue is the same type of thing used as a fixative on the ink jet decals.

Ken Pugh

[Ken Pugh]

This bottom view is good for seeing what needs touching up with tissue decals.  The lettering has tissue between them.  This tissue does not always perfectly adhere to the painted surface.  Whip out your brush and paint this in to saturate the tissue.  The markings can also be darkened with paint.

Perfect markings are difficult to hand brush.  With these tissue decals, you have the outlines layed out for you.  It is easy to carefully paint in the markings and get perfect looking circles and nicely squared lines and stars.  It's kind of like paint-by-numbers, easier to do when you have an outline.  Smudges can be fixed and imperfections cleaned up.

This technique is great for those small squadron badges.  You must have good brushes to clean everything up, but at least the markings are possible this way.  The tissue gives you a nice porous surface for painting.



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Ken Pugh

[lastvautour]

Thank you for an excellent tutorial.