Question about clearcoating Anasazi's decals

[DARTHTODD]

Hey guys, got a bunch of Anasazi's decals and was going to start applying them on my 1/60 valks. Question, is it best to clearcoat the whole valk afterwards or can I get away with just brushing clearcoat over the decals themselves to "seal" them in. Does anyone have any experience with this? Also, is there a particular clearcoat that I should use for these or are they pretty much all the same? Thanks, any help would be greatly appreciatted since I'd like to start on these soon!

[sbarrett4]

I applied the decals, then a clearcoat. But I decided to add some more decals later on, and had no problems applying them over the clearcoat. So I think you could do it either way.

[one_klump]

YES!!!

clearcoat your decals!

I got some decals from Anasazi a long time ago...

forgot to clearcoat...

Cracked and peeling decals look crappy...

[Anasazi37]

Cracked and peeling decals look crappy...

That's right--you had one of my really early sets before I figured out what protective coating works best. My decals don't suffer from that nasty cracking and peeling anymore.

You can get away with applying the decals to your valks without laying down a glossy clearcoat if you use Micro Set and Micro Sol in tandem. Heck, you should use them anyway but they really help the decals adhere to the bare plastic. As for a top coat, if you are going to handle your valks on a regular basis, I would suggest coating them because no decal (even professional ones) are designed to stand up to repeated handling. If you plan on leaving them displayed a shelf, then you won't necessarily need to coat them.

If you have access to an airbrush, I'd recommend Future Floor Polish for the glossy base coat and Micro Flat for the top coat. If you need to go the spray can route, Krylon Crystal Clear is a good base coat and Krylon Satin is a good top coat.