Star Trek U.S.S. Excelsior Part 6: How NOT to do decals

Well, I got to the decal phase finally. However, I don't think that I let the gloss coat sit long enough and my results suck ass. Im pretty sure that it wasn't fully cured even though I let it sit for as few days. It's been rainy here and I should have known to let it sit longer because of that.

When I applied the decal solution (Micro Set), I think it started to eat into the gloss coat and make pits where air got trapped. The results: Silvering under the decals which look like shit now.

When you take a step back and don't look so closely, it's not so bad but its there and it bugs me. Like Willy Nelson says "There's nothing I can do about it now."

This decal on the Hull didn't fit well at all. Lots of crinkling and folding going on. Even Micro Sol couldn't get it to sit smoothly. It looks a bit better with the dull coat on it as there is less reflectivity to catch the light on the edges. But next time I will paint these lines on.

Here you can see the two parts with dull coat (Testor's Lusterless Flat Lacquer) applied and dried. So far so good, right? Ha! Never.

When I Attempted to glue the saucer to the rest, I found that there is nothing there to hold it in place. No pins, no grooves, just flat surface. With the shape of the thing there is no way to use clamps to hold it together while the glue sets. So I had to hold it with both my hands and stare longingly at my untouched beer for 40 minutes while the glue set. Once it was set, I went to set the model down to let it dry overnight. That's when the other end of the neck came off where it is attached to the body. Everything but the saucer fell, hit the desk, and the warp engine/pylon assembly then fell off! The thing was in three pieces again! I almost threw it out the garage door and across the street. Irate doesn't quite cover it!


I was able to get it glued back up and let it sit over night. This morning I glued the engines back on and those will sit until tomorrow. Luckily, none of the wires broke and all of the lights still work!

I swear this kit has been one mishap after another. Welcome back to modeling asshole, deal with this now! Ha! Barring any more disasters this one should be done in the next few days. Stay tuned.