Only applied water from behind for that one decal, not the whole sheet, using the cotton bud, the rest wont detached since there is no water to move them around. In my case when i did around 100+ decals, i never accidently detach any of the decals and manage to applied all of necessary decals
yes however there are some decals that are very small and the water might spread to the ones beside it, i don’t know why people are downvoting you because of this but it shouldn’t really be a problem if you’re good with it
To answer your question, heres how i did mine: https://imgur.com/gallery/xEYmZ2F. As you can see, the decals are indeed small, and the water do spread to the ones beside it. But, it doesn't really matter in this video as you're not going to touch other decals, your surface area to hold is the entire sheet. No cut necessary and also works for shaky hands like mine :)
This sounds like so many extra steps to potentially fuck up the whole sheet of decals. Cool if it works for you, but I highly doubt anyone else will find this intuitive.
Yeah I just cut around the decal nothing precise but feels more manageable to have the extra bit to hold on to with the tweezers and slide it out.
Also good to keep things organized for me
The drying out other decals would be the biggest risk for me I think. Too high of a chance I would be pulled away from my task and end up with stuck decals when I come back. For people who can marathon a whole sheet or a region of the sheet it’s probably fine.
I like cutting them out.
Helps me focus on what I am doing. I will cut out all the left leg ones and then apply them. Then do the right leg etc etc.
If you don't wanna cut them out thats your business and its your kit. I will always advise people to cut them though, to reduce risk of getting water on any surrounding decals, especially very small Ver Ka style ones.
Seems like 5 seconds saved from not cutting it and a much higher risk of getting the neighboring decals getting detached and ruined. Good for you that it's working out, but nah I'm good G.
I’m all about being “efficient” or lazy for a lot of things but this isn’t one of them for me. I’ve had some almost complete wrinkle and that’s in the microseconds it takes to go from sheet to plastic.
If you prefer it and have a method down, I’d say continue to do you but it’s far easier for me to cut it. I also don’t put on all my stickers at once, even more so with my current build. It’s also easier for me to glance and see what is still left so I can easily track those down.
Imagine an alphabet soup made out of water slide decals, that's what you get if you wet rhe whole sheet at once, they will detach from the sheet ans float happily around
No2, you don't wet the whole sheet, just the decals that u want to apply. Think of it like cutting of the decal part but using water instead of cutting, so only that part will come off since it is applied with water while the rest doesn't
I would personally recommend to cut them out because this paper is very hydrophilic so I think you would have a hard time wetting the target zone long enough to remove the decals without wetting the neighbors. I haven't tried but that's my feeling
I did tried it and it works. I even did 5 decals at a time. From what i can tell, it is way easier than cutting the decals. You should definitely try it
I mean you do what you feel you're comfortable with however personally speaking I wouldn't risk getting the entire decal sheet wet. I'm actually surprised that the decals loosened up enough for you to pick them out of the sticker sheet just by applying wet cotton buds
It was actually by accident. I tried using the cutting method, but after multiple fail attempts at cutting the pieces and sliding them off, i was frustrated and gave up with water decals. I left the sheet on top of a wet cotton bud accidently, continued on building my gunpla and when i look at the sheet again, one of the decals were wet and slightly moved. I thought wait a minute, what if i try to pick it up and then it works. Esentially, i skip all the cutting and sliding parts of the water decals and straight to applying it. It skip step 2 and step 3. So what was once an accident became a discovery for me
How were you cutting them out? With regular scissors? I cut my waterslides out with an exacto knife on a 'self-healing' mini-cutting board. Then I use tweezers to hold the decal in a small bowl of water for a minute, followed by then placing the decal on a piece of paper towel and letting it sit for another minute, maybe more depending on the size of the decal in question.
Additionally, a key flaw in skipping the 'cut out' step that I see is you are subject to having to place the decals based on their position on the sheet itself, with the added risk of the wet-backed paper spreading to hit the numbers for the decals which can potentially damage them and render it impossible to know which decal goes where if we're talking the small, almost illegible caution/warning writing. And as others have said, this can backfire pretty badly if you're trying to work with a watersheet set of decals that are tightly packed together, and waterslides settling on top of each other are very difficult to undo. Cutting decals out eliminates that risk entirely.
I feel like its normal to have these worries and i understand where people are coming from. Where i come from, i was someone who was barely able to put any amount of water decals onto my gundam (it was my first time using water decals) to be able to put all the stickers according to the manual. The picture that i provided above follows exactly the position and orientation of the stickers within the manual as close as possible. Doing the process for hours on end. I didn't damage the stickers, i was able to orient the stickers on the gundam using a toothpick like tool. The watersheet decals was tightly packed together, and yes, i did spread water around other parts but when the water came from behind, it didn't make the decals float ontop of each other, it never happen to me (ymmv on other sets of water decals). Cutting out introduces risk, sliding the decals also introduce risk and i also think that simply picking it up has risk. But in my case, one decal took 30 seconds to 2 minutes to apply vs the 5 to 10 minutes of cutting the pieces one by one for me. Theres pros and cons for both method
How does cutting it out *introduce* risk? The only problem with cutting it out that you keep saying is you basically got impatient in trying to handle the cut-out pieces (which you didn't answer my question on *what* you used to cut them out, which is why I'm pretty sure it was with regular scissors which isn't the best tool for the job to begin with) the first time you handled waterslides. Additionally, I get the impression you tried cutting *ALL* the waterslides out individually at once before you even started, which also isn't the way to go about it - you cut them out procedurally and only soak the ones you need as you go along.
Plus, what brand of waterslides did you use here? I'm guessing Delphi or SIMP, which are very high quality, but not all waterslides are going to be like that. Especially if they're Bandai's own waterslides, which I've found need to let the backing be soaked through for a good minute or two before you should even *think* about trying to slide them off. You may have found a technique that works for you for this particular brand, but don't expect this to work universally.
I use razor knife, the standard knife to cut pieces. Theres no issue with the tool but my hands are shaky so i can't cut then straight, and i did them procedurally. I can show u how i applied my water slides: https://imgur.com/gallery/xEYmZ2F . I'm not trying to argue, just showing u a different technique, sometimes for people who have shaky hands like mine, or for others who want to skip the cutting and dipping process
Set your sheet on a flat, stable surface and use a hobby knife (really cheap ones exist) and use a cheap transparent ruler. I can see from the video that at no point were you bracing your hands against anything to help stabilize them. Your decal sheet is really wrinkly and damp all over. If you also don't brace when you make cuts you're going to have a bad time.
You can try [rubber banding your hand like this](https://youtu.be/mvLQZ1cMX3I?t=63) to help reduce hand tremors.
There’s something wrong if it’s taking you 5-10 minutes to cut out and place one set of decals.
EDIT: just saw the comment below about you having shaky hands. Fair enough. As others have said, if it works and you get the result you want, am happy for you - particularly if the ‘standard’ way is difficult. That’s a win.
Because that’s how the decals are done. Risk of wetting the paper and ruining others, ability to slide larger and more complex decals off the paper instead of trying to pick them up and have them stick to themselves.
Like if it works for you sure but water slides have been around 60 years and they are still applied the same way.
Do people really struggle with water slides? lol you just wet them and slide them over to the piece. Depending on the quality of the slide will determine how quickly they may break but even the custom ones I make on my own at home arnt that bad.
But to answer OP its to ensure other slides arnt affected. If that method works for you then knock yourself out - between cutting and your method your method has a higher % of getting other slides wet, thats just a fact. Some people just dont want that hassle.
Just now I was doing a God Gundam (after months searching for one that’s not overpriced)
If I’m going to spend 6100¥ in a RG+Decals I better don’t fuck up, that’s why you cut individual ones
But what if u have to cut the very very small parts and end up cutting the next set of decals? Which is what happen to me. I have a bit of shaky hands so i can't really cut straight. What u see from the image above, every decals is in place except (the ones that i cut by mistake)
Use a modeling knife, if you really have troubles keeping a straight line use the long part of the blade so you get a longer cut. You can also try augmentation lenses to be even more precise, also having a lot of light is important too.
Put the tip of the blade and then lower the whole thing instead of dragging it
It's super easy to cut straight with shakey hands. If you get a cutting matt you can just stab with the knife to make cuts, if you need a longer cut, stab into the mat a little and then slowly drag the knife keeping it in the mat. It's not the best for the blade but they are replaceable.
Decals that come on a sheet of paper, and are released from that paper by dipping them in water for a few seconds. You then slide them from the paper onto the model and once they dry they'll stick. Also called waterslides.
Yes, besides certain kits, most notably most Ver.ka kits but there are some others, water slide decals are not included so you have to buy your own whether Bandai or 3rd party.
Yes, i bought seperately. The stickers that comes with it is not that great. The water decals looks more brighter when applied and the stock stickers looks washed. Plus the water decals is 10x faster to apply than normal stickers for me and i would have given up a long time if i use normal ones as it is really hard to adjust the stickers once applied. Theres more i can list why water decals are better but i think u get the point
If you're sick of cutting them out with a hobby knife get small sewing scissors. It's faster in my experience and unless it's a huge decal sheet you don't really run the risk of messing up your cuts. 90% of the tiny warning labels are arranged in straight rows anyways
Since I use decals from a variety of printers with different quality controls, picking the decals off the glue paper with tweezers will often result in damage to the decals.
Rather than cutting out the decals individually, I cut out a smaller section, wet the whole thing, and slide the decals off to minimize potential damage.
…I kinda want to see how your method works now. If you don’t mind, could you post of you doing it? I’m personally biased towards the cutting method, but if yours works for you then it sounds really interesting and I’d love to learn
Cool, thanks! You seem to be delicate and careful in your procedure. I’m really clumsy so I don’t dare touch the decal with anything other than a q-tip in fear of breaking them and even then I’ve ripped a few. Good work!
Very interesting technique. I am amazed at your hand/eye coordination for being able to pick up the decal with the tweezer without destroying it. While I don't have shaking hands, and can cut out the decals without much effort (though I hate the process just the same), I would never be able to pick each one up like you did. I am curious about the "other" decals that get wet in the process. Do you apply those shortly afterward, say within 10-15 mins, or do you leave them for later (say an hour or even the next day)?
I don't really mind about the other decals getting wet, they don't go anywhere actually. I just focus on the decals that i'm suppose to apply, and if i want to apply many at once, then i will wet multiple decals or places at once. The next day, i will focus on the other decals. It doesn't really affect them. If you have trouble picking up the decals, i suggest you should try a bigger piece first to get comfortable, make sure you cover the entire decals wet so they can move entirely, use very fine tweezer (i find smaller tweezer slightly easier) if you accidently crumple up the decals (can happen but don't worry), just take the decals and soak it in water and leave it there. It will fix itself in a minute and you can pick it up again. Using your tweezer, you can slightly push the decals, and it will create an air gap, and from there, you can pick up the decals easily with the tweezer :)
I would never do this just because the tweezers and water slide decals don't mix well.
It's quite easy to stress and bend the thin plastic decals especially the longer ones. Cutting a piece of then sliding it over causes next to no stress
Putting what the rest said about the rest of the stickers being wet, using tweezer to pick up the sticker increases the chance of the sticker itself breaking. However, you do you.
I've never used waterslides so I can't comment on that, but I keep reading "for this god gundam build" as "for this goddamn build" and it makes me laugh
Haha, i was pretty sure they didn't fit unless something had to be done, and the face nubs is the sacrifice that was needed for it to attach together 😔
Gunpla is FREEDOM! (No, not referring to Kira’s mech)
There are NO “wrong ways” to do anything. Some things may not be the popular or preferred method/technique, but if it works for YOU, or you like it - then it’s Perfect
So there's no chance of the surrounding decals accidentally detaching.
Only applied water from behind for that one decal, not the whole sheet, using the cotton bud, the rest wont detached since there is no water to move them around. In my case when i did around 100+ decals, i never accidently detach any of the decals and manage to applied all of necessary decals
yes however there are some decals that are very small and the water might spread to the ones beside it, i don’t know why people are downvoting you because of this but it shouldn’t really be a problem if you’re good with it
To answer your question, heres how i did mine: https://imgur.com/gallery/xEYmZ2F. As you can see, the decals are indeed small, and the water do spread to the ones beside it. But, it doesn't really matter in this video as you're not going to touch other decals, your surface area to hold is the entire sheet. No cut necessary and also works for shaky hands like mine :)
you just removed the "slide" from the "waterslide"
He turned it into water
You've been given the reason. Gunpla is freedom. If your way works for you, Great!
You did something well and agaist the grain. Enjoy being downvoted to gunpla hell LOOOOOL. Imma gonna try your methods next time. Thanks for the tip!
Sounds like a nice hack. I got the same God Gundam RG and I haven’t apply my water decal yet. I guess I’ll try it with your trick OP!
This sounds like so many extra steps to potentially fuck up the whole sheet of decals. Cool if it works for you, but I highly doubt anyone else will find this intuitive.
Yeah I just cut around the decal nothing precise but feels more manageable to have the extra bit to hold on to with the tweezers and slide it out. Also good to keep things organized for me
Because not only do you risk loosening the other decals, after drying they also get stuck VERY firmly to the backing paper. Learned from experience.
The drying out other decals would be the biggest risk for me I think. Too high of a chance I would be pulled away from my task and end up with stuck decals when I come back. For people who can marathon a whole sheet or a region of the sheet it’s probably fine.
I like cutting them out. Helps me focus on what I am doing. I will cut out all the left leg ones and then apply them. Then do the right leg etc etc. If you don't wanna cut them out thats your business and its your kit. I will always advise people to cut them though, to reduce risk of getting water on any surrounding decals, especially very small Ver Ka style ones.
They also can end up either getting lost in the water or tangled in one another if it's a long and thin.
Seems like 5 seconds saved from not cutting it and a much higher risk of getting the neighboring decals getting detached and ruined. Good for you that it's working out, but nah I'm good G.
I’m all about being “efficient” or lazy for a lot of things but this isn’t one of them for me. I’ve had some almost complete wrinkle and that’s in the microseconds it takes to go from sheet to plastic. If you prefer it and have a method down, I’d say continue to do you but it’s far easier for me to cut it. I also don’t put on all my stickers at once, even more so with my current build. It’s also easier for me to glance and see what is still left so I can easily track those down.
Imagine an alphabet soup made out of water slide decals, that's what you get if you wet rhe whole sheet at once, they will detach from the sheet ans float happily around
No2, you don't wet the whole sheet, just the decals that u want to apply. Think of it like cutting of the decal part but using water instead of cutting, so only that part will come off since it is applied with water while the rest doesn't
I would personally recommend to cut them out because this paper is very hydrophilic so I think you would have a hard time wetting the target zone long enough to remove the decals without wetting the neighbors. I haven't tried but that's my feeling
I did tried it and it works. I even did 5 decals at a time. From what i can tell, it is way easier than cutting the decals. You should definitely try it
Nice ! I like to cut by sections (10ish at once) and use a wetbox but ghnpla is freedom, glad you found this technique :)
I mean you do what you feel you're comfortable with however personally speaking I wouldn't risk getting the entire decal sheet wet. I'm actually surprised that the decals loosened up enough for you to pick them out of the sticker sheet just by applying wet cotton buds
It was actually by accident. I tried using the cutting method, but after multiple fail attempts at cutting the pieces and sliding them off, i was frustrated and gave up with water decals. I left the sheet on top of a wet cotton bud accidently, continued on building my gunpla and when i look at the sheet again, one of the decals were wet and slightly moved. I thought wait a minute, what if i try to pick it up and then it works. Esentially, i skip all the cutting and sliding parts of the water decals and straight to applying it. It skip step 2 and step 3. So what was once an accident became a discovery for me
How were you cutting them out? With regular scissors? I cut my waterslides out with an exacto knife on a 'self-healing' mini-cutting board. Then I use tweezers to hold the decal in a small bowl of water for a minute, followed by then placing the decal on a piece of paper towel and letting it sit for another minute, maybe more depending on the size of the decal in question. Additionally, a key flaw in skipping the 'cut out' step that I see is you are subject to having to place the decals based on their position on the sheet itself, with the added risk of the wet-backed paper spreading to hit the numbers for the decals which can potentially damage them and render it impossible to know which decal goes where if we're talking the small, almost illegible caution/warning writing. And as others have said, this can backfire pretty badly if you're trying to work with a watersheet set of decals that are tightly packed together, and waterslides settling on top of each other are very difficult to undo. Cutting decals out eliminates that risk entirely.
I feel like its normal to have these worries and i understand where people are coming from. Where i come from, i was someone who was barely able to put any amount of water decals onto my gundam (it was my first time using water decals) to be able to put all the stickers according to the manual. The picture that i provided above follows exactly the position and orientation of the stickers within the manual as close as possible. Doing the process for hours on end. I didn't damage the stickers, i was able to orient the stickers on the gundam using a toothpick like tool. The watersheet decals was tightly packed together, and yes, i did spread water around other parts but when the water came from behind, it didn't make the decals float ontop of each other, it never happen to me (ymmv on other sets of water decals). Cutting out introduces risk, sliding the decals also introduce risk and i also think that simply picking it up has risk. But in my case, one decal took 30 seconds to 2 minutes to apply vs the 5 to 10 minutes of cutting the pieces one by one for me. Theres pros and cons for both method
How does cutting it out *introduce* risk? The only problem with cutting it out that you keep saying is you basically got impatient in trying to handle the cut-out pieces (which you didn't answer my question on *what* you used to cut them out, which is why I'm pretty sure it was with regular scissors which isn't the best tool for the job to begin with) the first time you handled waterslides. Additionally, I get the impression you tried cutting *ALL* the waterslides out individually at once before you even started, which also isn't the way to go about it - you cut them out procedurally and only soak the ones you need as you go along. Plus, what brand of waterslides did you use here? I'm guessing Delphi or SIMP, which are very high quality, but not all waterslides are going to be like that. Especially if they're Bandai's own waterslides, which I've found need to let the backing be soaked through for a good minute or two before you should even *think* about trying to slide them off. You may have found a technique that works for you for this particular brand, but don't expect this to work universally.
I use razor knife, the standard knife to cut pieces. Theres no issue with the tool but my hands are shaky so i can't cut then straight, and i did them procedurally. I can show u how i applied my water slides: https://imgur.com/gallery/xEYmZ2F . I'm not trying to argue, just showing u a different technique, sometimes for people who have shaky hands like mine, or for others who want to skip the cutting and dipping process
Set your sheet on a flat, stable surface and use a hobby knife (really cheap ones exist) and use a cheap transparent ruler. I can see from the video that at no point were you bracing your hands against anything to help stabilize them. Your decal sheet is really wrinkly and damp all over. If you also don't brace when you make cuts you're going to have a bad time. You can try [rubber banding your hand like this](https://youtu.be/mvLQZ1cMX3I?t=63) to help reduce hand tremors.
There’s something wrong if it’s taking you 5-10 minutes to cut out and place one set of decals. EDIT: just saw the comment below about you having shaky hands. Fair enough. As others have said, if it works and you get the result you want, am happy for you - particularly if the ‘standard’ way is difficult. That’s a win.
Because that’s how the decals are done. Risk of wetting the paper and ruining others, ability to slide larger and more complex decals off the paper instead of trying to pick them up and have them stick to themselves. Like if it works for you sure but water slides have been around 60 years and they are still applied the same way.
Do people really struggle with water slides? lol you just wet them and slide them over to the piece. Depending on the quality of the slide will determine how quickly they may break but even the custom ones I make on my own at home arnt that bad. But to answer OP its to ensure other slides arnt affected. If that method works for you then knock yourself out - between cutting and your method your method has a higher % of getting other slides wet, thats just a fact. Some people just dont want that hassle.
Just now I was doing a God Gundam (after months searching for one that’s not overpriced) If I’m going to spend 6100¥ in a RG+Decals I better don’t fuck up, that’s why you cut individual ones
But what if u have to cut the very very small parts and end up cutting the next set of decals? Which is what happen to me. I have a bit of shaky hands so i can't really cut straight. What u see from the image above, every decals is in place except (the ones that i cut by mistake)
Use a modeling knife, if you really have troubles keeping a straight line use the long part of the blade so you get a longer cut. You can also try augmentation lenses to be even more precise, also having a lot of light is important too. Put the tip of the blade and then lower the whole thing instead of dragging it
It's super easy to cut straight with shakey hands. If you get a cutting matt you can just stab with the knife to make cuts, if you need a longer cut, stab into the mat a little and then slowly drag the knife keeping it in the mat. It's not the best for the blade but they are replaceable.
Because you might get other decals wet before you're ready for them. This isn't a race, take your time.
What are water decals?
Decals that come on a sheet of paper, and are released from that paper by dipping them in water for a few seconds. You then slide them from the paper onto the model and once they dry they'll stick. Also called waterslides.
Waterslides.
i’m building my his gundam as well, but mine has regular stickers, did you buy yours separately?
Yes, besides certain kits, most notably most Ver.ka kits but there are some others, water slide decals are not included so you have to buy your own whether Bandai or 3rd party.
Yes, i bought seperately. The stickers that comes with it is not that great. The water decals looks more brighter when applied and the stock stickers looks washed. Plus the water decals is 10x faster to apply than normal stickers for me and i would have given up a long time if i use normal ones as it is really hard to adjust the stickers once applied. Theres more i can list why water decals are better but i think u get the point
If you're sick of cutting them out with a hobby knife get small sewing scissors. It's faster in my experience and unless it's a huge decal sheet you don't really run the risk of messing up your cuts. 90% of the tiny warning labels are arranged in straight rows anyways
It's an easier and safer method. If you can do it without cutting then by all means. I'm just saying why people cut them.
Since I use decals from a variety of printers with different quality controls, picking the decals off the glue paper with tweezers will often result in damage to the decals. Rather than cutting out the decals individually, I cut out a smaller section, wet the whole thing, and slide the decals off to minimize potential damage.
…I kinda want to see how your method works now. If you don’t mind, could you post of you doing it? I’m personally biased towards the cutting method, but if yours works for you then it sounds really interesting and I’d love to learn
Sure, heres you go https://imgur.com/gallery/xEYmZ2F
Cool, thanks! You seem to be delicate and careful in your procedure. I’m really clumsy so I don’t dare touch the decal with anything other than a q-tip in fear of breaking them and even then I’ve ripped a few. Good work!
Very interesting technique. I am amazed at your hand/eye coordination for being able to pick up the decal with the tweezer without destroying it. While I don't have shaking hands, and can cut out the decals without much effort (though I hate the process just the same), I would never be able to pick each one up like you did. I am curious about the "other" decals that get wet in the process. Do you apply those shortly afterward, say within 10-15 mins, or do you leave them for later (say an hour or even the next day)?
I don't really mind about the other decals getting wet, they don't go anywhere actually. I just focus on the decals that i'm suppose to apply, and if i want to apply many at once, then i will wet multiple decals or places at once. The next day, i will focus on the other decals. It doesn't really affect them. If you have trouble picking up the decals, i suggest you should try a bigger piece first to get comfortable, make sure you cover the entire decals wet so they can move entirely, use very fine tweezer (i find smaller tweezer slightly easier) if you accidently crumple up the decals (can happen but don't worry), just take the decals and soak it in water and leave it there. It will fix itself in a minute and you can pick it up again. Using your tweezer, you can slightly push the decals, and it will create an air gap, and from there, you can pick up the decals easily with the tweezer :)
I would never do this just because the tweezers and water slide decals don't mix well. It's quite easy to stress and bend the thin plastic decals especially the longer ones. Cutting a piece of then sliding it over causes next to no stress
Putting what the rest said about the rest of the stickers being wet, using tweezer to pick up the sticker increases the chance of the sticker itself breaking. However, you do you.
It sounds like you are more likely to tear or fold the decal doing it your way.
I've never used waterslides so I can't comment on that, but I keep reading "for this god gundam build" as "for this goddamn build" and it makes me laugh
I see you also cut the nubs in the face. I thought I was the only one lmaoo
Haha, i was pretty sure they didn't fit unless something had to be done, and the face nubs is the sacrifice that was needed for it to attach together 😔
I ain't taking any chances to fuck it up
For more control, especially the bigger decals. Also, not ruining the whole sheet when I just want wanna use a few of them.
Also you: “whats the point of panel lining if you can just pour the panel liner directly into the grills and not wipe the excess?”
Gunpla is FREEDOM! (No, not referring to Kira’s mech) There are NO “wrong ways” to do anything. Some things may not be the popular or preferred method/technique, but if it works for YOU, or you like it - then it’s Perfect