Anyone ever spraypaint over clear decal paper then apply?

[Bill S]

I'm working on a rocket, and am trying to figure out how to do the decals. The basecoat is going to be turquoise, and I wanted some bright purple decals on top of that. The issue I have is this: While I do have white decal paper, I've never had any luck trying to cut the decal down so you can't see the white border around it. No matter how careful I am, I've never been able to successfully paint the white border around the decal and end up with anything that blended in well enough it didn't look terrible.

I have some clear decal paper, but I'm skeptical that the purple color will adequately cover up the basecoat, the basecoat will be visible, and it'll look bad.

Then I had the brainstorm of spraypainting the clear decal paper, then cutting to size and applying. My concern is that if any of the surfaces are even slightly curved, will the decal conform well enough, or is the paint likely to crack. I was looking at either a Krylon purple, or Tamiya purple lacquer.

Anyone ever done something like this?

 

[Marc_G]

I have sprayed clear lacquer or enamel paints onto either inkjet or laser printed labels, relatively light coats mind you, then cut out and applied fine to typical LPR projects. No funky tight radii or anything, just fins and body tubes and the like.

Never tried it with a color coat on the decal.

 

[neil_w]

Starting here: https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/alcubierre-build-thread.148195/post-1868316

It's a great technique, but for reasons still unclear, I had great trouble getting the decals to adhere to curved surfaces. Dunno if the silver metallic paint was a contributor.

Originally got the idea to do this from @hcmbanjo's blog.

 

[kuririn]

I'm working on a rocket, and am trying to figure out how to do the decals. The basecoat is going to be turquoise, and I wanted some bright purple decals on top of that. The issue I have is this: While I do have white decal paper, I've never had any luck trying to cut the decal down so you can't see the white border around it. No matter how careful I am, I've never been able to successfully paint the white border around the decal and end up with anything that blended in well enough it didn't look terrible.

I have some clear decal paper, but I'm skeptical that the purple color will adequately cover up the basecoat, the basecoat will be visible, and it'll look bad.

Then I had the brainstorm of spraypainting the clear decal paper, then cutting to size and applying. My concern is that if any of the surfaces are even slightly curved, will the decal conform well enough, or is the paint likely to crack. I was looking at either a Krylon purple, or Tamiya purple lacquer.

Anyone ever done something like this?

I spray painted magenta on white decal paper then cut a strip to apply to my EAC Viper. It worked well.


White decal paper is more opaque than clear.
I now have a selection of painted strips of white decal paper in various widths to use in place of pin striping tape.
I haven't had one crack yet.
Another thing you could try is instead of trying to cut down the border of the white decal paper, just match the background color of the decal to the base color of the rocket and cut around the decal. Don't have to precisely trim it. All graphic editing software lets you choose and adjust a color palette.

 

[Huxter]

View attachment 478136

Those colors DO remind me of the old days. WE had EAC rockets, stickers...