Tire decals; Dry transfer or Water slide?

[aurfalien]

Hi,

Before I embark down this road, I was wondering what this incredable community thought of tire decals pertaining to rubber tires.

My LHS thought that dry transfer look better but are harder to apply. Not to mention hard to find.

The water slide veriety are easer to apply although more prep is needed on the rubber.

I havn't tried either and am hoping for some advise as well as technique.

Thanks in advance.

Boy, it seems there is nothng easy about modeling. It requires a lot of skill, knowledge and experiance to be proper and I can't imagine a child doing it well.

No wonder Revell came out with snap kits, it seems a great intro to eventual glue assembly.

Edited June 18, 2015 by aurfalien

[fseva]

Before I embark down this road, I was wondering what this incredable community thought of tire decals pertaining to rubber tires.

My LHS thought that dry transfer look better but are harder to apply. Not to mention hard to find.

The water slide veriety are easer to apply although more prep is needed on the rubber.

I havn't tried either and am hoping for some advise as well as technique.

There really isn't much choice right now... The best transfers were by Shabo, but they're out of business and no one stepped up to buy the business. So, it's not operating in any other form. My current fav for tire lettering is waterslide decals by Powerslide available through the owner, Mike's Decals. The only problem there is a lack of variety. For 1:25th, they have Goodyear Eagle, BF Goodrich Radial T/A, and 60's Goodyear and Firestone in white. They have others, but they're mostly for detailing race cars (Goodyears are in yellow).

Here's a link to their page... http://www.mikesdecals.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=5&sort=3a&filter_id=6

[Brett Barrow]

Fireball Modelworks - http://www.fireballmodels.info/ and Scale Equipment Ltd - http://seltd.net/ also make RWL decals.

I never had any luck with Shabo dry transfers, I prefer the waterslides.

[935k3]

Put a coat of Future on the sidewall(can be applied with a Q-Tip) this helps the decal stick to whatever the tire is made of. Than DullCote the when decal is dry.

Edited June 18, 2015 by 935k3

[fseva]

Fireball Modelworks - http://www.fireballmodels.info/ and Scale Equipment Ltd - http://seltd.net/ also make RWL decals.

I have used Fireball and while the variety is great, there are a couple of negatives - first of all, the resolution isn't all that great, so that a "W" looks like a filled block. Secondly, they are printed on decal paper which must be cut very carefully to minimize the amount of clear carrier you get when the graphics are cut out.

That having been said, how do SEL's tire decals compare?

Edited June 19, 2015 by fseva

[fseva]

Put a coat of Future on the sidewall(can be applied with a Q-Tip) this helps the decal stick to whatever the tire is made of. Than DullCote the when decal is dry.

I use a hobbyist bottled gloss acrylic clear to give the sidewall some shine before applying decals. This may not be necessary if the sidewall is slick enough. In the case of having removed old black raised lettering through sanding, you will probably need this just to restore the look of the rubber. Then, I use another bottle of hobbyist acrylic flat clear after the decals have been applied. I feel it's necessary to handbrush these coatings because I generally insert the wheels to help align the decals, and I don't want to coat them, or it could affect the chrome.

[Monty]

I have used Fireball and while the variety is great, there are a couple of negatives - first of all, the resolution isn't all that great, so that a "W" looks like a filled block. Secondly, they are printed on decal paper which must be cut very carefully to minimize the amount of clear carrier you get when the graphics are cut out.

Yeah, the resolution is horrible I'm sensing a massive case of Operator Error on your part.

(Click on the pic to expand and check out the stylized image between the "Eagle" and the "ST"

on the Goodyear tire in the lower left corner).

And you actually had to trim decals? The horror...the horror.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Monty