headstock decals

imalone

Hi,
This is a Rothko and Frost water-slide decal applied to an already-finished (poly) neck:

and varnished over with a few coats of artist's spray varnish (IIRC, something like windsor and newton artist's satin) then gently sanded at high grit. As you can see it's not quite right, this picture shows it particularly badly, most visible at an angle and catching the light. If I was to re-do it or attempt to fix this what should I do differently? Would it have helped to trim closer to the letters?

Andyjr1515

Hi

Is your varnish solvent based or water based?  With water-decals (although I've never used R&F) I always apply standard Ronseal varnish first (sometimes a couple or so coats) to make the paper completely transparent, and then apply the final finish over that once it's fully dry

Andy 

Forge

You also need to cut around the letters. I use these guys with good results.

imalone

Andyjr1515 said:

Hi

Is your varnish solvent based or water based?  With water-decals (although I've never used R&F) I always apply standard Ronseal varnish first (sometimes a couple or so coats) to make the paper completely transparent, and then apply the final finish over that once it's fully dry

Andy 

Yes, it's solvent based, supposed to be removeable with white spirit I think. Does the ronseal soak through the decal then? Would you do the whole headstock?

Forge said:

You also need to cut around the letters. I use these guys with good results.

Thanks, thought that might help, or at least look a bit better, but was worried it would make applying it a bit too fiddly. (And I was when ordering, "Why not get two?") Can you still see the remaining background on ones you've done?