Water slide decal question

[mobile1]

I am building a wood ship model.

 

For its flags the kit provided water slide decals.

 

What should I do with these?  Can they be put onto fabric?

 

Thank you for your help.

[bluenose2]

Hello Les calling. You should check out a site from Britain. BECC model accessories. Web site is modelflags.com. High quality cloth and they ship world wide. Excellent selection in many scales.

[Canute]

Water slide decals work best when applied to glossy, sealed surfaces. I suppose you could cut them out and glue the paper sides together, without wetting the decals. But you won't be happy, over time. The paper will absorb moisture out of the air and the decals will fall apart. Best to do as Les (bluenose2) suggests and replace them with the cloth ones.

[overdale]

Depending on the scale of your model, you could apply them to paper and have them laser copied onto printer paper which I find quite a good permanent solution if you are not a fan of the cloth flags, which are fine for larger scales but at the smaller scales tend to look a little clumsy. The detail tends to be blurred by the weave of the cloth.

Edited April 10, 2016 by overdale

[mitbok]

I was able to apply a decal on fabric a while ago.

Transferred it on just as you would do on a hard surface

and then applied Solvoset, decal application solution until

it completely dissolved the film, sealed it with dullcoat spray

[reklein]

There are iron on transfers available onto which you can copy and print your artwork then iron it on to your preferred fabric. Probably JoAnns fabric will carry these. Sounds like it might be a funproject to try to perfect. Might try spray starch on the fabric so you can shape it a little.  Bill

[popeye the sailor]

I did this little experiment with my decal maker and ink jet printer.   there is a thread here,  but here is my blog on it......I still need to do more on it though:

 

https://wenzelswharftips.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/embossing-sails-part-1/

 

you can do the same in photo shop.   take an image of the decal sheet...sized to what you need,  and run a piece of sail cloth through you printer.  I used decal bonder to stiffen the cloth .......but I tried it with cloth that required no stiffening at all...and it worked just as well.  hope this helps