Art is your friend too

You can stop once the decals are all applied, but the model probably won't look quite right. To really make the decals blend in, we need to go back to paint.

The most obvious use for paint is covering up flaws in the decal application. You'll most often find these flaws on the edge of the decal, where the printing registration hasn't quite lined up. See the little white bits along the top edge of the PPC decal?

Flaws like this are easily covered with careful application of the base paint color. Painting over decal paper isn't hard. The surface has a bit less tooth than a painted surface, but you can work with it.

Decals are flat color, so you'll also want to paint over them wherever you need to match your highlighting. Take the shoulder pad checkerboard, for example.

Although there's a highlight line on the red pad, it doesn't extend through the checkerboard area. This problem is easily solved by careful application of some very light grey paint over the black checkers. The white checkers don't need highlighting, obviously.

Once the model's done and I hit it with a shot of Dullcote, you can see what a difference the highlighting makes.

You can use painted battle damage and weathering chalks over decals too. Weathering is a great way to integrate the decal into a model. Historical modelers have been doing it for decades.

Once you've finished applying your decals and painting/washing/chalking over them, spray the whole model with a coat or two of Dullcote. This will knock out the shine from the decals' surfaces—the final step in integrating the decal with the model.

And I'm very pleased to say once again: until next time!

- Finn