Pearl Harbor IJN Decks

Grg,

Thank you for the question.  I will update the the decal FAQs to better explain.  Let start with sealer types. As you note there is more than 1 type. I will break them into 2 groups. Oil and acrylic based clear coat sealers.  When painting / decaling any mini, pick one of the two and stay with that one throughout the entire process. Note: you can use an oil based sealer over an acrylic (not recommend as it may cause silvering / milk hazing) you do not want to use acrylic over an oil based clear coat.

Now that you have fully painted, washed, and decaled your mini, you need to protect the paint and decal. You want to apply a final clear seal coat (oil or acrylic) over the entire mini. Think of that final clear seal coat like wax on a car finish. Or better yet, a forcefield between you fingers and the paint / decals.  Without a protective final coat, your decal is vulnerable to staining. Oh, lets say... like that time the cat spilled the cup of coffee on the table and across the fleet... If the decals are top coated they will not stain. 2nd greatest evil in the world cats are. But I digress... That final coat also has an additional bonus of helping the decal adhere to the mini.

Since you read the "Why do I need to use gloss coat?" tab you know that setting solution thermally bonds the decal matric to the under gloss coat. When you apply your final seal coat (I usually finish all my naval minis in flat clear coat) that coat chemically adheres to the previous gloss coat. You have now suspended the decal between two layers of clear protective sealer.


Hope that makes sense and answers your question?

Cheers,
Dan