Cutting out Beetle Blitzer decals the best way?

[Jorgen 56]

Maybe someone that has built the Blitzer Beetle help me out

Have you guys cut the whole decal (inside the flames/drops all the way around) or left it like the one up on the right corner?

Maybe it will be too visible once on to leave it 

 

Thanks in advace

[Willy iine 18804]

I use my knife (Olfa precision utility knife) to trim out the decals without cutting the liner itself.  I would remove ALL clear areas on those decals.  GL with the install!  

 

[Tamiyabigstuff 831]

I only ever use a pair of sharp scissors - take your time & go carefully. 

[Kol__ 3377]

Yep, a very sharp set of scissors bud! You need to cut ALL the way around those stickers and leave NO clear areas. It is a bit tricky, but luckily as they are blobby shapes it's fairly easy to reshape if needed. Noone will know if your blobs are not exactly box art. I'm sure at least one of mine is not exact

Once cut out, application is not the easiest. I took it slowly and removed the backing in sections. Also, for the bonnet where the stickers travel over the depressed areas and bumps, press into the corners of these areas to shape the sticker to the body lines, before pressing the rest of the sticker down and heat well with a hair dryer afterwards to ensure they stay put. Same for the body lines down the side, when I met a body line I used my finger nail to crease the sticker into it and then carried on and smoothed the rest of it down. Each to their own of course, but that was my experience. I also clear coated mine in matt clear afterwards to ensure they were protected.

[Golden 169]

While I haven‘t done it on the Blitzer Beetle, I do a similar thing on all my other builds. So on subaru rally cars for example, I’ll apply the decal and then painstakingly cut round the decal with a scalple/hobby knife to trim the excess/clear portions between the decals off the actual body of the car. You obviously need to be careful not to slip…. And if you removed the decals then I’m sure the body would have cut marks where the edges of the decals used to be. But it stops the shine of the clear part of the decal - and looks great imo. If you cut in advance/before application, then you might find it’s really hard to apply the decal with the correct spacing as it could fold over on itself etc?

In any event - a sharp scalpel is always better than scissors IF you go super slow. 

[Frog Jumper 3656]

Cut off as much clear as you can. Don’t leave any sharp corners - try to round them over. Corners catch and peel up.

Use dish soap and warm water to apply. Rub soapy water on your body and peel and position your sticker. Once in place use a paper towel to lightly push water out. Use a hair dryer to dry off and warm to bend around corners and curves.  Firmly but lightly press from center  to edges with you finger to squeeze out the last bit of air and water.  Pat dry with paper towel.

Terry

 

 

[Willy iine 18804]

Here is an example of what all my spent decal sheet looks like.   This is post SuperAstute .   

 

[Killajb 1546]

As others have mentioned, take your time and try to cut as much of the clear sticker away.  Be aware of alignment of the side decals as well.

[Pablo68 1049]

I have a Blitzer Beetle. I'm usually not awful at putting decals on a body. The job I did on Blitzer is an affront to all that is decent and good in the world, and to RC in general.

[Golden 169]

Are you au fait with the dunk it through soapy water, spray soapy water onto the body, apply decal, and then dab with a paper towel and use a hairdryer to “set” and also form around undulations in the body-method?

It genuinely transformed my enjoyment of the  hobby - which is highly focused (almost exclusively so….) on the build process.

And you definitely have to show it to us now though!

[Willy iine 18804]

@Golden I use distilled water for RC decals and silicon squeegee.

 

I use slip solution for my 1:1 vinyl and clearbra installs along with tack solution.  

[Frog Jumper 3656]

2 hours ago, Golden said:

Are you au fait with the dunk it through soapy water, spray soapy water onto the body, apply decal, and then dab with a paper towel and use a hairdryer to “set” and also form around undulations in the body-method?

 

I used this method recently with my Fire Dragon and Winger bodies for my Mega Dragon project.  I was very happy with the results.

Distilled water, like Willy said, would be a better idea, but we have filtered water in our house so I figured that was good enough.  I have seen no discoloration with using filtered tap water.

Terry

ETA:  found some pictures of the "after":  https://imgur.com/a/RFuLiEj

ETA:  and yes, cutting out all those flames was a huge PITA.  Luckily I have very sharp scissors...

 

[Golden 169]

Ha. I went full-psycho on mine. I decided the prepainted firedragon body was too see-through. So masked it and backed in white and then black!

We have VERY hard water and I haven’t had any issues with staining or discolouration for what it’s worth. 

[Willy iine 18804]

There are several reasons why I use distilled water.. one is it's always readily available in my house as I use it for various things for my 1:1 car shop including diluting various products, making tack solution, etc, absolutely no worry with stains on the RC car, on my desk, on my tools, the other is maintaining maximum adhesive strength, and since it is basically pure water, I can keep it in a spray bottle in my pretend RC shop for months (years if sealed) without it getting spoiled.  

I don't use slip solution for RC car decal installs.. it's too messy for me to use on my desk and distilled water does just fine to temporary reduce adhesive strength.

Again, this is just me on how I do things (heck my technique is relying fully on hope ) it's entirely up to you what you guys use.   

[Jorgen 56]

Thanks for all the advice

Im getting there.

 

[Kol__ 3377]

On 8/11/2022 at 7:33 AM, Jorgen said:

Thanks for all the advice

Im getting there.

 

Just a further word of advice on this, certain areas of the Blitzer Beetle stickers, such as the where they meet the chassis rails and the wings, require there to be no clear whatsoever (as in literally nothing) to allow the orange areas to snug up fully against the body lines and in some cases match into another orange sticker coming down to join on to them. I would literally cut off all the clear all the way round, that's what I did and it worked out fine bud. For the stickers with multiple long blobs, just take the backing off one or two blobs at a time to make the application slower and easier to control

[Jorgen 56]

Thanks a lot. Have to trim of a bit more then

Pretty strange that they removed the rear window on the rere..

What is that all about?

[Willy iine 18804]

1 hour ago, Jorgen said:

Thanks a lot. Have to trim of a bit more then

Pretty strange that they removed the rear window on the rere..

What is that all about?

I think it has to do with the mold they had available.. SandScorcher has that clip on the roof to mount the body and you need the rear glass open to access the clip if needed.