Need advice for decals on white paper

[JonW]

I've just recently started making police cars out of 1:18 scale diecast muscle cars. One of the issues I've had is working with white decal paper. No matter how careful I am, and whether I'm using Tamiya scissors or a new blade for my Xacto knife, the edges of my decals are white. I printed a large border on this decal and there was quite a bit of it left after cutting it out of the sheet. But the white edges are still there.



In doing some research, I've read that the decal sheet should be cleared 3 times and I only cleared mine once. Could that be part of the problem?

 

[Hagoth]

Don't have any advice to fix it but I'm interested in the solution if one is provided.

 

[JonW]

I think I may have found a solution:

Create a border of 1/4" or more around the decal that is as close as possible to the color of the surface it will be applied to (you can see that in the photo above).
Using scissors or a knife, cut the decal out around the outer perimeter of the body-color part of the decal.
Using an Xacto knife with a new blade, carefully cut out the actual decal that will be placed on the model. Cut as close as possible, BUT only cut through the decal film. Do not cut thru the decal backing.
After the decal is removed from the water, use tweezers to remove the excess border area from the decal.
Apply decal as usual and use Micro Set or Micro Sol or equivalent to set the decal. This will also make the body-color border almost invisible.

I think before when I was cutting out the decal, the scissors or knife (I tried both) were cutting a ragged enough edge that it was tearing the ink, and therefore causing the white edge I was seeing. By making the final cut only thru the film, it was a MUCH cleaner cut, no tearing.