Decals on Bullet kits.

[PaulDoug]

I've made a lot of pens out of real cartridges and applied decals to them with no problems. A friend has just made one using one of the kits that you can buy from PSI and such places. He tried to put a decal on it and it came out cloudy under the decal. He brought one out for me to try so I could explain to him what he was doing wrong. I tried and got the same results as he did. I had a cartridge (real one) handy so I put one on it, it came out fine.

I'm wondering if anyone else has tried putting a decal on one of the "kit" cartridges and did it work? Did you have to do anything different than when using a real cartridge?

 

[ribanett]

Try applying a few coats of CA before adding the decal. The kit could have a coating to prevent the plating from tarnishing that is reacting with the decal

 

[G1Pens]

I print decals but am by no means and expert....I don't know of any reason that would be happening....but obviously it is. It the decal a gloss decal? are both the real cartridge and the kit cartridge of the same sheen (glossiness)? Are the decals laser printed or ink jet printed? Inkjet would have a coat of fixative on it. Perhaps the fixative is not gloss.

It just about has to be the decal finish (gloss vs less gloss) or the glossiness of the cartridge. The only other thing I can think of is some coating on the kit cartridge is reacting with the decal, but that would be very odd.