on the trains.com webpage, there's an article showing how to pput drywall compound on a building to represent stucco. Has anyone tried this? If so, can you apply decals on it?
The drywall compound will first need to be sealed because of its porous nature. Since most stucco got a coat of paint, unless a pigment was added to the mortar, that starts the process. Decals need a gloss, or at least semi-gloss undercoat to adhere properly, and dry transfers don't like a rough surface, much less porous, with a tendency to crumble. There area few plaster, or hydrocal kits out there that also require prepping to apply decals. The sign painter would have prepped the area to get the sign with an underlayment or undercoat. You will have to do the same. To achieve the same with your drywall compound I suggest spraying a small amount of Tester"s semi- gloss or gloss coat into the spraycan lid and then using a small brush to apply it in the area your decals are going. This allows you to have control of how much surface gets glossy and has to be dulled down later. This coating may have to be done several times to end up with the desired surface since the product will initially be absorded into the plaster or drywall compound. After that it is just a matter of applying the decals per instructions and getting them to snuggle down in the uneven areas. The same applies for dry transfer except use care in the transfer process because even with the hardening effect of the gloss coat it is possible to crumble some of the material. I rarely use dry transfers because of the difficulty in applying to small areas because of my chosen scale. When I absolutely have to use one I usually transfer it to plain decal paper, seal it in, and then apply it as a normal decal. Hope I covered all the bases and helped some. John Moore
You can also try putting your decal on a small piece of styrene and make sort of a sign out of it. I have seen many signs painted on brick or block ,but I can't say I ever seen one painted on stucco!
You could also stick the styrene to the building prior to laying the stucco and just make sure the stucco doesnt go OVER the styrene...you after a flush finish.... Then when the stucco and styrene are flush with each other, paint the styrene and apply your decal. You can get a fairly flat surface more easily with the embedded styrene than you can with stucco.
