More about the transfers
Fox transfers have a coating of water based glue on their underside.
Putting them into a bath of water wets the backing paper they are
stuck to, it soaks through and releases them from it just enough so
that they can be slid off the backing paper. Leave it to soak for
too long and the transfer will begin to lift off the paper of its
own accord and start floating around the bath. If that happens, you
may as well forget that transfer and start again as it will only
curl up on itself and twist into an unusable little knot which you
can’t undo. Fox suggest that you add a small amount of washing up
liquid to the water, (the problem with that is although it enables
the glue to release the transfer from its backing paper it has a
lubricating property that may interfere with the glue helping the
transfer to adhere to the loco body). I use Methylated spirit. I
think that adding something to the water is to let the water soak
into the backing paper more easily and the spirit has the effect
also of slightly softening the paint used on the transfer so only
one drop is necessary. The amount of time to soak varies from a
couple of seconds upwards. As soon as the transfer can be moved on
its backing paper its ready to be applied. I remove it from the
bath, test it and if not ready it goes back for a little longer. You
tease the transfer with the wooden cocktail stick to see it moves,
make sure that all of it moves and that a bit is still not stuck to
its backing paper otherwise you run the risk of stretching or
breaking it.