Decal Terror

For very long, narrow decals I cut them into segments at the start.  Yeah, you have to be careful to adjust position so there are no gaps, but I still find that easier than wrestling with a wiggly snake :-)

Hello!

Decaling can be a lot of fun when you're lucky to have the right supplies - good decals, compatible chemistry (solvents) and clear coat (that doesn't melt the decals). With bad suplies it turns into a horror. Copying - or better, scanning the decals takes a lot of pressure out here. Recently I have built the Whale - an EKA-3B aircraft - and the kit decals showed an aircraft from a Med cruise, where I wanted a Vietnam machine - but they were similar. So I scanned the kit decals and altered them accordingly. The printed decals went on like a charm. Some of the original decals - Hasegawa - tried the wrinkling trick on me, so I was glad to have redrawn as many of them as I did. Replacing the decals that got lost is a great starter on creating your own decals, which then takes your modelling to an entirely new level.

Hope it helps - good luck with your projects and have a nice day

Paweł

Good you will do it well.

A note. When you do add decal film or spray fix or whatever to old decals, then you have to cut out the decal exactly on the edge of the color, or no bigger than the original clear backer. Because what you've created with an overspray is one large decal.

A good way to do it. Make photo copies and a scan of the decal sheet. I always do and for the bigger stuff, cut out the image from the print, at 95%, and stick it down with tacky glue as a  mask over the primer where the decal will go when spraying on the camo or dark colors. You get a white or gray ghost where the decal will be. Much better color rendition that way.

GMorrison, can definitely see the benefits to that like you said... especially with the weathering.  Will try that when I see an opportunity.  May take me a while to get my courage up, because masking at that level seems like an art in itself.  ;-)

Checkmate, thanks for the tip!  I've actually been eyeing a couple of vintage models, so I'll be sure to have some Microscale Liquid Decal Film on hand when I try those.

More importantly, decals are useful for things like type, complicated insignia etc. When doing simple shapes or lines, it's much better to paint the things. It looks so much better. Paint the model in the color of the stripe and then mask it off with tape. Tamiya tape is really great, it's flexible but sticky. Then over spray with the main color. I did my big Monogram B-36 and B-52  "no step" area stripes that way and it looked so much better than all of the decal pieces.

Once you get the hang of painting rather than decal for anything you feel up to, do it. Weathering afterwards is easier, and you can get the marking colors right.

When they shatter into teeny, tiny little pieces.  By then, there's not much to be done but get another set of decals.

Sometimes I've had the decals break apart, but the pieces can be pushed back together.

Now, I keep a bottle of Microscale's Liquid Decal Film on hand for old and suspect decals.  A thin coating of the stuff is usually enough to prevent disaster.

Glad to hear that you conquered the monster this time, Mark!  Congratulations!