Oh Fun !

I also hate decals. I think that Tamyia has the worst decals. I just finished a 1/8 scale Tamyia F1 model and the decals just would not stick. Also, they tended to crack.

 Ah!

        That's what got me hooked some years back. I had foiled, Panel by Panel, a Monogram "Century Series" California A.N.G. F-100. I did this to show my Challenged students( All Veterans learning to live and work with prosthetics) that anything is possible.

        The Idea was to have them shoot for that, building with hand and finger prosthetics. Well, they got so good, they did something I didn't expect. They entered my plane( Without my Knowledge) in the National Veterans Creative Arts contest ( a V.A.Thing)

         Boy, was I Embarressed! My students in the arts got their Medals. Three Local Gold Medals, two Silver and eight Bronze . Then last but not least the presenter anounced a " Special, By request entry" Winning the " National Gold Medal in Model Aircraft" then he called my name.

         My students went ballistic with Applause and Cheers! Turns out, They convinced the Director of Recreational Sciences at Martinez.V.A facility to enter My model at their request! That's why to this day, I absolutely love Bare Metal Airplanes! I have even done a DeLorean Model car in Foil!

I have a love/hate relationship with decals.  The decals in kits vary so widely.  If the decals are good, I love working with them- if bad I hate it.

I have learned to print my own decals.  That way I can scan (I always scan decals before use, in case I make a mistake on my own) bad decals and replace any I can't use.

Add another to the hating decals column.  In an early post  I mentioned moving to painting more insignia, etc. on my models.  The time it takes for them to look nice can be used to mask and paint.  just my opinion.  I did build a Tamiya Ferrari F1 car and the decals were awesome.  Go figure.

I still despise them and use as few as possible on my builds. I prefer paint then if I screw up it's on me. With decals no matter what I do there is always silvering despite clear coat and using micro set/sol, or Tamiya markfit. I could just try printing my own but I don't care to buy an inkjet printer. Actually it's the cost of the ink that is the biggest detractor.  Anyhow, my stand on decals is no fun for me.