Decal Problem

Thanks to everyone. Onyan I will try yours as the others were unsuccesful. I am at a point where I now have nothing to lose. I do thank big_hungry and crockett for your ideas.

Richard

Hi Rixchard,

I haven't found a convenient solution yet, but you may want to try this...

I recently built my Matchbox 1/72 Hawker Tempest V kit which I bought since I was in high school [:0]. Same as with your piece, the covering paper has stuck to the decals, maybe due to humidity. I didn't know how to fix the problem so I experimented, reasoning that if I ruin these decals I can always go for AM ones. I decided to soak the whole decal sheet in warm water, and sure enough, after a few minutes, all the decals were set loose from the backing paper as well as the cover sheet. A little scraping with my fingers got off some stubborn paper fibers as well as glue on the surface of the decals. I arranged the salvaged decals onto a sheet of good old wax paper then put the whole sheet into a sandwich bag for keeping till my decaling session. Yes, the decal glue was diluted and almost gone but that is not a problem since I can use diluted white glue or even Future to secure the decals to the model. Come decaling time I did just that and applied MicroSol and everything came out dandy. A protective coat of Future sealed the decals and blended them with the model. You wouldn't know by looking that once those decals had paper fibers "growing" out of them!

i've had decent luck with popping the decal sheet in the freezer for a while. this also works with photographs that get stuck together. good luck, be patient. "patience? yeah, yeah, when do i get that?"

Steve,

I tried the hair dryer bit but was it didn't work. It seems that the paper is stuck to the decal wherever the decal film is. The heat caused some of the paper to lift but not enough. I am able to scrape the paper off but this leaves the decal with no protective film. I will try recoating it to see if that will work. I will let you know.

Richard

Try a blow dryer on low setting, be VERY CAREFUL not to apply too much heat. Use a "swiping motion" and it should peel right off without any damage. If you can't save them, there are plenty of AM sheets out there for your kit.

Steve