The Law of Decals

The most important decal on the whole model will, no matter what, fall off of whatever it is you are using to transport it to the model, and land sticky side down on the place where the dog lays!

No matter if you try to dry the water out from under your decals before moving them, more develops, these things are like camels! So when you move your model, the water moves, and again, no matter what, the decal slides out of place, and more than likely, onto the floor where the dog lays! Its almost like dropping a piece with glue on it, it will always land in the spot with the most dog/cat hair! Stupid cat!

You complete what you think is the perfect decal job, only to find out several days later you installed one decal up side down.

You complete the job, set the model aside to dry, only to find out later, you touched one and it has dried into a un repairable mess.

You had to use less than acceptable decals only to see better decals released one month later.

All of the above, and...

"The old cracked decal, of which there is only one in the world, and you did not make a copy of before you started to apply it because you have done this before, had great success, and knew it would be OK,  you covered liberally with several heavy coats Micro Decal Film, still breaks into 1000+ pieces when it is put in water."  Does this sound like the voice of experience?

I think all of those strike home. Lol :(

The law of decals struck again for me this weekend. I cant even bring myself to look at the model now. Its hideous! (Ok...its just missing one decal...but it is all I see when I look at it)

Aside from those already posted, my decal laws are:

Law 1 "Any thin stripes/bands or whatever are guaranteed not to line up no matter how many times you try"

Law 2 "If by some miracle Law 1 is broken, you will be tempted to try just one more time to get the position a little better, when Law 1 is re-evoked"

Law 3 "When applying crew walk lines decals, one will go on like a dream the other, see Law 1."

Law 4 "The amount of effort required to move a decal a huge distance is inversely proportionate to how far out of ideal position the decal is."

Cheers

LancasterFM104 wrote:

The last decal to go down always splinters and the sheet isn't available for love nor money anywhere although the month before they were like grains of sand on the beach. When you repaint the model for another sheet, the impossible to find sheet surfaces once again.

UGGGHHH!!!  you reminded me... I was contemplating a scheme for my Bf110 and stumbled on a cool site with nightfighter Bf110's.... found the decals.. they were listed as in stock, so I ordered them...

It's been about 3 weeks now and somehow they have switched to being listed as "Searching for/Special order" on the same site... 

The last decal to go down always splinters and the sheet isn't available for love nor money anywhere although the month before they were like grains of sand on the beach.

When you repaint the model for another sheet, the impossible to find sheet surfaces once again.

yeah.. a learned behavior nowadays is to put off decaling even for weeks.  It seems at my earliest point in coming back to modeling I had no problems whatsoever.. the decals went down like champs without decal solution even...

As time goes by and my modeling skills have increased it seems that any decal skills have all but disappeared.  (I was in a stage of denial for while, blaming the makers... "Those Tamiya decals always do that"  or "huh! that's why they call them *Errormaster* I guess...)  Sadly I must take the blame for some of it now... I guess it is a sort of acceptance...

And Bill...  I agree about the invasion stripes.. I hand spray them from now on.  And those red and white stripes on the tail of early war USN A/C?  1/16 or 1/8 Pactra pin striping from the RC section of your LHS will handle that... 

What's a modeler to do??? 

How about:

"The adhesive on the front of the decal will always adhere better then that on the back of the decal."

"The ugly ones are quicker go down right the first time, whereas the nice fancy design/personal insignia decals will forever try your skills as a would-be brain surgeon."

"The willingness of the decal in question to go on nicely is in direct and inverse proportion to how passionately you show concern about the results."-In this case, feigned indifference has helped me in times past, such as seriously studying the alternative markings of the model in questions during the decalling process.

"Decal softening/setting solutions always pucker the most critical area the worst, while softening the intended area the least."

"Poking holes in the decals (per the aftermarket makers instruction sheet) to help them adhere by letting softening solution through only results in decals with with gaps underneath and ugly holes poked in them."

"Although aftermarket decals indicate you are getting decals for more then one of the type of aircraft, you in fact wil be lucky if you have enough for one after the 'spares' mess-up on you."

"The tendency of  the model colors to 'bleed-through' the decal is in direct proportion to degree of the intricacy of the design/marking that is on the decal."

"The most intricate decals will peel-up the fastest before you can get a clear-coat/sealer on them"

I am sure others can contribute more !

  Tom