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Old decals not sticking to model, need help!

Hi

I am working on Tamiya old Stug IV tank kit (Aircraft modelers plz keep reading.). The tank is built, painted, cammo executed and I applied the decals. Well they were old and cracked upon close inspection. About 25% fell apart in the water and were unusable, the rest were ok, thank god they gave plenty extras. I coated my model with a spraying of Future the night before to apply the decals. The decals went on fine but 24 hours later 50% of them had partially peeled off the model, 2 flew away when I went to seal them in another coat of future (I thought the spraying would make them stick and seal them.) I have future handy, I was thinking about grabbing a hand brush, dipping it in future and then on the decals. What would that do? Make them stick for good? Any tips welcome, the tank is one of my best efforts ever with a nice 3 colors cammo, I hate to ruin it on decals. I am awaiting answers, I won't touch the model until.

Aircraft modelers I hope you read the whole thing, as even though I am building a tank, this could apply to aircrafts.

Thanks a lot

Patrick

Reply to
varois83
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i apply decals onto WET future and never have a problem. i never let it dry first. never thought dry was correct.

Reply to
e

Coat old decals in future (or better yet,tamiya gloss,IMHO)and let dry,to prevent cracking.Applying to dry future is usually ok,but if the decals dont want to stick paint some future under them and put them on wet.I always hand brush it.

Reply to
eyeball

Long ago I built an M16 halftrack and the decals have been flaking off ever since. Is it endemic to Tamiya's armour decals? I applied them in the same manner as my aircraft so they shouldn't be doing this. None of their contemporaries on planes are.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

May be a different printshop handling the armour decals, using a substrate that's ever so slightly less tolerant than the a/c stuff. More likely to be a batch of ink or printstock that wasn't quite in spec. Can't be too widespread a problem because you don't hear that much about it, and it certainly isn't confined to Tamiya.

Regarding the OP, another vote here for Future, brushed on *very* thinly over a 24 hour old Future gloss coat and any excess carefully squeezed out. Might just be my perception of it, but this really seems to suck the decal down into the surface detail without using any solvent/ setting solution. The only drawback is that the Future "grabs" the decal pretty quickly so it seems to me, so you need to be pretty precise with initial placement.

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Reply to
flak monkey

Hi

This is the OP. Thanks a lot for all the answers. I am going to grab some of these old decals and apply them with future on an old Tiger tank that I use for practice, then If happy with the results I will do the same to my Stug.

Thanks again

Patrick

Reply to
varois83

I would try white glue and water. put a little water with white glue put the mixture where you want the decal. When the white glue mixture drys it will pull the decal down to the model.

Dan

Reply to
Dan

Hi Patrick,

The problem you have is linked to the printing process. Colours are applied first, and then a last transparent coat is printed on the items to seal the subject. In your case, this last coat has not been applied. Microscale (of microsol/microset fame) produces the "ink" for this last transparent coat in the same small bottles as the aforementionned products. It is called Micro LIquid Decal Film. I have used it with very good results on a model more than 10 years ago and it has not yellowed at all (which may not be the case with Future). The difficulty for you may be to find the product in your area.

Good luck,

Gerard.

Reply to
cardhu18

Thanks Gerard and Dan for the extra tips.

Patrick

Reply to
varois83

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