ICM Spitfire Mk XVI #48074 "Belgian Air Force"

[Brian P.]

Can anyone attest to the level of quality of the ICM kit supplied decals for this particular kit or of ICM

decals in general? I would like to use kit decals but have not used ICM decals before. Any opinions or suggestions would be appreciated. TIA

Edited December 4, 2006 by Brian P.

[Eduard]

Hi Brian. if you're lucky, there may be some decals on the sheet that you won't need.

You can then use them for trials on an old kit or on any scrap of plastic.

Good luck, greetings,

Eduard.

[Court]

Can anyone attest to the level of quality of the ICM kit supplied decals for this particular kit or of ICM

decals in general? I would like to use kit decals but have not used ICM decals before. Any opinions or suggestions would be appreciated. TIA

Hello Brian. I am about to start an ICM P-51d. The decal sheet looks great, however I recently read a review on an ICM kit where the reviewer said not to waste your time with the kit supplied decals, as they were not much to write home about. He suggested aftermarket sheets or using decals from the spares box. I plan to avoid the kit decals, just to be safe. Perhaps others will respond with additional advice/information.

Court Sloan

From Mars, (not the planet) Pennsylvania

[pingu1]

The problem with ICM decals is that they're of very variable quality. Sometimes they're fine, other times they break up on contact with water, and there's no way of telling until you put a decal in the water.

As Eduard has explained, the way to approach this problem is to use a spare decal from the sheet to see how it reacts to being placed into warm, slightly soapy, water. If it slides off the sheet OK, fine. If not, a tried and tested remedy is to brush the whole decal sheet with a few coats of Future. This will bond the images on the sheet together, and revent them from shattereing. the only thing is that you'll have to cut out each image seperately, because coating the sheet with Future turns it, in effect, into one big decal.

One point worth noting is that ICM Spitfire decal sheets usually don't come with a full set of stencils, so if this is important to you, you'll need an aftermarket sheet anyway. On this basis, you might prefer this decal sheet:

http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=LL48006&PIC_NO=2

which come with decals for a Belgian AF Spit XVI, as well as markings for TE199, the personal hack of AOC 21 Group, in a superb black and gold colour scheme, as well as a full set of stencils. Further sets of Spit XVI stencils can be had here:

http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=TYS48016

Cheers,

Chris.

[T J Johansen]

As Eduard has explained, the way to approach this problem is to use a spare decal from the sheet to see how it reacts to being placed into warm, slightly soapy, water. If it slides off the sheet OK, fine. If not, a tried and tested remedy is to brush the whole decal sheet with a few coats of Future. This will bond the images on the sheet together, and revent them from shattereing. the only thing is that you'll have to cut out each image seperately, because coating the sheet with Future turns it, in effect, into one big decal.

Chris.

Just wondering. If you splash some Future on a decal to make sure it doesn't shatter, will that mean you can't apply Micro Sol to make it set properly?

T J

[pingu1]

Just wondering. If you splash some Future on a decal to make sure it doesn't shatter, will that mean you can't apply Micro Sol to make it set properly?

T J

Not in my experince. I've used Microsol to help decals to which I've given the Future treatment settle down, and it's worked just fine.

Cheers,

Chris.

[T J Johansen]

Not in my experince. I've used Microsol to help decals to which I've given the Future treatment settle down, and it's worked just fine.

Cheers,

Chris.

Thanks a lot Chris!

T J