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Setting Academy decals


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I've just finished placing all the decals on an Academy 1/72 P-51B.  I've tried MicroSol to virtually no good end and had hardly better results with subsequent applications of Walthers' Solvaset.  Any idea of what hits these things?

 

Thanks!

Edited by peter havriluk
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  • 3 weeks later...

In my one encounter with an Academy kit, I found that the adhesive seemed to exacerbate the problem. It was very weak (as other people have reported) with a fine line between under- and over-wetting. No amount of setter could begin to promote adhesion. I could see that my only solvent would be beaten, too, so I tried heat treatment; but even then, some of them cracked under pressure over raised details because they were so rigid to the point of brittle. It turned out to be one of the few AFV kits on which I had to paint the markings...

 

If you want to try another solvent (if conforming to details is the main issue), you might try the UMP Extra Strong solvent if you can buy it where you are.

 

Edited by Ade H
typo
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I wonder if there's an age issue here?

 

I built their 1/48 MiG-21MF with the Polish AF 45 Year Anniversary scheme. Per ScaleMates, it's a 2011 boxing. The decals, some of which were quite large, went on beautifully! I used MSI Micro Set and Micro Sol.

mig-21mf-finished4.jpg

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Age issue?  Perhaps. Also a change of decal source.  Lots of possibilities, but until the first decal gets handled, not much prediction is possible.  So, after determining that a particular sheet of decorations won't play nice, what next?   

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Peter, this is unfortunately a recurring problem with Academy decals. I built their 1/72nd scale P-47D "Eileen" boxing recently: The decals look beautiful on the sheet, so I really wanted them to work despite having had the same issue with Academy decals previously. There are two main problems with their decals:

1) A problem with adhesion

2) They don't soften properly with most decal solutions

 

The two solvents I tried were Micro Sol and Mr Softer. Between those two solvents, I have always had good results with literally every other brand of decals that I have used in the past. But on the Academy decals neither of them appeared to have much of an affect. I also tried a hot, wet cloth to press down on the decals, hoping the heat would soften them somewhat, which helped a little but not much.

 

My solution in the end was to apply the decals that go onto relatively flat surfaces, such as the national markings and the fuselage art, by brushing on a bit of Future and then applying the decal onto it as if it was a decal setting solution. I also used hot water to wet the decal initially. This worked relatively well, since the future tends to shrink and suck down the decal, while it also solves the adhesion problem. However, this still doesn't help with decals going over compound surfaces that require proper softening.

 

For those decals meant for compound surfaces, such as the invasion stripes under the fuselage and the checker nose of my P-47, I was forced to mask and paint in the end. The result was terrific, but man was it a lot of work to mask off those nose checkers.

 

This probably doesn't help you at this stage, but since that P-47 was not my first Academy model and I have had this issue before, I have now decided that in future I will avoid using Academy decals completely unless it says on the box that they were printed by Cartograf.

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7 hours ago, dnl42 said:

I wonder if there's an age issue here?

 

I built their 1/48 MiG-21MF with the Polish AF 45 Year Anniversary scheme. Per ScaleMates, it's a 2011 boxing. The decals, some of which were quite large, went on beautifully! I used MSI Micro Set and Micro Sol.

 

Really great results on that MiG! Yes, unfortunately it appears hit and miss, and I guess I've just always had the ones that refuse to react to the decal solvents (including Micro Set/Sol). Clearly it is worth doing a test if the sheet offers a spare scheme that you can sacrifice. However, as I said, I would still tend to go for aftermarket if I had something available. Many Academy kits now come with Cartograf decals - those are fantastic and I wouldn't hesitate using them at all.

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Too bad we can't learn which vendor supplies the kit decals on the model we're assembling.  No telling, on the outside of the box, the age of the model or the decal source.  The recent posts match my experience, which was the incentive I had to inquire. 

Edited by peter havriluk
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Agreed, Peter. The only thing that would probably help is if you can find a build review of the particular boxing of the kit and where the reviewer had actually used the kit decals - but it would require some luck to find exactly that. In the case of my P-47, I did actually research the kit, but all I could find was a bunch of in-box reviews that all stated that the decals looked good, which obviously is of no help in this case.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/10/2020 at 9:58 AM, Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy said:

Crud, this confirms the awful time I just had with cockpit decals with Academy's F-35.  This confirms that I'll have to find a source for the airframe stencils etc...UGH! 

 

Yup... which is why mine is sitting on the shelf...

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