My kit arrived on Thursday and I just got around to starting to build. It’s a beautiful kit, but there appears to be an issue with the instrument decals, and I wanted to see if anyone else had come across the same problem. The decal dial pieces 76, 77 and and 79 on my sheet are just black dots, with no instrument markings at all. Everything else on the sheet looks just fine.
Anyone else had the same issue? Any advice on best course of action - I’ve never had to contact Tamiya directly so not sure if this is worthwhile trying?
There seems to be a very faint “something” under the black on mine though…almost like they printed the white under the black instead of vice versa. It’s just barely decernable.
I don’t have this kit but I had an old kit (I don’t recall which one I’m afraid) that had two separate instrument panel decals. One had the white on top and was meant to be placed onto the front of a solid instrument panel. BUT the second set had the white on the underside (against the carrier) and was meant to be placed on a film behind the instrument panel and the dials showing through the film and the holes in aq second panel. Tamiya might have printed them that way on purpose. Perhaps check the instructions carefully
Tamiya did this on their 1/32 A6M Zero, with the decals printed in reverse. Probably the same story here, but a close examination of the destructions instructions ought to clear up any confusion. [tup]
Brett Green did a first look of the kit over in Hyperscale and didn’t mention any decal problems. There is a close up photo of the instrument panel which pretty clearly shows the instruments showing through holes in the panel. I suspect that the are indeed deliberately reverse printed for just that purpose. Good luck with the build.
I don’t have the kit, but perusal of the instructions here: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10098579 shows the instrument decals applied to the back of the clear instrument inserts as described above.
Yup - I can now confirm that the decal is printed in reverse - with the dial markings “underneath” the black background when looking at the sheet. This only becomes apparent when you soak the decal off - and now I am mildly embarassed for not realizing this earlier
No problem Dave! My Tamiya Spit arrived here about half an hour ago, and I looked at those decals right away. Noticed a couple of things I would have done differently on the model, but otherwise a good looking kit. [tup]
Thats the great thing about these boards, questions can be asked, and things learned by those that have asked the same questions before, or are thinking of them now!
