Aaaargh! One of the most important decals on my 1/48 Wildcat got all torn up. The identical decal on the opposite side of the plane is done for.
Anyone have a replacement they don’t want?
If not, I’m gonna have to buy another whole decal set…
[:S]
What’s the decal sheet? I’ve got quite a few vintage sheets. Number and/or scan would be helpful.
Hi, and thanks for writing! 
The sheet I had was Techmod Decals 1/48 Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat Fighter with stock number 48018.
It doesn’t look bad. Some touch up with insignia yellow at the top. Mod Podge would help tame those bubbles.
Thank you for the tips; the decals were difficult this time around. Unfortunately, the decal that looks like that one on the opposite side of the plane is done for. I’ve gotta replace that one.
John - Techmod is a Polish company, if you need help contacting them maybe I could do something for you. Good luck finding the marking you need and have a nice day
Paweł
Thank you, Pawel! Do you think the company would send me a replacement?
John, if you are going to use decals that you think are old and might break up when using, I have a suggestion for you. Get yourself a spray can of Testors Decal Bonder available at HobbyLobby for $8.95 and is listed as in stock. I have used this before when using old decals. It does work and works well. There is only one small problem with it. If you spray a sheet of decals with it, it makes it 1 complete decal and you have to cut each individual one off the sheet separately as close as possible.
If you use older decals that have yellowed with age, tape them to the inside of a window that gets a lot of sunlight. Keep a watch on them and you will see the yellowing bleach out. Some will take as little as 2 days and some take more. When the yellowing goes away, spray them with the Decal Bonder.
These two steps have saved a lot of decals for me as I’ve built (and keep building) older kits.
Hope that this helps a little.
Jim [cptn]
Stay Safe.
Thanks, Jim! The odd thing is, I just bought this sheet of decals! For some reason, it was incredibly difficult to get them separated from the decal paper (and they were pretty fragile).
I have to say, though, the one I need to replace was a result of silly putty I was trying to mask the area with because I had to paint something; and unfortunately, I didn’t do it before decaling. It worked over other decals, but not that one. 
.
I have this 1/48 sheet from the Tamiya F4F Wildcat. If you want them just message me.
Thank you for your kind offer, but I really need the star insignia with a yellow border. It did give me an idea, though, that perhaps I could somehow paint the yellow border. I haven’t tried to do that before, though…[*-)]
When I start a new kit now I always scan the decal sheet into my computer. If I screw up a decal I can make an inkjet copy. Twenty years of development has made the process pretty easy now.
John - we might try to write them and ask!
Why not try contacting Techmod direct? They’re Polish, but they do offer an English version of their website:
Yeah, excellent idea - I just wanted to offer my help if there was any misunderstanding or issues with shipment, something like that
Thank you, both. I checked out the english website you provided, but I couldn’t find their contact info. Am I missing something?
It’s a little convoluted, but I’ve found it:
Please tell us what they said! Good luck and have a nice day
Paweł
Yes you could paint the yellow border first then apply the star decal.use a circle template and hold the appropriate diameter against the model and carefully airbrush Tamiya flat yellow,then apply your fave gloss coat and when dried the decal can be applied normally.
Just in case you can’t get anywhere with Techmod, there are Operation Torch decal sets available on the market. Yellow Wings, for example, has this sheet of national insignia with the yellow ID band:
http://store.yellow-wingsdecals.com/48-049-u-s-national-insignia-nov-1942-op-torch-13-95.html
MicroScale and ROP also have sheets. I don’t know if they’re still in print, but a web search on “operation torch decals” returned some hits for those brands on eBay.
Good to have a backup plan, just in case.