Now I understand why people on here warned me about academy’s decals, I thought the brittle ones in the last kit were a pain. oh no I would kill for those now, this kits decals im sure are made of some semi thin cardboard, they wont bend around a curve and wouldnt stick until I broke out the future. gonna make due but I think I may go with AM decals from now on. On the plus side I got to try my new toy, does anybody else use a coffee mug warmer to keep their decal water from cooling down? It works beautifully.
Which kit are you building?
I should take your post as the final warning and just throw out any and all Academy decals I have in my stash before I “Accidentally” try to use them…
Well, we warned ya [:D]
Ya, I’ve done the 1/72 Fw-190A-8 and the 1/72 Fieseler Storch. The decals absolutely refused to go into the panel lines regardless of how much micro sol I used. The little kits are a bargin, but you really need some AM decals to go with them.
Academy makes some very nice kits, but their decals are best filed in the round basket never to be seen again [:)].
Regards, Rick
The worst decals i have come across were in my Revell 1/48 JU 52. They were as thick as a credit card i swear.
…Guy
this is the 1/72 P-40E, which is really bad because this particular kit has large tiger head decals for the nose that are kinda the main eye catcher. lets just say they dont wrap the nose in a flattering manner. So does anybody else use the coffee mug warmer?
I see what you mean…bummer. Note to self: Buy AM decals the same time you buy an Academy kit.
I’ve never heard of using warm water on decals, much less using a mug warmer to keep it warm (which doesn’t mean anything, cuz I’m no expert). Have I been missing out on something?? I don’t normally have decal problems unless it’s the decals fault, like Academy’s decals. What does the warm water do for you?
Warm water dissolves the glue that holds the decals to the backing paper a bit quicker and more efficiently than cold water. Either way will work, but warm water is nicer to work with. I’ve never tried the mug warmer trick, but if I ever come across one cheap at a garage sale or something, I’ll have to pick one up.
I recently built the same kit and had to use several heavy applications of MicroSol on the tiger head. The fuselage stripes were kind of fragile but went down o.k. over future. I have found this to be the case with Academy decals in the past. As long as I am patient, I guess I don’t mind them too much but AM makes life much easier.
Mac
Here is my 1/72 Academy Fw-190A-8. I had a little trouble with silvering in a few spots even though I had a coat of future. I didn’t even attempt the red band decal for the fuselage. I just painted it. The kit’s also don’t come with swastikas, so that one is AM.
Those academy decals are impervious to all sovents, not to mention thick as a safe door. I have built several academy kits. There newer kit are pretty good, excellent considering the price.
Tryintomodel nice job on bars A-8. I built that kit some time age, it builds up very nice. I think your looks better than my example. No weathering at all and I tried to ink in the panel lines which didn’t work as planned.
The newer Acedemy 1/72 kits are some of the finest kits I’ve ever built… decaling them is quite another thing [xx(]. I’ve been able to use the kits decals with good success but I have to agree that AM decals are highly recommeded.
I usually cut the decals at major panel lines and anywhere else that’s needed (ie: fuselage bands - see the Stuka below) in order to get them to sit down. This is best done after they have set up a bit and then after making the cut I plaster them with micro sol a couple more times. This usually works but I can’t imagine trying to do that tigers head on the P-40!!!
Those are a couple of nice Fw 190s. I have that same kit in my stash, but I canabalized the decals for my vac Bv 155. But I do have some replacements lined up.
Don’t think this story has a happy ending. My replacements are coming from a 1/72 Bf 109- that’s right, the ACADEMY one! [xx(]
I also had a bad experience with Academy decals as well and I ended up hand drawing/painting. Just one plain pain in the ***.
I have come across two in the last month, both priced around a doller and both work great(not quite sure why I bought both)
I agree, I absolutly love them. luckily this isnt a model that I am truly striving for perfection on, I am still in the stage where I am working on all the different skills. This particular kit is my first kit I have built since I got an airbrush so there are more problems than just the decals
I must agree, Academy decals are a pain to work with. I am yet to come across an Academy decal set that isn’t super-thick and doesn’t obscure any and all panel lines… [xx(]
phoenix7187 - Nice looking build! Yours reminded me that I messed up Bar’s score marking on the rudder, lol. I just had to ditch it.
razordws - Nice Ju-87! I’ll have to find that kit. I bet masking that canopy was fun. I’ve been wanting to build a Ju-87 and if it comes in one of those 1/72 academy kits, I’ll have to track one down. I also resorted to cutting the decals along the panel lines also. It was the only way to get them to lay in there.
I have the Academy 1/32 F-18D, wonder if those decals would give me any problems? Though I did pick up a Superscale decal set of my old squadron to use. I have always had problems with decals found in the old Airfix kits, they would always peel upwards after they dried.