Hi everyone, I’m getting ready to build the old 1/48 Promodeler PBY-5A Catalina kit from Monogram, which shipped with the aforementioned decals. I can’t seem to find any new sets for the early war version, so I’ll try the kit decals. I understand that MicroSol is a bad idea, but what about pre-treating them with Liquid Decal Film? I wish I could trust kit decals as-is, but I’m afraid of them crumbling. Thoughts? Thanks in advance! I wish I’d thought ahead because I can’t even find any detailing sets anymore. Oh well…
Chris
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I have never used decal fluids of any sort. I feel your pain regarding older decal sheets. I just completed a older WWII era Tamiya USS Missouri 1/350 and had issues with crumbling decals but was able to save what I needed. I’m beginning a vintage Renwal model from the 1950’s and it has a decal sheet, but I had new decals created in the proper scale by https://davidsscalemodels.com. For $15 I was able to get the ship’s name and numbers changed, and a complete set of signal flags, as well as having extra copies of critical decals in case of an “oops!” Now I have no worries about the decals failing. In my opinion, the $15 was totally worth it, as I don’t have the time, talent or equipment to print my own decals. And the piece of mind that comes with a brand new sheet of decals helps me sleep at night. Best of luck with your Catalina. I look forward to seeing it!
Using the Microscale Decal Film would be a good idea. I found in my limited experience with those decals that even when new they tended to be quite fragile.
This is interesting. I’ll check out the link you have shared. Thanks for posting it!
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Kits World, Print Scale, and Wolfpack all make aftermarket decals for the 1/48 PBY that are currently available
Excellent. Thank you. These did not come up when I tried a Google search.
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