[:S] Since the early 90s I’ve had a tough time with Tamiya decals — mostly getting them OFF the stock paper they come on. I splurged and bought Vallejo DEcal Medium and Decal Fix… still had to wait the better part of five minutes before the decal was managable to remove from paper.
Any advise??
Vallejo’s decal medium and fix are setting solutions, much in the same vein as Micro Sol and Micro Set. Those products are not intended to get the decal off the backing sheet, but are used to pull the decal down over the model’s surface once they are in place.
Tamiya decals can occasionally be a bit of a pain, but getting them off the backing sheet is fairly simple. Use warm water to help soften the glue. Dip your decal into the water for around 30 seconds - you want the adhesive to soften slowly, so soaking it for long periods of time just washes the adhesive away.
Set the wet decal onto a piece of paper towel and leave it alone for a minute or two. Once the decal begins to slide over the surface of the backing paper, brush a little decal fix over where you want it to go on the model and slide the decal into place. Once satisfied, use a bit of the decal medium to draw the image down tightly over the surface.
I‘d skip on the Vallejo stuff and use Micro Sol / Micro Set. As Knight already mentioned, they’re used to apply onto decals ON the kit itself, not as a soaking agent.
I usually have better luck soaking decals in hot water. Warm water is good too.
As a kid, always left the decal in water until it floated away.
Wait until the backing paper just turns color.
Take it out, as said lay it on paper towel. You can tease it a little with your finger. At a pint the glue let’s go.
IMO Tamiya decals are just ok but usable.
Its worth looking for better decals for a kit, based on online reviews.
Just did 4 meatball decals on a tamiya Raiden yesterday. 30 second soak in warm water, lay on a paper towel do a slight slide test with your finger. I use Micro Set on the location of the model the decal will be placed. Slide it on and get it in place then I put a coat of Micro Sol. I put several coats of Micro Sol with drying in between each coat, until I see the decal forming to panel lines. Let it set overnight and in the morning the decals look painted on. I do this over a coat of Pledge that I let cure for a minimum of two days before I do the decals. I see lot’s of complaints about Tamiya decals but as of yet I have had no problems with them when using Micro Set and Sol. Good Luck
Although Tamiya decals tend to be on the thick side. That’s why they’re troublesome at times.
Haven’t tried it on Tamiya decals yet, but warm water helps on some decals. A friend discovered a little cup heater that was very cheap. A bunch of us in our club bought them. It does work, but I find I use it very little. Probably just as easy to use warm water from your hot tap to at least try it.
If you want steroids in a bottle then use Solvaset. It melts the decal and will look like it’s painted on. Have been using it since the 1970s.
As stated, warm water works wonders but don’t rush it. Grab a beer or some whiskey and enjoy .
Heh… I find it so ridiculous to hear what lengths hobbyists will go to find methods easier to do - such as a mug warmer. Really? Give me a break. This is simply utterly stupid and lazy. You can get hot water faster from tap than some stupid mug warmer- which is far, far, cheaper and free too. So your water got cool during a decalling session - get more from tap. How hard is it to do?
Amen, brother…
Hi,
I don’t know, but it seems like a mug warmer could be very useful for those builds where you may have dozens, if not hundreds, little decals to apply, like the stenciling on some modern airplane kits, or containers on a containership. I believe someone in one of the group builds recently indicated that getting all the little stencil decals on their Fighter Jet model took several long nites to do. As such, a mug warmer would seem to maybe helpful in keeping your water warm and preventing you from having to refill with warm water from the tap several times during the process each nite. Plus, when not in use for model building you can still use it to keep your coffee/tea/hot chocolate warm too [:)]
My shop is in basement, single faucet in another room and not that easy to get too. But, I never use warm water anyway. I find that most decals these days release in a reasonable time. I bought one of those warmers, but have not used it for several years.
I just reheat my water in the microwave if needed but my work area for decals and such is located near the kitchen so it’s easy for me.