I built the P47 first and the decals were a nightmare because the broke apart. I managed to get them together and touched up, but now I am building the Do335 and want to avoid the same issue. I have thought about spraying them with Testors Glosscote Laquer or Krylon Crystal Clear or some type of varnish because I have seen suggestions to do so. Does anyone have any experience with doing this?
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Welcome aboard to FSM @plughy2 .
I don’t know if I would entertain brining those cals back to life but for $15 you could get a whole new sheet to make life a little easier.
Here’s the sheet from Sprue Brothers: ECL48164 1:48 Eagle Editions Do 335 Pfeil
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Another option is to scan the decal sheet and print your own. You can buy waterslide decal paper for inkjet or laserjet printers.
I’ve done this for several models where the original decals proved to be problematic.
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I second trashing the decals and buying new ones.
I build old kits, too, and as mustang1989 notes, you can find them online.
For that particular Do-355, you could also order the sheet direct from EagleCal, too:
https://www.eagle-editions.com/product-category/aircraft-decals-for-the-modeler/48/do335s/
I like their decals, they go on easily and are nice and thin,
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@PhoenixG I’ve always wanted to do that with my color laser, but I’ve always been terrified that I’ll somehow wind up with waterslide carrier melted all over the fuser drum. I should get past my fear and try it, but man…it’s so hard to find printers that last these days, and this one I’ve had for 12 years, still going strong.
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You sure got your money’s worth out of that one Daniel. I chunk printers every 3-4 years now seems like.
@gomeral, completely understand the concern. I recently lost my inkjet of 14 years due to an unrecoverable mechanical failure.
As for the safety of the laser printer. There are two kinds of decal paper, one for inkjet and one for laser. Use the decal paper for laser and you should be good.
I have both inkjet and color laser printers. I’ve used decal paper in both with zero issues. I’m using Hayes Paper, Waterslide Decal Paper LASER, that I bought on Amazon and it’s worked like a charm for me.
Happy to answer questions if you have any.
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Okay, I’ve got waterslide paper for both inkjet and laser printers (I own both). I understand (in general) that the laser decals do not need to be sprayed with a fixative, but the inkjet ones do. What fixative is recommended? I have a bottle of the Microscale Liquid Decal Film that I bought because I have some pretty old kits in the stash and figured I’d need to touch up the decals. Is this stuff good for the inkjet decals? Can I airbrush it at full strength, does it need to be diluted, if so with what…? Too many questions!
Edit: I’ve seen this thread, but I guess I’m wondering if the dialogue has grown since then.
I’ve airbrushed regular acrylic satin varnish to seal inkjet decals with great success. Since the ink is water soluble brushing any liquid on will likely cause them to smear.