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Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong section. I have just started to build the above kit. Section J, page 6, shows part M29 as having two decals placed on it. These decals are labelled as K71 and K72. However, these are not on either of the decal sheets that came with the kit. I have checked the instructions on Eduard's webpage and K71 and K72 are also shown. I done a search for this kit on the forum, but couldn't find any forum topic with reference to the decals. I also looked at all the other Eduard 1/48 'Wildcat' instructions on scalemates, but the part is slightly different on the other 'Widcats' and there is only one decal (S21) on it. I can continue to build the kit, as it's not at a stage where I cannot continue, the part being where the propeller will fit. Anyone built this kit and have any suggestions as to what the decal part should be? Thanks in advance.

Hi all, Hope everyone's well? Happy Easter! I've been fighting with the above kit for the last few months in spite of the fact it feels like it doesn't want to be built. It's a shame as there's a nice kit in there somewhere, I'm just having a nightmare with every bit of it but I'm persevering. Problem is, having spent so long trying to push on, I'm now at a point where I don't want to give up and I'm determined to finish it. I've already leant on the forum for advice on one section of markings and now I've had another issue this afternoon with the decals. I had an hour or so spare this afternoon and having already gloss coated the kit with 2 or 3 coats of the below a week or so ago I thought I'd start a bit of work on bringing the panel lines out. I thought having reached this stage I was on the home straight and before I started this bit I was actually starting to like the almost finished look of what I'd done. I've then started to use this for the panel lines, which I appreciate is a wash not a specific panel liner, but I didn't think it would matter too much - clearly I was wrong! I washed along the panel lines and wiped off the excess with the thinner using a very small amount on either a cotton bud or kitchen towel. In some areas I've not used the thinner at all, just a dry cotton bud or kitchen towel. The effect on the wings is subtle and I'm happy with it as a good start to the weathering. However, whatever I've done has caused a crazing effect on the Cartograf decals which, in the white sections, is really noticeable and I don't know what's caused it or if it can be fixed (I suspect not) Luckily I've only done the underside of the wings so far but obviously I wanted to do the whole airframe but now I'm terrified that, if I do, it'll do the same to all the decals and, as this aircraft is White 13, there's alot of white to craze! The black sections have also crazed but it's not that noticeable, if at all. I'm guessing it's the ("very soft") thinner that's the problem (?) as there was no sign of the cracks when I put the wash on but I've used so little of it, and in some areas none, just the dry kitchen towel that I'm stumped. My next step would have been a matt coat then a Flory wash but I don't know if moving straight onto that and forgettig these products will give me the same problem anyway not knowing what's caused this? Any help or advice anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated as I'm desperate not to give up having come this far (but I'm close!)

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if I should be posting this topic here or in the Cold War section, so please indulge me a little if you feel I have posted it im the wrong place. I am looking for decals in 1/72, 1/32 and 1/24 for early Indian Air Force roundels, notably, the 'chakra' symbol of a blue spinning wheel on a white circle as seen in the centre of the Indian tricolour. Does anyone know of any decals out there that fit th bill? Cheers, and thank you all very much for any help and for taking the time to read this thread, Viv

Does anyone know what size the underwing serials were painted on these Andovers. The decals in the Mach 2 HS 748 kit for the RAF version don’t look very accurate so I’m thinking of buying Xtradecal set 72065. This includes letters and numbers representing 48in, 36in 30in and 24in in 1/72. Which are the right ones please?

I'm looking for decals to produce a 1/72 Typhoon of 2 Squadron RAF. Does anyone know of any decals I can use?

Now that there’s finally a 1/72 748, I’m hoping to build one of them as the BAe/Hawker Siddeley demonstrator G-BDVH from the early 1980s. I’ll use the ‘Belgian AF’ boxing for it as that version should include the rear cargo door, but does anyone know what might be suitable for the radar bulge under the forward fuselage? Not sure what to do about the decals yet!

I'm painting a saunders roe sr.a/1 in vallejo duraluminium and am not sure how to clear coat it to put decals on, what clear coat should be used? Does it need a special one for metal colour or will tamiya gloss clear work? And then what coat should be used over the top of the decals?

L-39ZA Albatros SPACE (3DL72046) 1:72 Eduard Eduard have just re-released their Aero L-39ZA Albatros that we reviewed here, and have also released some new upgrade sets to improve on the detail already moulded into the kit’s parts. Eduard SPACE sets use new 3D printing techniques that lay down successive layers of different colour resin, creating highly realistic almost full complete panels that are supplied on a decal sheet. They can depict metallic shades, plus glossy, satin and matt colours too, which really ups the detail on everything they print. In addition, a small sheet of nickel-plated and pre-painted PE is included for the aspects of the set that lend themselves better to this medium, such as seatbelts and rudder pedals. To prepare for application of the decals, you need to remove the moulded-in details from the two instrument panels and the four side consoles, which will involve sanding or shaving away the raised components with a sharp blade, taking care not to stab yourself in the process. New 3D printed decals are applied to the instrument panels, ensuring that you use the correct one for front and rear, adding grey sidewall decals over the interior of the fuselage as indicated, and finally fitting four side consoles, two per cockpit to the flat tops that were prepared earlier. The pre-painted and nickel-plated PE parts are used on the ejection seats, and include a full set of four-point harnesses, anti-flail leg straps and pull-handle at the front of the seat’s base, plus equipment and levers that fit to the sides of the base frame. The headbox sides are skinned with two triangular panels, adding a tangle of belts and a handle to the top of the box, representing the drogue ‘chute’s mechanism. This is done in duplicate of course, as the aircraft is a two-seater. It's a huge upgrade to the cockpit detail that offers pre-finished dials and instruments that begs for an open cockpit to show it off. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I'm after a bit of help please...... I have ALWAYS been a huge fan of the Silk Cut Jaguar XJRs the quite magnificent (unless you lent him money) Tom Wilkinshaw built. I have very vague memories of the 1988 Le Mans win and especially the 1990, I visited the motor show at the NEC with my dad and was lucky enough to see the 90 winner there. I have various books acquired in recent years and various die cast models of these wonderful machines but always fancied building a detailed kit. A couple of years ago I found the 1:24 kit from Tamiya BUT was over £60 and I was fearful I couldnt do such a well detailed kit justice, step in Hasegawa I managed to get the complete kit including proper Silk Cut decals for a mere £15, I thought it was going to be great and as such I bought the Spot Model PE kit for the Tamiya model in my plan to detail it a bit more. A few days later the kit arrived and the anticipation of opening it turned to disappointment as soon as the lid came off. Next to no detail, no ENGINE, no nice detailed interior and about 50 pieces to put it together, I was very unhappy, but it was £15!!! It sat in the box for a while but I decided that I should build it just to do it and then get the tamiya kit when I felt confident I could build one that detailed. I white glossed the shell and painted the interior as detailed as I could so this morning I thought I'd put the decals on it, complete it and stick it at the very back of the shelf as it isnt worthy of being close to the front. My problem is the decals were in a film wrapper and the decals over time have curled up and stuck to the film bag, I opened it up and left them to dry up a bit, all the edges have furred out and a horrible glazing all over them, I hoped they might lift and stick just not look very flat. WRONG They literally just disintegrated as soon as they hit the water and curled up cracking into about 40 pieces 🤬 So in a long winded way........ Does anyone know where I can buy a complete set of Hasegawa Silk Cut decals for my XJR-8 ?????

Hello everyone looking for decals in 1/72. Specifically for this aircraft B-26 Marauder “Gunga Din”. https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/B-26-Marauder/B-26/images/41-18283-B-26B-Marauder-12AF-320BG442BS-45-Dina-Mite-over-Florence-Italy-FRE11334.jpg https://i.imgur.com/q0a02zV.jpeg If anyone knows of a source or somebody willing to make these please contact me. Dennis

War for the Malvinas / Falklands Part 1 Decals Aztec Models - 1:48 & 1:72 Following a long standing dispute over the sovereignty of the Malvinas / Falkland Islands, war officially broke out 30 years ago on 2nd April 1982 when Argentine forces invaded the Islands. In response the British sent a task force to counter the invasion and fight to recapture the territory. The battle that followed was a challenge for both sides. For the British, the challenge was deploying a force so far from home with limited land platforms to supply the effort. For the Argentineans, despite occupying the Islands, only one airfield out of the three (Stanley) was paved but it still wasn't long enough to operate the fast jets from, so they had to carry out their attacks from the Argentine mainland. The British only had 42 Harriers to counter the attacking aircraft which comprised approximately 50 air superiority fighters and 70 attack aircraft. Initial attacks on Stanley were carried out by Vulcan bombers in the historic Black Buck raids successfully completing 8000 mile round trip missions from the British airfield at Ascension. The war caught the world by surprise and indeed created some challenging political situations where some nations officially backed Britain's interests, but were none the less committed to supporting the Argentineans with the technology that they had supplied to them. Initial attacks on British ships were carried out by A-4 Skyhawks, Mirage III's, Canberra's as well is Israeli supplied Daggers. The initial Daggers fared well boosting pilot confidence in the aircrafts ability to survive modern combat but later a Canberra and a Dagger were lost to defending Sea Harriers. On a subsequent combat between Harriers and Mirage III's one Mirage was shot down and another was damaged. Short of fuel, it tried to land at the Argentinian occupied Stanley airfield but was shot down by friendly fire. Although night combat air patrols were performed by the Harriers, they were deemed too valuable during the day role to make a major commitment during the dark hours. Following the initial Canberra loss, subsequent missions for this type of aircraft were only performed by night. The A-4's and Daggers continued in the Strike Role where as the Mirage was used as decoys to lure the Harriers away from the attack aircraft. Lack of A-A missiles and refuelling capabilities limited it's potential other than in this role. After a successful recapture of South Georgia by British forces, the full effort was turned to the Falklands. 74 days after the invasion by Argentinian forces, the islands were recaptured and the Argentinian forces surrendered. The conflict cost the lives of 649 Argentineans military personnel, 255 British and 3 civilian islanders. The pack Aztec have provided these decals in two scales, 1:72 (set D72-048) and 1:48 (set D48-048). The decals come on three sheets with two colour and two B&W sheets of instructions. I'm really impressed with the amount of individual aircraft that are catered for in this set. If you enjoy building your models with themes and have been looking to do a Falklands one, then you'll be very happy with this set. The aircraft you can build are: British Sea Harrier FRS.1 800 Sqn - XZ457, ZA193 Sea Harrier FRS.1 801 Sqn - XZ451, ZA175, ZA190 Sea Harrier FRS.1 809 Sqn - ZA177, ZA192 Sea King HAS.2, 825 Sqn RN - No. 97 Lynx HAS.2, 815 Sqn - XZ247, XZ691, XZ720, XZ728 Wasp HAS.1 - XT429, XS539 Argentinian A-4Q 1 ANAS Argentine Navy - 3-A-301, 3-A-304, 3-A-305, 3-A-307, 3-A-309, 3-A-312 (with selection of pre & wartime colours) A-4P Grupo 5 de Caza, Argentine Airforce - C0207, C-222, C-228, C-236, C-242 Canberra 2BS, Argentine Airforce - B-108 (Not included in 1:48 set) Mirage IIIEA Argentine Airforce - I-018, I-019, ? MB339, Argentine Navy - 4-A-115 Pucara, Grupo de Ataque 3, Argentine Airforce - A-506, A-528, A-537 Sea King SH-3, Argentine Navy - 2-H-233, 2-H-235 Lynx, Argentine Navy - 3-H-142 The Reference Material The instructions have lots of good and a few bad points. There is a wealth of information about colour schemes with plenty of side profiles and painting tips, for example explaining the variation in colour that can be found on the camouflaged Skyhawks. There are also photographs of the real aircraft and information about who flew the aircraft which makes for an interesting read. The slight downside is that the profiles are quite small and there is a lack of 3 view profiles, so you will probably need some support reference material to assist applying some of the decals. How readily available this support information is to come by, I don't know, so some replies from experts with good reference links would be most welcome. One of the things I really like is a paint chart for the aircraft contained that shows the paint numbers for the different paint manufacturers in comparison to the BS number - Humbrol, Model Master, Tamiya & Revell. Clearly a lot of research has gone into creating this set by Aztec and they've really tried to squeeze as much value into the set as possible reflected by the fact that you can build up to 38 aircraft from the set ! The Decals The decal sheets are jammed with detail, and very fine detail it is. There are three sheets that contain not only the aircraft markings, but a wealth of stencils. On the whole, the register is very good and the colours sharp. The British high vis roundels suffer a slight overlap of the blue and red colours which is visible if you look closely. There are some small British low vis roundels where the pink part is very slightly off centre to the surrounding blue. How noticeable this will be when on the kit I don't know. I'm trying to be objective and critical here as is the responsibility of a reviewer, these really are minor issues in the overall excellent quality of the pack. In Aztecs intent to get as many decals onto a sheet as possible, care will need to be taken cutting the decals from the sheet as they are quite close together. I normally use a pair of scissors, but for these I would use a sharp scalpel knife. Conclusion With the 30th Anniversary of the Falklands war and the recent release of the Airfix 1:72 Skyhawk, this is a timely and exciting release by Aztec. There's a few minor issues as I've mentioned above, namely the aircraft profiles and the British roundels, but you don't get much more value crammed into a pack of decals than this. Clearly there are some key aircraft missing from the pack, Wessex, Argentine Hercules and Vulcan stand out, so I suspect Part 2 will be just as welcome as this. As mentioned in the review, the Canberra isn't included in the 1/48 set. If you have the remotest interest in the Falklands conflict and build in either 1/72 or 1/48th, you really need a pack of these in your collection ! Review sample courtesy of Available direct or from most large Model Retailers

I recently purchased this kit second hand. Unfortunately on opening the box, there were no instructions or decals. However, I managed to download the instructions from Scalemates. I then contacted Airfix to see if they could provide me with the decals. After a couple of days, I received a reply asking for my address and telephone number "to help speed up the enquiry". That was on 9th February. To date, I have had no further communication from them (I emailed them a couple of days ago, but nothing). If, for some reason, they cannot provide the decals, does anyone know where I can purchase decals for the kit? I do have a load of spare decals from other kits, so could probably find a few basic decals, but would prefer to have the whole set. Thanks in advance.

I'm pondering doing a vehicle in - for the vehicle - unusual livery, either RAC or AA. I've done a search of the interweb and Hannats, and come up decal less. Does anyone know of anyone that does decals for these fine institutions? At the moment I'm not too worried about scale, though clearly if they were in one of or all of 1/35, 1/48, 1/24/, 1/20 would be a better fit with my ponderings ! Thanks in advance for any help.

Please could anyone tell me the following information? 1). What size were mid-80s RAF Tornado serials under the tailplane? 2). What size were underwing RAF Buccaneer serials in the 70s and 80s? Finally, please does anyone know of any decal sheets available in 1/48 that would be suitable for these? Ideally ZA5.. range Tornado and XN, XT and XV range Buccaneers?

Begemot has released a new set of decals in 1/72 for the Ka-52 Alligator. They include helicopters of Russian units wearing the "Z" and V" markings used over Ukraine in the "Special Military Operation zone" 2022 and onwards as well as with Egyptian desert camo. http://www.begemotdecals.ru/showpos.php?&lang=2&pic=2&id=216 http://www.begemotdecals.ru/doc/72-069 Ka-52 ins1.pdf http://www.begemotdecals.ru/doc/72-069 Ka-52 ins2.pdf http://www.begemotdecals.ru/catalog/pic216b.jpg http://www.begemotdecals.ru/catalog/pic216b_1.jpg

Hi looking for book title not sure if this is the right area, but in the 70's i remember i read a book with an article on how to make decals, basically, paint the object then coat in varnish, old school way i can't remember the exact procedure, hence i am trying to remember which book had the info, as i want to do a one off small decal cheers jerry

Has anyone used decals by the manufacturer Le Mans. Any idea if they are any good?

There's an Italian seller on Ebay , prontomodel, that has a lot of Tauro Model decals. If I'm not mistaken the company is not operating and especially the camouflage decals are hard to find. There are still some sheet available. Eduard has now sheets for smoke rings, or amoebas like the Italians say, but Tauro has other types of amoebas, which would be extremely difficult to airbrush, as the 'tentacles' are very narrow. I have no previous experience of Tauro decals. Does someone know who printed them, there's nothing written on the sheets. Based on photos of built models they look quite good and no carrier film is visible. I tried to use Printscale's smoke rings, the experience was awful, every single one wants to fold, even sliding them off the backing paper was impossible, as they just slid on the underside of it. In hindsight I should have used a sponge. That's what Printscale's owner says, not to dip them in water. In any case the silvering was so bad that the model is in a box with other wrecks.

Yep, you read that correctly, the Airfix 48th Tornado. Why? Because I have it around 80% complete and the Revell jobby will take me an age to throw together. Intentions are to have it in flight, low level over a blured desert backdrop with magnets for JP233, LGBs and wing tanks so they can be changed around. But I have few questions, if I may, that I think you lovely lot can help me with rather efficiently: 1: Decals. I see the Printscale 48040 set that is very comprehensive with white stencils included and the Kitsworld KW148126 set that is half the price but without white stencils. Any thoughts on these or any others with particular thought re the shark mouth fitting the Airfix kit properly and stencil requirements? 2a: Cockpit.... Is there any aftermarket or did noone see the point for this kit? 2b: Seats with crew. The best way of going about this? Kit seats and crew with tape belts? Is aftermarket really worth it here? 3: Fuel tanks. Am I right in thinking that in the early days of the conflict they flew with the smaller tanks with the JP233 and later with the LGBs they switched to the larger F3 tanks? 4: Magnets. 1x1mm will do the job? I was thinking 2 magnets per bomb and per tank, 4 for the 233s? Any links would be great. 5: Mounting the thing. Steady now... I was thinking predrilled perspex rod up the exhausts with some fairly heavy Tig welding wire down the centre, bent down to a predrilled picture frame base. Sensible? Or are there better/easier ways bearing in mind the kit is about 80% complete? This is for a 17th birthday, in 4 weeks time, so any help (or abuse) is welcome, as always

A6M2-N Rufe SPACE Cockpit Set (3DL48114) 1:48 Eduard The Eduard SPACE sets use 3D printing techniques that lay down successive layers of different colour resin on decal paper, creating highly realistic almost fully complete panels that are supplied on a decal sheet. They can depict metallic shades, plus glossy, satin and matt colours too, which really ups the detail on everything they print. In addition, a small sheet of nickel-plated and pre-painted PE is included for the aspects of the set that lend themselves better to this medium, such as seatbelts and rudder pedals. This set contains both a sheet of 3D printed decals and a small fret of nickel-plated Photo-Etch (PE) for the seatbelts, two straps to adapt the rudder pedals into a rudder bar, plus a ring sight that is installed at the front of the standard gunsight. The decal sheet includes fronts for the cockpit sidewall, the side consoles and equipment in the lower wall area, which extends to several boxes. The instrument panel and additional binnacles that surround it are also included on the sheet, and as with the rest of them, the raised details should be removed beforehand. It’s a couple of months since we’ve had a SPACE set in for review, and I’d quite forgotten how good they look. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Has anyone tried to spray Microscale Liquid Decal Film through an airbrush? I've used it often to save older or fragile decals and applied it with a soft brush, but would like to try spraying it. So a second question is - what did you thin it with, if at all? And a third question - what did you use to clean your airbrush? I have a good selection of cheap airbrushes that I wouldn't be too worried about ruining, so it's not critical! Thanks in advance S

F4F-3 Early SPACE Interior Set (3DL48080 for Eduard) 1:48 Eduard The Eduard SPACE sets use new 3D printing techniques that lay down successive layers of different colour resin, creating highly realistic almost full complete panels that are supplied on a decal sheet. They can depict metallic shades, plus glossy, satin and matt colours too, which really ups the detail on everything they print. In addition, a small sheet of nickel-plated and pre-painted PE is included for the aspects of the set that lend themselves better to this medium, such as seatbelts and rudder pedals. This set includes a full set of 3D printed instrument panel sections, plus additional parts that are applied to the side consoles to replace many of the raised portions of the styrene parts, with some slight differences from the later set we reviewed a while ago. There is also a pair of printed document cases for the sidewalls, and while the PE sheet is almost totally made up of seatbelt parts, there is also a handle for the side consoles and a backing plate for the larger of the two document folders. Highly recommended. Currently out of stock at Eduard, but check back later Review sample courtesy of

Hi All If anyone is thinking of getting this kit, there are a few parts misprint in the instructions. Also, in my kit anyway, there were no painting masks, even though they were shown in the instructions (I've contacted the supplier and ICM). So the wrongly numbered parts are in sections 31-33, the parts are supposed to be H8, H12, H3 & H2; and in Section 42 part D19 (attaches to D12) should be D17. Also, although the final paint versions show which decals are to be used, decals #1 and #2 are not shown where to be placed. As it turns out decal #1 is the instrument panel and goes on E27, but I cannot see where decal #2 is supposed to go. It's a bit late if it goes inside the cockpit as I've completed that. Finally, I would suggest that you place H8 and C3 on the front of fuselage (section 10) and before leaving it to dry, loosely place G12 in place so as to ensure proper fitting once Section 10 has completely cured. Finally, before placing G12, cement section 28 in place. I found it did not fit as shown in the instructions. Eventually got it more-or-less in position. There is no color call out for the internal parts, so assumed the cockpit and where the paratrooper sit, the floor is painted steel, and the controls painted steel with the handles in matt black and the base of parts E9 and E30 in khaki. Trust this is all as clear as mud and makes sense. Thank you.

Hi all, Relative newbie, coming VERY slowly up to speed. Having discovered the delights of Micro Set and Micro Sol, I wondered if there's any consensus among experienced members as to how to use Micro Set, between: Adding a little Micro Set to the area the decal is going to be placed on vs Adding Micro Set to the water to be used for lifting the decal Every other article/posting I read seems to alternate between one technique or the other. Anyone got any thoughts or advice? Apologies if this has been asked before. Thanks, Smudger

I'm using the Bandau decals on their Boba Fett figure, yes I know they are not great but I'm trying to make it a quick and easy build. Does anything soften them enough to conform to compound curves? The cheek panels on the helmet are particularly troublesome. I've tried Micro Sol/Set, Mr Decal Softener and Tamiya MarkFit without any effect. The latter two I bought specifically for Japanese kit decals though neither has ever seemed to have done much.