Tamiya decals are a pain - how do i make them conform better

[gijpola]

Any ideas guys? 

i just made a quick video with my issues....quicker to watch than read!

would appreciate any help, cheers

https://youtu.be/gzpxdkvleMQ

 

[Troy Smith]

  

On 29/08/2016 at 23:26, Gary C said:

The best way to get all Japanese decals ( Fujimi, Hasegawa, Tamiya etc)to work as they're supposed to is use hot water and the correct setting solutions. You'll need a bottle each of Gunze Mr Setter and Mr Softer. Micro sol and others won't work as they're formulated differently. Do not use Gunze on Microscale or Cartograf decals as it will chew right through them.

Dip the decal in hot water, it doesn't need to be boiling but it does need to be fairly hot. The temperature of a drinkable tea will do. The glue is heat activated and is what makes up most of the thickness. If you dip it in cold water you'll spend the rest of the day waiting and cursing.

Lay down some Mr Setter, this is in the blue bottle. It acts as an additional glue. Slide the decal onto it and into postion and leave it alone. The decal should wrinkle a little.

Give it 10 mins or so and go over the decal with a brush with a little Mr Softer (green bottle) on it. Use sparingly as it is extremely hot. Too much and it will damage the paint, especially the weaker acrylics. The decal will now wrinkle a lot. Do not touch it as it is almost liquified at this point.

Once it is dry it will have smoothed out and will lay down beautifully over just about any raised or recessed detail you care to think of. Used properly it is probably the best conforming decal process in the industry. Used incorrectly and you'll be just another guy complaining about crap Japanese decals.

from

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235008098-dealing-with-thick-decals-ie-tamiya/

 

[gijpola]

aah dammit so i bought all the wrong stuff.

thanks, i did see that mr soft/sett stuff on ebay but it was all sold out at the time. 

i'll have to wait. 

[spruecutter96]

To be honest, I think the painting option might be the only stress-free one to be had here. Decals are a nightmare to get to conform to corners or right-angle turns. I'm convinced that all decals shrink very slightly when they dry and this causes them to split when they have to settle down on anything curved. 

 

If you have to make use of decals (as is often the case for complicated markings), then I would recommend that you very carefully cut them up before applying them. Obviously, this makes it more complicated to get everything to line up, but (in theory) it should solve the issue of large decals not conforming as they should.

 

Chris. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by spruecutter96
Correcting a typo.

[Steve Noble]

 

Paint, paint paint!!!! Those decals from Tamiya on the older kits are way too thick to conform to the curves of the Benetton. I gave up trying long before I attempted to build the B192 and chose the painting route from the start..

Edited May 8, 2020 by Steve Noble

[gijpola]

2 hours ago, Steve Noble said:

 

 

Paint, paint paint!!!! Those decals from Tamiya on the older kits are way too thick to conform to the curves of the Benetton. I gave up trying long before I attempted to build the B192 and chose the painting route from the start..

That looks fantastic - i'll go with the paint then. 

Hopefully i can remove what i've stuck on safely. 

 

Problem i've got is I've already put the green decals on the front of the car, so it might look odd with the back painted/colour mismatch

Unless i dismantle the entire front and take out all the parts which will be a nightmare......maybe i'll have to do that!

[Steve Noble]

With good decals it's possible to bend and curve them. I did this Lotus a few years ago now and all the green areas are decals that have been clear coated. Difference is that they were Studio 27 decals. The way they conformed is amazing compared to the Tamiya efforts. I don't think Studio 27 ever did decals for the Benetton B192, which is why I painted it..

 

 

[Stef N.]

On 08/05/2020 at 18:15, Troy Smith said:

  

from

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235008098-dealing-with-thick-decals-ie-tamiya/

 

Thanks for reposting this tip. I have given it a trial on smaller items and so far so good. I will be doing more obvious decals on side fairings and see what happens. I was sent the NEO versions of the Mr Mark solutions by mistake, which are supposed to be weaker,but they seem to be holding up. I think the hot water is the key.

[Stef N.]

A quick update on this. The NEO are very weak and didn't seem to do anything of note. I failed on a couple of decals but on reverting back to Micro I got much better results.