Decal Quality - Xtradecal vs. Print Scale vs. Kits World

[davefr]

Newbie to the forum here.  My dad was a B-26 Marauder pilot and I'm building a Hasegawa 1/72 B-26 in memory of him.  It's time to choose a decal sheet and there are many choices.  Of these three brands, is there one that's better quality in ease of application?  What about graphics? I'm by no means a pro modeler but I've found some decals are a joy to use and others are terrible.  Which aftermarket set would you choose?

TIA

[Black Knight]

All have some problems some times but I'd go Xtradecal before the others every time.

Often they are more accurate. I have some Printscale which are not only inaccurate in colours but also in sizes of things like roundels

[Seahawk]

3 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

All have some problems some times but I'd go Xtradecal before the others every time.

Often they are more accurate. I have some Printscale which are not only inaccurate in colours but also in sizes of things like roundels

Agree in every particular, especially that they all have problems at times.  I have at least 2 Xtradecal Marauder sheets and haven't found anything wrong with them  - yet!  I also remember Printscale as difficult to apply (either a tendency to curl up or very tough, I can't remember now) but they may well have improved in the meantime.

[Mark Harmsworth]

2 hours ago, davefr said:

I'm building a Hasegawa 1/72 B-26 in memory of him.

Wonderful thing to do. Are you planning to do a plane that he flew in? 

 

Another thumbs up from me for xtradecal for ease of use.

Mark

[bentwaters81tfw]

My experience of PrintScale* is very thin, curls up like a millipede. You must use decalfix or similar, and slide the decal off the paper with a wet flat brush, preferably on target. Practice with spares on an old kit. Xtradecal and Kits World have been fine, though again, be prepared to use a fixing solution to float stuff into place.

 

*I have examples that are out of scale also.

[davefr]

55 minutes ago, Mark Harmsworth said:

Wonderful thing to do. Are you planning to do a plane that he flew in? 

 

Another thumbs up from me for xtradecal for ease of use.

Mark

Yes, kind of.  His airplane was called "The Sad Sack!".  I've found someone that will make me decals of just the name of the airplane for the nose.  For all the other decals I'm just going to use standard decals.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by davefr