Good work so far Andy!
**** DONE: GB-61 1/48 FM-1 Wildcat - Carrier and Maritime Aircraft
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- #162
Crimea_River
Marshal
So, Eduard decal film....
As mentioned above, a few years back Eduard began printing their decals with the carrier film on the OUTSIDE of the decal. This has caused much consternation and discussion in the past on several forums and, to date, I've not had experience with these. Well, now I do and here are my observations:
The decals behave pretty much like any other - chuck them in water then apply them with your favourite setting solution as you normally would. I did find that the decals loosened from the backing paper quite quickly so there's no need to let them sit in water for more than about 15 seconds. Small stencil decals should be dipped for once second and put on your work surface and excess water blotted off. The decal will be loose right away.
Once on the model and cured, the decals look pretty good as is and, as some reviewers say, could pass without any further work. Below is a brutal close-up of the underside national insignia with the film still on - mostly. I meant to take a picture of the entire decal before pealing it but I guess I forgot - sorry. As you can see, the decal has sat down pretty well with the carrier film in place but you can also see that I started to peel it away with my tweezers. Brett Green said he used mineral spirits and a brush to peel the film but, since I didn't have any in house, I went and simply lifted the film with tweezers starting at one edge.
The peeling continues. The stuff comes off mostly in large pieces but does tear so it took about 5 minutes of peeling to get the whole film off this one decal. The film on the tiny inspection port stencil decals came off very easily with a simple rub of the tweezers. The film pieces are statically charged so stick to everything and you have to go over the model surface with a brush to remove any small flakes. You can see a few below.
Here is the finished decal with the entire film removed. What's left is a decal that has no visible thickness so it does look like it's painted on. I like that. The finish is very matte, which I also like.
The big "A2" decal had to conform to a MG bulge and didn't go so well, even after a couple of applications of Solvaset.
For this one, I ended up chipping the unstuck bits away and I also opened the ejector chutes. The decal in the below pic has had the film already peeled off.
Here's the "A2" with the film peeled and touched up with paint. The chute openings have been painted and I also went over the magazine access panel lines with a scalpel to cut through the decal and hit the line with some more Solvaset.
The underside decals are now finished so I flipped the model over onto its golf cart and started on the uppers.
As you can see, the yellow A2's have not been applied to the fuselage sides and that's because of one of the disadvantages of this system. If you have decals with are to be applied over top of other decals, as these are, and if you want to peel the films, then you have to wait 24 hours, peel the film, then apply the second decal over top. In this case, the yellow A2 decal needs to partially cover the fuselage national insignia so I have to wait.
So, in my opinion, the only pro to this type of decal is that in the end it looks better that the usual run of the mill types with the film on the back. The cons are: fiddly removal with risk of damage, longer application duration, overlapped decals need to be sequenced.
So, not everyone may feel that the extra effort is worth the result. I do. I think that removing the film is results in decals that look great.
As mentioned above, a few years back Eduard began printing their decals with the carrier film on the OUTSIDE of the decal. This has caused much consternation and discussion in the past on several forums and, to date, I've not had experience with these. Well, now I do and here are my observations:
The decals behave pretty much like any other - chuck them in water then apply them with your favourite setting solution as you normally would. I did find that the decals loosened from the backing paper quite quickly so there's no need to let them sit in water for more than about 15 seconds. Small stencil decals should be dipped for once second and put on your work surface and excess water blotted off. The decal will be loose right away.
Once on the model and cured, the decals look pretty good as is and, as some reviewers say, could pass without any further work. Below is a brutal close-up of the underside national insignia with the film still on - mostly. I meant to take a picture of the entire decal before pealing it but I guess I forgot - sorry. As you can see, the decal has sat down pretty well with the carrier film in place but you can also see that I started to peel it away with my tweezers. Brett Green said he used mineral spirits and a brush to peel the film but, since I didn't have any in house, I went and simply lifted the film with tweezers starting at one edge.
The peeling continues. The stuff comes off mostly in large pieces but does tear so it took about 5 minutes of peeling to get the whole film off this one decal. The film on the tiny inspection port stencil decals came off very easily with a simple rub of the tweezers. The film pieces are statically charged so stick to everything and you have to go over the model surface with a brush to remove any small flakes. You can see a few below.
Here is the finished decal with the entire film removed. What's left is a decal that has no visible thickness so it does look like it's painted on. I like that. The finish is very matte, which I also like.
The big "A2" decal had to conform to a MG bulge and didn't go so well, even after a couple of applications of Solvaset.
For this one, I ended up chipping the unstuck bits away and I also opened the ejector chutes. The decal in the below pic has had the film already peeled off.
Here's the "A2" with the film peeled and touched up with paint. The chute openings have been painted and I also went over the magazine access panel lines with a scalpel to cut through the decal and hit the line with some more Solvaset.
The underside decals are now finished so I flipped the model over onto its golf cart and started on the uppers.
As you can see, the yellow A2's have not been applied to the fuselage sides and that's because of one of the disadvantages of this system. If you have decals with are to be applied over top of other decals, as these are, and if you want to peel the films, then you have to wait 24 hours, peel the film, then apply the second decal over top. In this case, the yellow A2 decal needs to partially cover the fuselage national insignia so I have to wait.
So, in my opinion, the only pro to this type of decal is that in the end it looks better that the usual run of the mill types with the film on the back. The cons are: fiddly removal with risk of damage, longer application duration, overlapped decals need to be sequenced.
So, not everyone may feel that the extra effort is worth the result. I do. I think that removing the film is results in decals that look great.
fubar57
General
They do look very nice Andy
Vic Balshaw
Major General
They look good Andy and thanks for running us through the ups and downs. 
Good stuff Andy. Will try that one day....
- Thread starter
- #167
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks for your interest guys. Things were going well - until now.
The model as it looks right now:
The upper wing decal applications and film peels went very well:
But when I got to the A2's on the fuselage, the wheels came off. It seems that the decal-to-decal adhesion is not enough to stop the full decal from peeling off. Here, the whole yellow part of the 2 started to come away. You can also see that the bottom left corner of the A is chipped where I tried to start peeling the film.
What's more, the yellow parts are a bit transparent and show the red insignia outline underneath. At this point I stopped and brushed some Future under the torn decal and put it back. Looks like I'm gong to leave these ones with the film on.
Unfortunately, I introduced a second variable to this exercise. It's the first time I tried Tamiya Mark Fit setting solution. I normally just apply the decal and then set them with Solvaset but I wanted to try a formula that would be applied before and after the decal was put down as I was getting bubbles too often with the former method. So now I don't know if the Mark Fit caused the low adhesion or the decals themselves.
Anyway, I'll march on and will hopefully get all the decals on and a flat coat applied this week. That's the target at least. Thanks again for following.
The model as it looks right now:
The upper wing decal applications and film peels went very well:
But when I got to the A2's on the fuselage, the wheels came off. It seems that the decal-to-decal adhesion is not enough to stop the full decal from peeling off. Here, the whole yellow part of the 2 started to come away. You can also see that the bottom left corner of the A is chipped where I tried to start peeling the film.
What's more, the yellow parts are a bit transparent and show the red insignia outline underneath. At this point I stopped and brushed some Future under the torn decal and put it back. Looks like I'm gong to leave these ones with the film on.
Unfortunately, I introduced a second variable to this exercise. It's the first time I tried Tamiya Mark Fit setting solution. I normally just apply the decal and then set them with Solvaset but I wanted to try a formula that would be applied before and after the decal was put down as I was getting bubbles too often with the former method. So now I don't know if the Mark Fit caused the low adhesion or the decals themselves.
Anyway, I'll march on and will hopefully get all the decals on and a flat coat applied this week. That's the target at least. Thanks again for following.
fubar57
General
Hope you sort it out Andy, its a great looking scheme
good stuff Andy
MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
Good job! I have always liked the red bordered and the yellow bordered national insignia. Here is a real FM-1.
A4K
Brigadier General
Hope you can get that sorted Andy, beautiful build so far.
(Maybe try the old trick of PVA glue diluted in water?)
(Maybe try the old trick of PVA glue diluted in water?)
- Thread starter
- #173
A4K
Brigadier General
Good stuff Andy.
le_steph40
Senior Master Sergeant
Andy 
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Hope you get it sorted Andy.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Rooting for you Andy and hope you can get these decals sorted.
- Thread starter
- #178
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks guys.
I discovered another con: removal of the carrier film leaves a very brittle decal. In the case below, I discovered after removing the decal film and looking at the decal under my magnifiers that the whole length over the intersecting seam had a long bubble. The decal had spanned over the corner and had not set into it nicely. I added some Mark Fit and the bubble didn't soften but completely disintegrated into small pieces.
Lesson learned and now I need to touch this up. I'll chip away any further loose pieces and apply a clear coat before masking and touching up.
I discovered another con: removal of the carrier film leaves a very brittle decal. In the case below, I discovered after removing the decal film and looking at the decal under my magnifiers that the whole length over the intersecting seam had a long bubble. The decal had spanned over the corner and had not set into it nicely. I added some Mark Fit and the bubble didn't soften but completely disintegrated into small pieces.
Lesson learned and now I need to touch this up. I'll chip away any further loose pieces and apply a clear coat before masking and touching up.
le_steph40
Senior Master Sergeant
Argh !
Looks good so far Andy!
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