old decals

[grant_3250]

Hi all,

Really keen to complete a Monogram Steve Kinser Valvoline Sprintcar but i'm a bit worried about the age of the decals.

There are sealed kits on eBay but as the kit is very decal heavy i am worried about how the 20+ year old decals will hold up.

What's everyone's thoughts, to buy or not to buy?

 

[TarheelRick]

If you really want to build this kit, buy it.  Before using the decals put a light spray coat of Testors Decal Bonder, which is available at most hobby stores or big box craft stores (Hobby Lobby, Michael's, A. C. Moore, etc.).  Of course you will then have to trim each decal closely.  Hope this helps.

[espo]

Even if the kit has been sealed there is no way of knowing the condition of the decals, and because of the age they may not be that much better. If the decals you have now still look good, maybe slightly discolored, just scan them and reprint them on new decal paper. I had to do this when the first '49 Merc Woodys came out. The dark wood grain decals just kept falling apart. I scan  the kits decal sheet on my home fax/ scanner and then reprinted them and they worked perfect. Worth a try and the cost would be minimal.     

[Art Anderson]

Even if the kit has been sealed there is no way of knowing the condition of the decals, and because of the age they may not be that much better. If the decals you have now still look good, maybe slightly discolored, just scan them and reprint them on new decal paper. I had to do this when the first '49 Merc Woodys came out. The dark wood grain decals just kept falling apart. I scan  the kits decal sheet on my home fax/ scanner and then reprinted them and they worked perfect. Worth a try and the cost would be minimal.     

OK, some thoughts (and things I've learned!) about decal sheets:

For starters, decals (incidentally, the word "Decal" is a contraction of the original name "Decalomainia" which dates from at last the 1920's or so), are multilayered in their manufacturer:

The "decal paper" on which decals are printed is basically "blotting paper", which is highly water-absorbent.  Waer penetrates this paper from behind, NOT through the decal itself.  The "glue" (adhesive) traditionally is just plain gelatin (as in Jell-O, albeit with no flavoring, sugar, or food coloring).  

Good quality decals are printed in lacquers, with a clear base (either printed in the shapes of the artwork, or sprayed all the way across the entire sheet. Commecially made decals are printed, most often in lacquers, the succeeding colors printed on as layers, in solid layers, as opposed to those old cheap model kit decals we used to see years ago, which more often than not were printed by lithography (which gives an uneven coloring, looking like either "cross-hatched" or "dot matrix".

It can, and has happened, particularly in mass-production printing of decal sheets, that the first step in printing the decals somehow the clear lacquer basic coating got missed--but that is very easy to spot--if you look closely at the decal sheet, and see the gelatin adhesive exposed, with NO clear film around the edges of the various artwork, it is time to STOP!  The lacquer printing itself is nowhere nearly strong enough to withstand being wetted, and then "slid off" without merely crumbling into tiny bits.  So what to do?

Whenever I encounter a decal sheet that is either very old, or appears to not have been printed over a clear film applied to the decal paper, I have simply airbrushed a coat of clear non-penetrating lacquer over the entire sheet.  Clear "non penetrating lacquer" is as readily available as can be:  Model Master gloss clear lacquer, as well as Tamiya TS-13 Gloss Clear!.  Are the decals from an old kit?  If so, they can be prone to splitting apart due to their age, and quite possibly some curling of the decal sheet (blotting paper absorbs moisture, and it's at all particular where that moisture comes from, be it the dish of water you dip decals into, or from the humidity in the ambient (surrounding air).  So, again, clear gloss non-penetrating lacquer (as described above) comes to the rescue, and it can (and in my decades of experience) does preserve such older decals quite well.

From late 1966 through the winter of 1983  I built (along with several local model car friends) a large number of Indianapolis cars--most of which required decal graphics that did not exist in any form whatsoever.  For these, I used both scraps of decal sheets (the clear parts left over after cutting out the kit decals) and even raw decal paper having the gelatin glue coating but not even clear film--simply spraying (back then AMT Clear Lacquer--which was about the same thing as Tamiya or MM lacquers) to get that clear film laid down--and then literally hand-painting graphics such as car numbers, even driver, car owner, and sponsorship graphics.  On more than one occasion I even airbrushed  colors used in the basic paint scheme onto clear decal film, then cut out my own shapes in order to get some of the more complicated paint schemes into areas of the body work, where masking and spraying was just not possible.  For hand-painting smaller decals, such as car numbers, even down to car owner logo's (such as JC Agajanian's legendary "pig riding a race car", drawing inspiration from an articles in the likes of Car Model, and Rod & Custom Models on this subject.  I've even changed the colors of such things as race car numbers, and  cleaned up the cheap lithography on old 1960's era AMT and MPC decal graphics.

None of what I'm saying in this long-winded missal is at all highly technical--it's easy, but with the caveat that there are "learning curves" along the way, particularly with hand-painting--but it is all doable, I've both done it, and have seen others do it, all along the way.

Art

[espo]

OK, some thoughts (and things I've learned!) about decal sheets:

For starters, decals (incidentally, the word "Decal" is a contraction of the original name "Decalomainia" which dates from at last the 1920's or so), are multilayered in their manufacturer:

The "decal paper" on which decals are printed is basically "blotting paper", which is highly water-absorbent.  Waer penetrates this paper from behind, NOT through the decal itself.  The "glue" (adhesive) traditionally is just plain gelatin (as in Jell-O, albeit with no flavoring, sugar, or food coloring).  

Good quality decals are printed in lacquers, with a clear base (either printed in the shapes of the artwork, or sprayed all the way across the entire sheet. Commecially made decals are printed, most often in lacquers, the succeeding colors printed on as layers, in solid layers, as opposed to those old cheap model kit decals we used to see years ago, which more often than not were printed by lithography (which gives an uneven coloring, looking like either "cross-hatched" or "dot matrix".

It can, and has happened, particularly in mass-production printing of decal sheets, that the first step in printing the decals somehow the clear lacquer basic coating got missed--but that is very easy to spot--if you look closely at the decal sheet, and see the gelatin adhesive exposed, with NO clear film around the edges of the various artwork, it is time to STOP!  The lacquer printing itself is nowhere nearly strong enough to withstand being wetted, and then "slid off" without merely crumbling into tiny bits.  So what to do?

Whenever I encounter a decal sheet that is either very old, or appears to not have been printed over a clear film applied to the decal paper, I have simply airbrushed a coat of clear non-penetrating lacquer over the entire sheet.  Clear "non penetrating lacquer" is as readily available as can be:  Model Master gloss clear lacquer, as well as Tamiya TS-13 Gloss Clear!.  Are the decals from an old kit?  If so, they can be prone to splitting apart due to their age, and quite possibly some curling of the decal sheet (blotting paper absorbs moisture, and it's at all particular where that moisture comes from, be it the dish of water you dip decals into, or from the humidity in the ambient (surrounding air).  So, again, clear gloss non-penetrating lacquer (as described above) comes to the rescue, and it can (and in my decades of experience) does preserve such older decals quite well.

From late 1966 through the winter of 1983  I built (along with several local model car friends) a large number of Indianapolis cars--most of which required decal graphics that did not exist in any form whatsoever.  For these, I used both scraps of decal sheets (the clear parts left over after cutting out the kit decals) and even raw decal paper having the gelatin glue coating but not even clear film--simply spraying (back then AMT Clear Lacquer--which was about the same thing as Tamiya or MM lacquers) to get that clear film laid down--and then literally hand-painting graphics such as car numbers, even driver, car owner, and sponsorship graphics.  On more than one occasion I even airbrushed  colors used in the basic paint scheme onto clear decal film, then cut out my own shapes in order to get some of the more complicated paint schemes into areas of the body work, where masking and spraying was just not possible.  For hand-painting smaller decals, such as car numbers, even down to car owner logo's (such as JC Agajanian's legendary "pig riding a race car", drawing inspiration from an articles in the likes of Car Model, and Rod & Custom Models on this subject.  I've even changed the colors of such things as race car numbers, and  cleaned up the cheap lithography on old 1960's era AMT and MPC decal graphics.

None of what I'm saying in this long-winded missal is at all highly technical--it's easy, but with the caveat that there are "learning curves" along the way, particularly with hand-painting--but it is all doable, I've both done it, and have seen others do it, all along the way.

Art

This is a great tutorial with information I never realized about decals. What I was suggesting was how I overcame a similar problem using a method I learned from someone here on the forum. What I used was a simple clear decal film that is sold in many Hobby Stores. An ink jet printer was used to print the graphics and then after giving the ink time to dry the sheet was then sprayed with Testors Decal Bonder. I think the film was also from Testors. It worked well and I have used it on several other projects that required me to make my own decals. Your information far better explains what sounds like a better process. Thank you again for the information as it helps me to better understand just how a decal is correctly made.  

[BigTallDad]

I'd definitely scan the decal sheets before doing anything else.

[grant_3250]

Cheers, everyone! Great information which give me confidence to go ahead and purchase the kit. Thanks again!