Decal Adhesion Problem - Ever see this problem?

[Andrew McD]

In an effort to do something a little different with my Tamiya 1/12 scale Porsche 934 I ordered decals to replace the Jagermeister livery.  I found an interesting decal set by rejimodel.com available through Spot Model.com; the Meznarie Racing Team #54 as run at LeMans in 1976.  I ordered the decals months ago and they've been stored in a cool dry place until this morning when I began decal application.  Within a minute after being immersed in warm water the decal was curling off the backing, something I've never seen before.  I applied the decal to the body, adjusted position and then started smoothing the decal  applying some MicroSet decal solution.  The edges of the decal would smooth out for a short period of time but soon the edge curled back as depicted in the attached photos.  I applied some MicroSol decal solution thinking it may soften the decal and encourage it to lay down but to no avail.  I'll contact SpotModel to see if they can help me with the problem but thought I would also pose an inquiry here.

Has anybody ever had such a problem and/or have any thoughts on the cause and possible resolution?

 

A final note, the paint has had weeks to dry and while not terrible I did attempt to improve the finish with Tamiya polishing compounds prior to decal application.  The body was washed and dried after polishing so I don't think the surface is contaminated.

 

[Shark]

Sounds like you did everything right, at least all that I would have done. Sounds to me like the decals are bad, and that does happen.

Edited Friday at 06:40 PM by Shark

[stitchdup]

I've had the same thing happen with the tamiya toyoda trim decals. curled up as soon as they hit the water. How hot did you have the water? if its too hot it could theoretically make the glue go bad but it could also be the compounds you used for polishing as any residue could also cause the decals to not stick. If you get a response from spot please share it, as i've got a few reji sets from spot to use

[Roncla]

Some Tamiya Decal Adhesive may be worth a try.

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/87176/index.html

[Andrew McD]

15 hours ago, Roncla said:

Some Tamiya Decal Adhesive may be worth a try.

https://www.tamiya.com/english/products/87176/index.html

Thanks!  I'll give this a try.  Have not heard anything from SpotModels regarding the decal failure.

[rattle can man]

Another thing you could try is some liquid decal film just use brush to put some on the curled edges and press them down and hold for a few minutes.

[peteski]

Those decals look relatively thick. One of the photos where light reflects of the decal surface seems to show a fine line pattern in it, like it was printed using one of the ink jet printers with UV-cured inks.  Those inks usually do not respond to any typical decal solutions.

I'll be curious what the SpotModel offers for a solution.

Edited 17 hours ago by peteski