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Hi everybody,

I know decal topics are about as common as "which are the best brushes?" but this is with a slight twist...

Back in the days before I discovered Micro Set and Micro Sol I used to struggle with decals and used to avoid using them wherever possible (preferring to freehand) but when I did use them they looked awful but I made do.

I have a fully painted Cadian army and the paint job is absolutely fine but the decals are shockingly bad and I want to remove them and do them properly.

So they were "affixed" (badly) with nothing more than tap water and faith in the Emperor....

I have tried re-wetting them and soaking them off but they just won't budge. What's more frustrating is that they weren't varnished so most have chipped or started to flake off but I just can't remove them fully or cleanly.

So I didn't use any sort of decal softener, decal fixer or varnish but want to remove the decals from infantry and tanks and re-do them properly.

Are there any products that would make it easier to remove them without damaging the paint work? Could I use decal softener to get them off? The decals have been on for about 7 years.....

Unfortunately decalling is one of those things that's best done right, first time.

Microsol (or set? the red one!) will help removal. Brush it on, leave it to soften a bit, then, use an old brush to poke bristles into the edge of the decal from the side. Basically push and poke it when you'd ordinarily leave it well alone to settle down. It'll go goopy and sticky, but it should be removable.

Unless there's varnish underdeath (and even then to some extent) there's a pretty good chance the decal adhesive will discolour the underlying paint layer. You may need to repaint slightly before varnishing for new decals.

winterdyne wrote:
Unfortunately decalling is one of those things that's best done right, first time.

Microsol (or set? the red one!) will help removal. Brush it on, leave it to soften a bit, then, use an old brush to poke bristles into the edge of the decal from the side. Basically push and poke it when you'd ordinarily leave it well alone to settle down. It'll go goopy and sticky, but it should be removable.

Unless there's varnish underdeath (and even then to some extent) there's a pretty good chance the decal adhesive will discolour the underlying paint layer. You may need to repaint slightly before varnishing for new decals.

Cheers Winterdyne,

I had a feeling the Micro Sol would discolour the paint as I didn't varnish first. This won't be an issue for the infantry as it's just shoulder pads which will be easy to repaint. However on tanks / vehicles repainting would be a pain so I might leave them - because they were on flat surfaces they look ok but you an still see the carrier film.

For years it wouldn't have bothered me as much, but now I know how to do decals "properly" it's really bugging me, lol.

Sometimes you can lift decals off with sticky tape. Put the tape over the decal, rub it down and pull it up. Hopefully the decal will come up with the tape. You can try various strengths of tape to see if you can pull it up.

And hopefully the paint bonded to the model significantly stronger than the decal to the paint.

You won't be able to salvage the decal, I don't know of any way to salvage them.