Decal fixing

Old plastic kits come with old transfers, or decals as our American cousins call them.

The big H bands on the funnel looks like that have suffered over the years with some big cracks at one end. According to the Internet, Microscale Decal repair fluid is the stuff to cure this.

I don't have any Decal repair.

What I do have is some of the legendary Johnson's Klear floor polish. Someone on the Interweb said that will work, and since whatever you read online is always correct, I gave the transfer a couple of coats.

When it came to sliding it off the backing paper, the cracked end took a little more shifting then the other. I assume that the Klear had soaked through a crack and stuck it to the backing paper. Eventually it did move and I managed to get the thing on without the transfer falling apart and me having to assemble a web jigsaw.

You could still see the cracks, so I rubbed some black paint across them. This seemed to work but was matt, not shiny. No problem, I had planned to spray the funnel with satin varnish anyway and this took care of that - but while wet, emphasised the cracks again.

Dry, it looks better and sine I plan to weather the model, I'll just make the funnel nice and dirty.

My guess is the Klear added strength to the transfer and allowed me to place it on the model. I'm sure Decal repair would be better, and I'll pick some up one day. Another chemical to add to my collection.