Tau: decal suicide!!!

A weird thing happened last night. I have been working on a Devil fish for some time now and try to make it look clean and nice, a little different than my first Tau tank. I finally arrived at the stage of adding decals to the vehicle. I prepared the surface with some Micro Gloss and added the decal to some lukewarm water. To my great surprise, the decal fell apart in the water!

I only had two Tau logos like the one you see in the picture, so I was extra careful with the 2nd one; same thing happened. You can see that the decal separated in a major way, also around white/black edges..

I tried a different part of the sheet, but to no avail. Then I tried a 2nd sheet, but same thing happened. The sheets were old, from when the Tau came out. My buddy Christian had found them and donated them to the Tau cause. It seems they are too old? I have never heard of that before and on Google I couldn't find anything about it? Any thoughts?


SC Mike

Comments

  1. Silverfish or some other beastie ate away the clear decal fixative.

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  2. before you dip them into water (after cutting them) you should grab a Brush and give some "Decal Medium" from Vallejo onto the Decal. This will restore the upper printed Foil. Let it work for a Minute and try to lift it from the Paper.

    (these Foils don´t like direct Sun! After Years of laying dry... they break)

    I "rescued" many of my old Decals this way.

    Hope it helps...

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  3. Decal film becomes brittle with age. They can be rejuvenated using decal film repair available from many sources. I favor the MicroMark brand. though I suggest using it on the decal before cutting it out, or you risk the repair film bonding with the backing paper if you paint it over the trimmed decal edge, which will also ruin the decal since it becomes bonded to the paper.

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  4. Wiking and Hivemind are right. The other thing you can do is not submerge the decal in water to remove it from the backing. Soak a paper towel in water and then place the decal onto the wet towel for 20-40 seconds to wet the paper backing. This is a little gentler to the decal. However, if the decal foil is broken it needs to be fixed first.

    I am sorry that happened. That can be quite frustrating.

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  5. I haven't seen it happen before but I've never been one to use Decals much (apart from Blood Bowl 20 years ago)

    If you need I have 6 Tau Decal Sheets I can donate to the cause of you want to try some of the techniques mentioned.

    If you don't mine them coming from Australia

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