waterslide decals too light

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eli jenkinson

Guest
So I bought some waterslide decals online and when they arrived I noticed that they seemed a bit faded and a bit too light, the black turned light grey and the red turned brownish. I was wondering what happened and if there is any way to return them to their former colors, as the decals are nearly invisible. Any help is apreciated.
 
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Jens Andrée

Guest
Without knowing more about the actual decal it's very hard to guess what's wrong. What make is it and did you buy it from a reputable seller?

Today it can be quite hard knowing what you get when ordering online because of a certain country and their "tradition" of making pirate copies of just about everything, unless you order directly from the manufacturer of a reputable business.

If the price is too good to be true it often is exactly that. (I'm not saying you went for the cheap option, just speaking of my own experience...)
Alibaba and eBay are filled to the brim with pirate copies, although eBay is better today.
I used to buy a lot of electronic component from eBay because sometimes you could find a seller that was selling at a 10% of retail price in Europe, but the last couple of years most of it are pirated components and you don't want to save a couple of quid when building/repairing electronics for hundreds.

For saving the situation you can touch up the decals with your usual model paint, but we use decals for things that are hard to paint so perhaps this is going in the wrong direction?
You can always remove the decal and start over. That's what I would do if it's not easily fixable...
 
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eli jenkinson

Guest
they're from the hasegawa ace combat kit and they were pretty expensive, I bought them off of ebay.

edit: The decals in this picture are supposed to be black, but end up being grey
 

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J

Jens Andrée

Guest
I can't say whether you've been scammed or not because I haven't seen the packaging and decals in person, but you have to be aware that many things on eBay are just counterfeit items.
Some you'll never know unless you've got the real deal next to the dodgy item and compare the two under magnifying glass, because they're getting really good at copying stuff, but there's also the really dodgy stuff that's way under par with regards to quality...

Have you ordered decals from the same manufacturer before and kept the original packaging to compare with, and to compare the actual decals and the look & feel with?

Check the packaging for spelling errors or other signs of it not being original, like low res print or "generic" packaging.
You can buy blank decal sheets and print your own at home, which I'm sure are also used to make counterfeit decals of varied quality for a quick scam.

You can always do a complaint/refund in eBay and see what the seller does?
What's his/her score on eBay? Checking what people have written about a seller is important before making a purchase because you can easily spot the fake reviews - and that's a sure sign to stay away!

There's also the route of just bad luck, with a bad batch, but if there's a coin to be made you can bet there's pirated versions available to buy on places like eBay and alibaba!

I've stopped buying things like this on eBay, unless they're a real and serious business that wouldn't be so stupid as to sell counterfeit items. Sadly sometimes even they are tricked, but this is less common - especially if you only buy from someone reputable.

So check the goods if they could be counterfeit and then contact the seller for a refund, or a replacement - for free obviously.
If counterfeit there's a process on eBay for reporting this.

I've been had on more than one occasion but I always make sure they get reported, otherwise they're free to continue to scam.
I hope you've just been unlucky and that you have a seller that will set things right for you!

Edit: the above rant about counterfeit eBay items are more or less only applicable if the seller is from mainland China or Hong Kong. Not common in Japan, US or Europe. Eastern Europe can be tricky because there are counterfeits there - but perhaps not in scale modelling? We have very strict laws regarding counterfeiting whereas it's more or less legal in China if it's a "limited run".
 
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