Yellowed Decals

[john i am]

Hi everyone just a quickie is there a sure fire way of restoring these yellowed decals. Any info gratefully received . Cheers John 

 

[flyjoe180]

Hi everyone just a quickie is there a sure fire way of restoring these yellowed decals

John, there is no sure fire way of doing it, and certainly no quick method.


Option 1 (I use this for old yellowed decals): Place the sheet in an air tight plastic bag (a snap lock bag is ideal, this is to keep moisture out). Face the decal sheet to the outside of a window that gets lots of sun (avoid direct intense hot areas) and tape the bag to the window. Let nature's UV do the job for you. This can take days, weeks or even months. Looking at your sheet you are probably looking at weeks.


I've found the decals can become brittle (apart from their age, sunlight also can cause this. Once the carrier film is bleached white again, I recommend spraying some decal bonder or your favourite varnish on them. I did this for the old Canberra I recently built and it prevents the decals from disintegrating..


Option 2: Scan the decals and use a colour printer to reproduce them onto a new decal sheet (white); remember you can't print white on a printer.


Option3: Paint the markings yourself (I'm no good at making masks in my preferred 1/72 scale so I prefer to restore my decals).


Hope this helps. By the way the AT-11 is a nice looking aircraft.

 

[BarryW]

John - you could look for aftermarket replacement decals or masks.

 

[Deleted member 4539]

Option 1 (I use this for old yellowed decals): Place the sheet in an air tight plastic bag (a snap lock bag is ideal, this is to keep moisture out). Face the decal sheet to the outside of a window that gets lots of sun (avoid direct intense hot areas) and tape the bag to the window. Let nature's UV do the job for you. This can take days, weeks or even months. Looking at your sheet you are probably looking at weeks.


I've found the decals can become brittle (apart from their age, sunlight also can cause this. Once the carrier film is bleached white again, I recommend spraying some decal bonder or your favourite varnish on them. I did this for the old Canberra I recently built and it prevents the decals from disintegrating..

I'm with Joe on this.

 

[stona]

The window system may work. I would suggest painting the decals with something like Microscale's 'Liquid Decal Film' afterwards as they will almost certainly disintegrate otherwise.


A bigger problem may be the degradation of the glue. You may find that it won't work or is itself discoloured.


Cheers


Steve

 

[stillp]

If they need UV to restore them, I wonder if the wife's UV lamp for curing her nail varnish would work?


Pete

 

[zuludog]

Try out one of the items you don't intend using on a piece of scrap; perhaps 'printed in turkey'. You might find that they're not as bad as you think. It would also show you if they have started to disintegrate.


But they look cheap & nasty anyway; the best answer would be to find something aftermarket or from the spares box


What are they off?