I almost had a moment where my current model flew into the wall. I've been fighting OKB's TU-104 for several years and slowly it's been approaching the finish point. Yet today I fear I've hit the point of no return. Even though I put a coat of Future on the decals, they're shattering into tiny pieces when I soak them. I have the cheatlines mostly down on the port side except for the bits that shattered near the tailplane and the "T" in AEROFLOT. That would have been salvagable excapt that all the other port side decals shattered into bits and it's likely that the starboard side decals will follow them into oblivion.

I don't know what to do. As far as I know there are no aftermaket alternatives, and the kit decals are useless.

I need strong drink or a hug, not necessarily in that order.

Hi Jessica. I understand completely. When you do all that work, constructing, sanding the seams, putting things together with glue, more sanding, priming, then finish coats of paint. Then masking, maybe masking a little beforehand, anyway, then clear gloss coat for preparation for decaling; then the decals fall apart or silver or just don't settle, it's aweful!!!! I've fought with Academy kits for years, although they have finally listened to modelers and have improved their kit decals substantially!

The worst decals I had to deal with a Minicraft 1/144 scale U.S. Air decals for an MD-80! Oh...my...golly! Aweful. No less than three kits, decal preserver painted on the decals, then Solvaset to get the decals soft enough to attempt to settle. What a freaking nightmare that was!

I know my response may not help that much, but I wanted you to know that I understand and so do a lot of other people. I guess it is an occupational hazard when it comes to model building. Hope you relax, put the kit away for awhile, and go on to another one you have underway. That always seems to calm me down some. Take care, keep modeling! Russell

Knowing something about computers, you should be able to create those decals in photoshop;

Then you buy decal paper and with a good inkjet or laserjet (depending on the decal paper) you can reproduce those decals

Its a bit of work, but feasible.

and the decals yuo haven't yused yet you can simply scan, that reduces the photoshop work



PS: consider yourself hugd

HUG there you go, now about the decals. Drabslab has a good way to replace the decals you've lost so far. When I find that the decals are to old and to fragile I get out my bottle of Microscale Decal Film and brush it over the decals. Let it dry over night and they are pretty much ready to go. What you have done is re-enforce the carrier film. You will have to now cut out the decals close to the markings since you now have a solid sheet of decals. But that is the only downside Oh, and they will take longer to seperate from the backing, but for me, they have behaved well after being treated.

Russ has it right also. Put it up for a bit, you'll feel better in a day or 3

Later