WNW decals: What's the secret

[AlbertD]

I'm trying to decal my first WNW kit and am having a heck of a time. These things break if you look at them wrong. As soon as I try to fold the Roundel over the wing control surface cutout it just fractures. I have done Lozenge decals on Eduard kits and they were a piece of cake compared to a simple Roundel on the WNW kit. I here plenty of good reports on these decals so I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong.

Thanks for any help.

[Gisbod]

Not sure you are Albert,

They used to be fabulous, but on the later kits I’ve had the same issues. I’d contact them and share your concerns, if we all do that they may do something about it?

They look as good, but someone intimated to me (that’s in the know) that there may be a gum issue...

Guy

[RAGIII]

Same here. There is a CHANGE from the older kits but not sure why or what the cause is. I did find that cold water vs hot seemed to work better for me even though this runs against the grain. Still had some issues on My last roundel on the Dolphin. Strangely I also had a bit of trouble with the MvR Albatros kit wing crosses. One split in the Middle.
RAGIII

[AlbertD]

Same here. There is a CHANGE from the older kits but not sure why or what the cause is. I did find that cold water vs hot seemed to work better for me even though this runs against the grain. Still had some issues on My last roundel on the Dolphin. Strangely I also had a bit of trouble with the MvR Albatros kit wing crosses. One split in the Middle.
RAGIII

I happen to be working on the Dolphin too. I tried the hairdryer trick and it seemed to help quite a bit. It seems to soften them and also activate the adhesive. I used a bit of Microset too and that worked fine. They are just too brittle. From now on with WNW kits I'll practice with some of the unused decals on a scrap wing or something.

[Bughunter]

On the WNW website there is clearly visible, that the old decals are printed by cartograf.com in Italy (this is visible on one border in small letters). Those are simply the BEST decals available world wide, but don't seem to be cheap.
One example from the WNW web site:


You mention Eduard decals, the highest price range (limited editions and some Profipacks) are printed by Cartograf too, others (e.g. cheap Weekend editions) printed by Eduard themselves. The latest editions of those are very nice.
I never had any issue with a Cartograf decal (also from Revell kits).

So I guess the problematic sheets are NOT printed by Cartograf? Could you please check?
If this are also Cartograf ones, that they have really a production problem.

Cheers,
Frank

[AlbertD]

On the WNW website there is clearly visible, that the old decals are printed by cartograf.com in Italy (this is visible on one border in small letters). Those are simply the BEST decals available world wide, but don't seem to be cheap.
One example from the WNW web site:


You mention Eduard decals, the highest price range (limited editions and some Profipacks) are printed by Cartograf too, others (e.g. cheap Weekend editions) printed by Eduard themselves. The latest editions of those are very nice.
I never had any issue with a Cartograf decal (also from Revell kits).

So I guess the problematic sheets are NOT printed by Cartograf? Could you please check?
If this are also Cartograf ones, that they have really a production problem.

Cheers,
Frank

Hi Frank,

The Eduard kit was a Profipack Fokker D. VII and the decals were Cartograf. The WNW kit is the Sopwith Dolphin and the decals are also Cartograf and dated 2017. I think the later decals may be the culprit. I'll go ahead and contact WNW just to let them know in case it is a problem with the batch or something. The hairdryer does really help but the Eduard kit decals worked very well with just water and a bit of setting solution on tough spots.

Al

[AlbertD]

I managed to get the decals finished but it was a bear. This has really spoiled an otherwise great first WNW build. I think once the kit goes through the final finishing they will look OK but it shouldn't be this hard. I'm not a great modeler like some of you guys but I've been building over 40 years and have never had this much trouble. I hope my remaining WNW stash is better.