Certain steam locos that are on my wish list are not available in my desired road name (Reading), however they are available undecorated. Any pros/cons on decals vs dry transfer? I’m leaning toward dry transfer because of ease of use – I remember working with decals as a kid and they never came out the way they should (always ended up stuck to my forehead).
Woodland Scenics has several dry transfer offerings (DT504,506,510) that look close. Champ has decals in stock for Reading but I’m just not crazy about decals. All comments welcome.
I prefer decals. The placement of dry transfers has to be right the first time. Decals give you time to adjust their location.
I hate dry transferes. I have had lots of problems getting them to stick. Fred
My other hobby - which I’ve been doing longer - is armor modeling. There, transfers are much preferred to decals. Airplane guys, however, are just the opposite. What I dislike about decals is all the extra effort you have to go through: gloss coat, setting solutions, flat coat. And still it seems that you get silvering half the time. Many decals also seem to be a lower qualtity image, with discrete dots visible on close examination.
The biggest complaint about transfers is that you can’t move them after application. I have not found this to be a problem. I have lettered several things letter by letter and with care and proper set-up (using tape guide lines, for example) they look great. (I still use a dull coat to seal everything, but that’s the paint, weathering, and all. There is also a solution for those who just want things to move. You either apply the transfers to clear decal paper or to a sheet of plain decal adhesive. This guy makes the best transfers out there (tanks only though) but has info on the alternate application methods.
http://www.archertransfers.com/
http://www.archertransfers.com/Instruct.html
The problem with poor adhesion can usually be traced to older sheets / those with lower quality adhesives. Unfortunately it’s getting harder to get good raw materials these days because the technology is dying. Dry transfers were created to do artwork for advertising. Now that computers can do anything, transfers are falling out of favor.
http://www.archertransfers.com/shop.html
HTH,
KL