How to separate stuck decals?

[RonOC]

Nothing definite to suggest, however.....

I'm thinking that sheet 1 is still useable, so you don't want to do anything that would ruin it. Steam could possibly soften sheet 2 enough to separate them, but there is a risk of damaging both. Maybe steaming the back side of sheet 2 would minimize the damage to sheet 1.

If sheet 1 is thick enough you might be able to split it using a razor blade and an infinite amount of patience and caution.

Make (or have someone else make) a duplicate of sheet 1, then you can try to save sheet 2 with no worries about sheet 1. If you can see through both sheets, you could try cutting sheet 2 into its separate pieces then put the pieces in water when you are ready to apply them.

I can't say I'm fond of any of these ideas.

Hopefully someone else has some better ones.

Ron

[Nortley]

This worked for me once with a missing instruction sheet, it could work for decals. I found the kit for which I needed instructions on eBay, contacted the seller, and asked him to send me a scan of his instructions. I soon got a pdf with scans, faithful to the last wrinkle. You don't name the kit, but are aftermarket decals available?

[modelmaniac]

Thanks folks for your thoughts. I think I might try steaming the back of Sheet 2. Doesn't the steam need to get in between the sheets to free up the adhesive?

Thes are decals for a Otaki 1/12 Corvette - 2 large sheets of striping. As you probably know the company has been long out of business. Doyusha bought the molds and was the last company to re-issue this kit, but they don't seem to be producing model cars anymore.

Thanks again for your help! Peter

[Herman]

I had success with just soaking the whole lot in plenty of water. The decals then "float" away from each other.

[modelmaniac]

That's a great suggestion Herman. Hopefully the decal 's latency is longer so the decals themselves don't float off too. Even if they do, I would think I can put them back then coat with microscale decal restorer. One other difficulty is that the stuck sheets would likely curl into a roll!

[Herman]

Drown them, and keep them flat, just to prevent them from damaging each other. After a minute or so they do not have the tendency to curl up anymore.

Your decals will definately float away. You can "catch" them on the same backing sheet, or use another backing sheet. This is doable with smaller decals. another way is to just let them float, and catch them on the part to be decalled. The only problems is when you already have decals on, or need to do a large number of large decals.