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Bad Decales


tomk

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I recently put together my first Roden model. It is a 1/48 Pilatus Porter aircraft. When I started putting on the decals they totally disintergrated. I have been modeling for 50 years and this is the first time decales have ever done this. I emailed the company but they have not reponded. Has anyone had this problem with Roden before?

tomk

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I recently put together my first Roden model. It is a 1/48 Pilatus Porter aircraft. When I started putting on the decals they totally disintergrated. I have been modeling for 50 years and this is the first time decales have ever done this. I emailed the company but they have not reponded. Has anyone had this problem with Roden before?

tomk

I have not built that kit, but a friend at work just finished a build of the same kit. Guess what? The decals also disintegrated on him, and despite getting a second kit, those decals also fell apart on him. He says: "Never will build another Roden kit!" He ended up painting the blue and white striped trim on the build and cobbled together the registration numbers. GLW the build.

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I have not built that kit, but a friend at work just finished a build of the same kit. Guess what? The decals also disintegrated on him, and despite getting a second kit, those decals also fell apart on him. He says: "Never will build another Roden kit!" He ended up painting the blue and white striped trim on the build and cobbled together the registration numbers. GLW the build.

Thanks for your help. Let that be a warning about Roden kits. I will paint mine too.

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A couple of years ago, I built a Roden 1/72 scale Sopwith Camel. While the decals did not disintegrate, they were stiff and would not settle down over any of the surface detail, despite repeated applications of every setting solution on the market. It ruined an otherwise pretty good model! On the other hand, I have read reviews of Roden kits which raved about the decals. I suspect that they shop different decal printers with regard only to the lowest cost. I personally would not build a Roden kit again without an alternative decal sheet in hand. Nick Filippone

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A couple of years ago, I built a Roden 1/72 scale Sopwith Camel. While the decals did not disintegrate, they were stiff and would not settle down over any of the surface detail, despite repeated applications of every setting solution on the market. It ruined an otherwise pretty good model! On the other hand, I have read reviews of Roden kits which raved about the decals. I suspect that they shop different decal printers with regard only to the lowest cost. I personally would not build a Roden kit again without an alternative decal sheet in hand. Nick Filippone

Thanks Nick

I think I will avoid Roden kits in the future.

tomk

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I'll continue to enjoy Roden's kits, but will remain wary of the 'cals provided in the kit. Lotsa great aftermarket out there and Roden's kits are great subjects.

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I too like Roden kits and have completed several. Maybe the secret is to use new kits. I am attaching a photo of my Junkers D.1 which was built about five years ago. It has corrugated skin and the decals set down ok. I had to use lots of Solvaset.

 

Generally, when I have an older decal, I coat it with Future before working with it.

 

Clare

 

Junkers_D1-01.JPG

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Roden kits have several reputations -- decals, soft detail, etc ... but they have an interesting range and the kits build up nicely.

 

In my experience, their customer service is slow, but good. For along time, many US ISP's blocked email to them. If you could get past that, they might not respond quickly, but they did respond and correct the problem. Their 1/48 SE5a came out with the wrong # ribs and they fixed it, mailing new wings to anyone who asked. I found mold flaws in their 1/32 SE5a wings and they sent me new wings. I had bad decals on another (long ago) and got replacements.

 

It's an adventure. I usually test a small piece of their decal sheet before I start putting too much time into the build.

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Roden has contacted me and will send me replacement decals at no charge.

tomk

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