Hello I was just wondering how long
decals would last after you put them on a model because I would think that after some time they would just dry out and fall off or am I just talking nonsense?
Generally speaking they stay on well, unless the
decals themselves aren’t very good and the surface isn’t suitable. If you happen to come across old
Revell kits (ca. 1980s), they tended to have pretty poor
decals that didn’t stay on well on matt-painted models, for example. Those also showed a lot of silvering, much like these on this image I just found online:
This is an indicator the decal isn’t sticking to the model properly, because it’s caused by air trapped under it.
Most
decals, especially ones from modern kits, don’t seem to suffer from this much or at all. I’d be confident they stay on for as long as you’ll have the model.
There are some things you can do to make sure they stick well, though.
Decals adhere better to a gloss finish than to a matt one (because gloss is smooth and matt is rough), so if you expect problems with the
decals, you can paint the model with gloss paints or add a gloss varnish before adding them. A matt varnish afterward restores the model to non-shiny (not recommended for car kits
) and also seals in the
decals so they’ll never come off. You can also (or instead) use decal setting solution, which softens the decal and lets it conform to the surface more closely, which also makes it stick better.