Here is what I did to fix the decal problems. let me start out by stating I do not in any way think the problem was caused by the decals.
Instead it had to be that I applied the Rustoleum Clear on too heavy.
You can see how the clear affected the Styrofoam base I had the models sitting on when I sprayed the clear. The paint ate into the foam a little.
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1. foam stuck to the wheels too !
The foam also stuck to the wheels too.
I took these pictures before I started removing the decals for placement references.
I tried to lift the decals up using tape. They didn't even budge. If anything, they laughed at me and said "Is that all you got ?"
So I resorted to a more drastic measure.
VERY carefully I scraped away the decals using a brand new razor blade. The end result looked like this:
Some of you will note that one of the main landing gear is broken off. Yep... I dropped the plane. I was not having a good day. So I walked away.
The next morning I had a brilliant idea, (at least to me), and it was something I have never done before on any of my builds.
After carefully sanding down the surfaces I had previously scraped, I decided to cut out the wing tip navigation lights.
I glued in some scrap clear plastic from a parts tree, after I drilled out a hole to represent the bulb. I painted the drilled hole with a Blue on one side and red on the other. This one is the red side.
And here is the Blue / Green one.
They sanded down nicely, and polished out even better.
Here you can see how the background light shows the improvised light bulb.
Then it was time to glue the landing gear back on, and repaint the messed up areas.
Now Corsair #740 is looking like this. Much better...
The next step was to spray on some more "Future" to help make the surface better for the upcoming new insignia decals.
Then I scrounged a set of insignia from the decal stash. I actually used the solid white insignia for an overall GSB Corsair as the base. These were included in a 1/48 Tamiya F4U-1D kit. They provided the "wings" for the field modified round star insignia.
The round part of the insignia was also scavenged from another set of Tamiya Corsair decals. These came from a Tamiya F4U-1 "birdcage" version. They were placed on top of the first set, and they fit like they were meant to be.
Now the "Stars" have "Bars". I have yet to add the other round circle star on the underside of the wing on the other side. I wanted to see how this turned out first.
Tonight if things go well, I will add the missing underwing insignia, and possibly the wing fuel tank seam tapes too.
As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by.
