Great looking already, Harvey.
True, without codes they just don't look correct.

The decals look great, Harvey (@scalerambush), and really brings everything together. I have run into some of the same problems with obtaining specific hobby items, and have either had to go far afield for specific brands, or made do with substitutes. Hopefully this will all get better eventually.

A quick update today on a few finds.

As you may or may not know, Eduard have changed their 'recipe' for making decals and 'Spitfire Story, The Few' was the first to be done in such a way. Essentially the decals recieved a thicker carrier film than previous, however unintentionally this carrier film can be removed completely from the decal once it is dried in place. Some folks thought this could be Eduard switching to the removable carrier film decals as seen by some companies like HGW, but Eduard denied this and state that they DO NOT recommend it.

So I did it.. On accident though! I decided to put the walkway lines on and this naturally took off some of the carrier film when the tape was pulled up, it actually produces a fairly interesting effect that looks quite nice and really 'painted-on', but I don't want to rely on it incase it does rip the decal. Funnily enough this carrier film they don't recommend removing came off SO MUCH easier than HGWs removable carrier film decals, it peeled off in one whole circle with some tweezers once some started to come up due to the tape.

Regardless, just an interesting observation, I'll be doing the other Spits walkways after a clear coat and treating this removable film as a sort of 'second life' as I'm sure any other decals would have likely ripped when the tape was put on.

Strange thing with those decals, Harvey...
Your Spit looks great!

Harvey - the latest newsletter from Eduard tells us that they do make the decals like that, but have not been telling a lot about it - to quote the newsletter

The reason we don’t
push the procedure as much as you’d think
we might is because the procedure does require
a certain level of experience and care,
and lacking these, the possibility of damaging
them is quite high.

They go on to tell us that they will be making a tutorial about it

Jakub Nademlejnsky
is in the process of preparing a short but informative
instructional article on doing just
that. Actually, the peeling of the carrier film
from the decals is not rocket science, nor is
it brain surgery, and the end result is truly
mesmerizing. But, even so, this will be a ‘proceed
at your own risk’ endeavor on the user’s
part. This article will come out in the May edition
of the newsletter.

If you want to check the facts and not listen to hearsay, go check out their newsletter here; https://www.eduard.com/info-eduard-march-2021/
Seems like the Spitfire MkI were made this way from the start. Great stuff that you found out how to do this by accident - looking sooo great harvey @scalerambush!

Some progress today, but not perfect.

Making my own stencils was always going to be one of the harder jobs, and without a good tool for it beyond a scalpel, a pencil, a ruler and some adhesive film I got to work.

They are FAR from perfect, but tomorrows job will be to fix them up and neaten up some lines with some tamiya tape and paint.

Also, I know I said I wouldn't do it as it isn't recommended to do so by Eduard themselves, but I removed the film on the fin flashes as I just couldn't get it to all sink despite drowning it in Micro-Sol.

I'll be honest, not a huge fan of the change. On one had the removable film works fairly well honestly, but as it's not recommended there's no point really thinking of it. I don't find these new decals to settle down quite as well as the older ones did as the carrier film if not removed is quite thick and leaves a fairly noticeable edge.

Regardless, KL-B recieved a clear coat over the wings to protect the decals from masking tape and the wing walk lines will be painted on, followed by the last of the stencils on the wings. After that is clear coat and weathering time.

Your homemade stencils did a very good job, my friend @scalerambush! With some touchups, all will be Perfect. And, if you ask me, I liked a lot the fact that you did all this with your usual home tools, no special equipment.

As our friend @airbum said, I believe Eduard are at a transitioning phase on their decal production. This company has demonstrated in the past that it is commited to improvement (and excellence, as well). So, I believe it will not be that far away seeing perfect decals form them.

Work continues on the Spit, this time the wing walks got painted on KL-B and the squadron codes got touched up on KL-N.

First, KL-B. The wing walks got painted on as before, masked off with Tamiya tape and mostly eyeballed using rivets as references to put the tape onto. This time I gave it a clear coat to protect the roundel. Honestly I wish I didn't! For some reason it pulled up the film despite the clear coat on it, so I ended up removing the rest of the film but it didn't come up as cleanly due to the clear coat and pulled up bits of the decal. I went back and painted the parts that came off with a brush, but annoyingly my Citadel blue had leaked and fully dried all over the bottom of the box it was in, so I ended up using Tamiya which is something I don't tend to brush paint with as it's not the greatest.

For KL-N, I did the same thing and apply a clear coat on the roundel, however this time there doesn't seem to be any noticable issue with the masking tape pulling it. The letter codes with straightened out slightly. They are far from perfect but they'll do, even if the 'N' is a little fat!

I don't think these new decals are Eduard moving to removable film decals intentionally, they seem very firm on the 'we don't recommend this' stance. The question is whether Eduard will change this stance in the future and market this unintentional side effect as a product after more testing, or come up with a new recipe for decal making that prevents this from happening. Plenty of products and inventions have come about from accidents after all.

3 additional images. Click to enlarge.