Italeri Decals ???

[Hornswoggler]

I recently bought a couple of boxes of the Italeri "Fast Assembly M3 Half Track".

These are an update on the original release (of which I also had several boxes) and include "New decals sheet for 4 versions", per the box.

Having not used any Italeri decals before I decided to experiment a bit using those for the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, for which I have no use. I just cannot get these to lie flat without some amount of silvering on any surface, gloss or matt. My usual decal softener is MR MARK SOFTER, which normally works fine.

The only thing I can see that might be unusual is they are quite thick. Also, these decals lift off without any excess carrier film i.e. you don't need to cut closely around them, only the decal will come off the backing sheet.

Just wondering if anyone else has had any problems with Italeri decals ???

[7dot62mm]

I used the Italeri Stug quickbuild number decals for my Panzer IIs. They too were rather thick for decals and I used my usual Micro Sol softener plus AK Matte (really satin) lacquer + weathering. The lacquer kind of removed the difference between the sheen of the decal and the matte of the rest of the turret. The result was ok I think, but I've become a bit wary of these Italeri decal sets.

[Hornswoggler]

Thanks for the response.

I think I'll steer away from the ones that have a clear component within the decal (eg Allied star inside circle) and as you did just weather a bit over the top.

[Hornswoggler]

Further to the above observations, I happened across the following comments in the OTW preview of the Italeri Fast Assembly M3 w 75mm:

Nice of Italeri to include decals, but for serious modelers they might be useless. They are too thick. So thick in fact, you can feel the difference between them and the decal paper.

https://www.onthewaymodels.com/reviews/ ... review.htm

So I don't know if this problem only occurs with the decal sheets in the Fast Assembly series and whether it is all production runs, and/or if it also afflicts other Italeri kits like their Esci re-issues. The sheets I have state "PRINTED BY ZANCHETTI BUCCINASCO - MI - ITALY". Sailor beware...