do old decals disintegrate????????????

hi. I got some ten year old decal sheets that seem to be disintegrating.. I cut a piece and dip it in water.. when I remove the decal it tears.. I remember long time ago reading about old decals tend to disintegrate.. is that true????? I have some really old models that I wanna build.. should I be worrying about the decals?? what if I wanna buy a model from an old stock.. would it be a good idea?

anybody got any experience with old decals??

Many do, especially those in certain old American kits.

I had a bad experience with a Johan Sox & Martin 'Cuda. Decals go bye-bye. :sadwavey:

If you can, test a extra decal to see if the sheet is Ok.
I've had some Fujimi decals just float away in little tiny pieces.
If you are worried about the decals you can coat them with decal spray (for inkjet decals) and cut out the indivual decals.
:p

You should put your decals in a sealed plastic bag. If you leave them out, dust seems to damage them.

Although I haven't tried it, MICROSCALE makes a "Liquid Decal Film" product that can be used to coat old decals, and hopefully reseal them so they don't disintegrate. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a cure for old decals that have yellowed.

My Tamiya NSX R decals cracked up and became useless for no real reason... grrr

I also used "liquid decal film" from microscale to repair some very old decals that were going into small pieces.

You have to put on a few "heavy" coats otherwise it will still come into pieces.
Nevertheless it came quite well and I was happy to be able to recover these old decals.
The only drawback is that you decal is thicker with the application of a few coats of this product. So it can be a good idea to clear coat over them to hide this thickness.