I'm building a 1/25th Panther by Academy. Has anyone had any trouble working with their decals? IE too thick?

I tried a test run on a scrap piece, decalling over zimeritt with extra decals from a Tamiya kit and had no problems. The Academy decals behave totally different. No Micro Sol in the world is going to get it to flatten.

Have you tried SolvaSet? It is stronger.

That's strange. I used Micro Sol on several Academy decals and it worked great. They are rather thick. Have you considered seeing if someone has spare decals from another manufacturer? It may cost a few dollars, but you can save the cost of a bottle of Solvaset.

I don't know about their armor decals, but it's been a topic of contention for quite a while for aircraft builders. So much so, that I pitch the decals whenever I begin an Academy kit. They are just not worth the frustration. I've heard that Academy has finally started to address the long known problem by having Cartograph do their decals on newer kits. I agree that no amount of solution solved the problem when I tried that approach. I'd go with after market decals if you can. Just my opinion.

Cheers,
Mike

That's what I'm hearing. Any suggestions on after market? I'd hate to order a sheet only to go through the same thing again.

I'm going to steal the numbering from my Tamiya kit, but am short on German insignia. I'll just have to try to make them work.