I finally got a Skybow early Tiger l, and it looks great! I am confused about the decals. Are they water slide or rub on? They are printed backwards with the rear facing up. If they are water slide do they act just like any other water slide decal? Is there any different technique to applying these decals?

See what Terry Ashley says in his review of the Skybow Tiger - they are waterslide (sort of)

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/48/skybow/tp4801.htm

That answers part of my question, but, once applied, can the decal be repositioned slightly as in the case of regular water-slide decals? Or are they immovable once applied, requiring very careful initial placement?

Biggles, I haven't used these before but I get the feeling that you will need to be a lot more careful with them than with normal back-glued waterslide decals.

If you remain nervous about it, one way to see might be to simply "try them on the dog" first. Take one of the decals you won't be using and then put in on a zimmerit-like surface. Slide the decal on and then monkey with it a bit, to see how much "give" you get from the decal.