RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Is there an easy way to take HL decals off?

TIA

Dane61

The short answer is no unfortunately. You basically have to sand or scrap them off.

Good Morning,
If the decals are of the dry, self adhesive type, you can warm them up with a few seconds worth of heat from a hair dryer ( not too much or you will deform your plastic! ), tip up an edge with a #11 Exacto blade and peel them off while still warm. You will still still need to clean off the adhesive residue as Michael noted. Any work of this kind generally ends up in a repaint unfortunately since the older the decal, the more damage done to the underlying paint in the removal process.
regards,
Painless

Hi Dane, If you get hold of a bottle of "MICRO-SET" Brush the surface of the Decal and keep brushing until the Decal softens then rub it off or if possible lift a corner and pull off. Hope that helps shaun

I find that white spirit applied to the edges of the decal with a brush and left for an hour to soak into the gap between decal under surface edge and paint underneath. Then applied again and gently pull the decal away from painted surface, this dissolves the glue holding on the decal and it comes off. Clean off glue residue with more white spirit on a cloth etc. Let any white spirit evaporate and you will see it leaves a white residue when dry, so if this happens remove this with water and washing up liquid. Try to use only a small amount of white spirit each time applied to the decal area, as you only want to dissolve the decal glue adhesion but not damage/remove or soften the paint under the decal. Always works for me.

I removed mine by using a wooden popsicle stick *or craft stick would work) I used the sharp edge of it to scrape them off. I cleaned any residue from the glue by using a dry cloth on it. This way worked great for me, I like to see all of these tips listed here. It is a treasure trove of helpful information.

i got mine of my tank by leaving a soaking wet tissue on the decal and eventually it was easy to remove

Let me see if I can help a bit with terms, if only so I can figure out some of the methods.

Decal (Decalcomania), a printed marking applied by soaking in water and sliding in place onto the model.
Transfer - a printed marking applied by rubbing onto the model
Sticker - a marking applied by peeling it off a backing paper and sticking it on the model
Stencil - a marking cut into a paper or plastic sheet so that paint can be applied in the shape cut in the sheet (various brands available, but generally provided by Rad Schuhart )

My experience with HengLong is that they are transfers.
Did I get any of this right?

Yes. Also mr mrmetallica replied to the three year old post

Kaczor wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 5:24 pm Yes. Also mr mrmetallica replied to the three year old post

is that a problem