...Intensely sore subject with me going back well over half century; glossy silk-screened inks on thick carrier films all you'd get till mid-1960s, some late 1960s Airfix kits with NO carrier film at all (e.g. FIAT G.50 c.1967), early Microscale flat inks on ridiculously thin flat film dissolving after TWO Solvaset drops smeared on them, artfully printed ETRL-ESCI's on worst carrier films ever made, horrid "non-standard" inkjet & laser-printed decals dissolving in water ala aforementioned late 1960s Airfix kits. Other than specific remembered exceptions satisfactorily applying decals on models wasn't one of life's joys worse still watching them crack apart with time though these ETRL-ESCIs & SUPERMODELs surviving perfectly intact since 1990, "Red 4" laboriously masked & sprayed on with Testors Flat Red enamel:
(https://i.postimg.cc/43zgMrZY/Aer-Macchi-C202-6-12-2021-K.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/7YdrLxZC/Aer-Macchi-C202-6-12-2021-L.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/PqHcLNsq/Aer-Macchi-C202-6-12-2021-M.jpg)
Also had lotta issues with AZ Model decals; nobody produced decals to my liking; thank God Lectraset (founded in London 1959) is in oblivion, never got single one that "took AND held" (https://www.free-smileys.com/files/angry-smileys/826.gif)
... thank God Lectraset (founded in London 1959) is in oblivion, never got single one that "took AND held"...
I really liked Letraset dry-transfers when they first came out for models. Mind you, to hold well, the sheet had to be really fresh! It also helped that I had proper burnishers on hand. Although, even there, I found it helped to lightly 'pre-loosen' the transfer with a 4B pencil over a surface with 'give' before trying to apply it.
BTW, all my attempts with Letraset model stuff was on to flat enamels with no overspray to finish. Since I had other available sheets of Letraset meant for draughting and graphics work, I'd use them too. Again, good results ... except on gloss surfaces (they'd go on but didn't want to stay on). Overall, the standard sheets (and GeoType too) seemed somehow more 'forgiving' than Letraset's purpose-made hobby sheets
I've heard of modellers turning Letraset rub-ons into wet decals before applying them. Never got the point of that.
...50-plus years ago used letter, number, special symbols & characters decades before Microsoft glommed onto them as Windows Wingdings whilst working for Transit Authority of the City of Sacramento ("STA") then Sacramento Regional Transit District ("RT") up till 1982 whilst producing timetables et. al. graphics. Your 100% correct about them not holding on glossy surfaces, can't tell y'all how many gazillions flaked off at slightest touch, used flat bond paper to impress them on, cut strips to glue on timetable baseboards for offset press plate photographing this decades before electronic digital graphics production ala Adobe Illustrator, Corel Graphics, named others as well, cut teeth on Lotus 123 & Micrografx Draws during 1990s long after left Scheduling Department BTW.
Yes, did come across more than a few dried-out Lectraset sheets almost always dead of night working on rush-job service schedule productions 45-plus years ago frantically praying I'd find characters that took - GOD how outta control blood pressure goes just remembering :o Certainly why I had so much difficulty with model kit Lectrasets was that they were years old by time I'd came across them, e.g. first-run SUPERMODELs had them, years old & half-dried out by time I'd tried putting the boogers on!
AND for bit more of "off topic" discussion here, came across this whilst doing Internet spell check on "glommed":
Wikipedia: Glomb - US Navy Project GEORGE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomb)
Piper LBP-1 Glomb
(https://i.postimg.cc/kXJ1H35p/Piper-LBP-1-Glomb.png)
Pratt-Reid LBE-1 Glomb
(https://i.postimg.cc/3NnBhNwb/Pratt-Read-LBE-1-Glomb.png)