I'm finishing up a DML Pz III. I'm not sure how old the kit is, but I have a issue with the decals. Most all the decals, especially the German crosses and the large red numbers for the turrets are completely criss crossed with small lines. They look to me like they are cracks in the decal film, if that makes sense. I tried to scan them to show you what I'm talking about but they didn't show up. I haven't tried to actually use any of them, but I wanted to know if anybody has any idea if these decals can be saved, and how?

Hi Rodger,
Sounds as if you are correct and the decals are indeed cracked. This is the curse of many old decals, particularly when that protective little square of tracing paper-like material has been removed from the decal surface. I'm afraid it's bad news, because as far as i'm aware there is nothing you can do to fix this, and when put into water the transfers will break up into loads of little flakes. The best thing I can suggest is to scan them in and try to re-print them as transfers (Someone else will know more about this than I do!), ask the guys on armorama if anyone has a spare replacement set, or make up a set from spare decals you have lying around.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,

James

Hi,
if your decals are just cracked, you can "repair" them with a liquid decal film made by Microscale. It is intended exactly for what you need.
Another use is to make your own decal.

HTH
Olivier

Rodger,
Which DML PzIII?
PM me and let me know. I'll look through my stash and see if I have some decals you can use

Thanks guys, I pretty much thought that would be the case.

Ron, thanks for you offer but first I'm going to try a few things. I'm going to have a throw at making my own. I've got the Testors decal making kit. I'm going to scan these, then work at getting them to be the right size, then printing them up. If I can't swing that then I'll go stash diving and pull out my DML Pz IV that might have similar size decals. If that craps out I'll give you a PM.

Rodger,
Make sure you seal the decals after printing. And if your printer has a "photo quality" setting, use that. You want print as opaque as possible.
Especially on red.
Good luck