I'm considering trying to put on some castle-ish decals on my torsos and shiels so that my castle soldiers don't have to wear scuba diver and firemen gear and wield Native American shields into battle.

I'm not going to do the whole print-stripping rigamarole with glues and all sorts of other fancy chemicals, but I thought of finding the right decals, printing them on my colour printer and simply double-stick taping them onto the torsos and shields.

My concern is: If I leave the tape and stuff on for a very long time, will the actual torso/shield print come off with the tape if I one day remove the tape?

I'd appreciate input from anyone who has had experience with this.

Thanks,

~Erynion~

I think this is a common concern among decal users, and with reason.

In my experience, I have always used plain torsos whenever possible, to avoid the risk. But in some cases (lack of plain torso of the proper colour), I've used printed ones to.

The other point is I prefer using removable post-it-like paper for decals, as the glue is less aggressive.

That said, you will understand I've limited experience with regular tapes. But I have some: I used normal tape, bended over to make a sort of double tape, a few times. It did not visibly damage the printing on LEGO pieces.

The real matter, however, is how strong the glue on your double tape is. If it's very strong, then it will probably damage the printing. And, the longer you let it apllied, the longer it will (chemically) interact with the plastic and ink and probably ruin them.

I find this (used with the bent-over technique) to be the best tape for apllying decals without damaging the LEGO piece.

I hope this long rant did not annoy helps you

I concur with LuxorV, on the occasions that I used Scotch double-sided tape the print did not seem to be affected.