Colonial Viper Clone

I am making a clone of the old Estes Colonial Viper, and have run into one problem-the decals. The originals were self-stick decals I believe... I have seen the incredible work done on the upscale Vipers, but I am not sure that the same technique would work for a straight cloning project (too small perhaps?). Would water-slide or vinyl decals work (since the main color of the rocket is white, they wouldn't need to have the white areas filled in as in the original decals). Also, the only copy I have of the decal sheet (from JimZ site) seems like it would look rough with water-slide decals. Any recommendations?? Thanks..