Simple, Step-by-Step Instructions to Fabricate Decals

Okay, first, very big, issue is, are these dark colored decals to use on a light colored finish, or do the decals have to be or have white or light colored colors in them.  The first are easy to do, the other is quite hard.

The first uses clear decal paper.  I use the stuff from Micro Mark.  I use Paint Shop Pro software, but Adobe Photoshop Elements is more widely known and you can get help with it more easily.  However, both of these programs are somewhat overkill for most decals.  Almost any graphics software can be used, even CAD software.

You can proceed in two ways- one is to completely do the graphics yourself with the software, the second is to use a photo or existing graphics and clean it up and resize it in the graphics software.

Now, inkjet printers do not print white, and when you print light colors the result lacks opacity, so for decals containing white or very light colors, especially to go over a dark background, you must use white decal paper.  But  then you must cut out the resulting decal perfectly, else you end up with a white border.  You can ease this task by setting the background color in the software to the background color of the model.  This eliminates using the decals over a camouflage area.  Also, color matching is not easy to do with your computer and graphics software- you need to be pretty much into graphics software.

Finally, many inks are water soluble, so you must overcoat the finished printout with a waterproof clear coating before you immerse the decal in water.

Now, some folks will advise you to use an Alps printer, which can print white.  But the Alps printers are quite difficult to find, and so are the ink/pigment ribbons.

Thanks for the response.  I probably jumped the gun by posting here.  I've got a ton of reference material from having Googled/Binged the 'net, but responses herein tend to be simplier and more to the point.

By-the-way, I've learned a great deal about air brushes and air brushing from your web site.  Thanks for doing that.

I should have also suggested asking this question in the "decaling" discussion group.  You may get more replies there.

Well, you try my method that I have outlined on my website. I use MS Word out of all things with the Testors Decal paper. Word lets me set the size of the paper, and I can adjust the size of the images in pixels, inches, and metric. The testors paper is a bit thick. Perhaps the Micro Mark decal paper is thinner.

Now, I'm using it for small Star Wars emblems mostly, but I've tried some larger "nose-art" which looked good. A simple ink-jet printer should be enough. I can't suggest going full DPI or photo-quality, as too much ink can bleed when you clear coat it.

If you want to create decals, e.g. create the image itself, you need an image creator/drawing program. The best program would probably be the full Photoshop (PS Elements is more of a photo retoucher...not a full on graphics designer). But, if you're like me, you don't want to shell out that kind of cash. I'd suggest a freeware alternative. Paint.net is pretty easy to learn and pretty simple. GIMP is the freeware alternative to Photoshop, but like PS, it take a bit to learn.

If you go the drawing program route, you will need some program to compile the decals for printing (like Word or Powerpoint). This is because most image editors work with one image at a time, and it's a real pain to insert multiple images to create a true decal sheet.

Anyway, I hope you can find something that works for you. Cheers

Thanks for information.  It'll certainly be useful.

Don't want to steer this topic away as I also was in need of those custom decals pointers. But I had to make a parenthesis. Unreality, your work with the Action Fleet is unreal. I love those tiny ships and your work is inspiring. I use to collect them back in the late '99.  Too bad Hasbro took over Galoob and they are now history (as usual from Hasbro with many toy lines).

Kudos man! I'm impressed.

Thanks man. I'm actually a bit surprised someone on FSM knows of them. I was pretty disappointed when they were cancelled, but they are great bases for modeling.