making your own decals...

There would always be people looking to pirate anything and to gain from someone else's work. Unless you have an ALPS printer (which, if I'm not mistaken, are longer available) you would not be able to print a decent and totally useful decal sheet from a scanned image.

The problem is that, except for the ALPS brand printers, (and one other which I don't recall at the moment) no computer printers print white. White is essential to making a good decal. It provides opacity for certain colors that would otherwise have to be built up in so many layers that the decal would be much too thick.

Then there's the simple matter of white being a color of a marking itself, such as the star (and bars) of the US national insignia.

Also, I've seen many a decal printed with an ALPS printer, and I am not convinced that the quality is there. Nothing can hold a candle to a professionally printed decal sheet. That's just my opinion, however! Don't get me wrong, you CAN make a fairly decent decal with a printer. It's just that, for me, "fairly decent" don't cut it!

A friend of mine printed up decals for "The Huff" in 1/32. (For non-aircraft modelers, "The Huff" was a piece of nose art on an F-86 during the Korean War that depicted a fire-breathing dragon.) I, personally, thought that it was a mediocre decal. He scaled them up from 48th markings. Certain problems inherent with the process of scaling an image up can be solved with a good imaging program, but it's the actual printing that leaves something to be desired sometimes. I admit, though, that I can be very critical of such things. Many of you may not be so "attentive", so to speak.

As regards to the copyright issues, and this may spark some debate, as long as one's intent is not to profit from copies of a decal sheet, I see no problem with making a copy for personal use. Matter of fact, someday, I'd like to be able make copies of such things as national insignia for use with decal sheets that come with none, or not enuff. Some may look at it as stealing potential profits from a company, but not everyone can afford to buy decal sheets which are now approaching $10 apiece. If it means keeping a few bucks in the wallet for "important" stuff, then I'm not opposed to committing what, in the eyes of the law, may be labeled as "petty larceny".

Slap on the cuffs and book me, Dan-O!

Fade to Black...

I make some decals myself......go to the train department at the local hobbyshop and ask for MICROSCALE clear/white trim film. This is what you use to make decals. To use it in an inkjet printer you MUST first spray it with testors DULLCOAT print your design and then spray MICROSCALE liquid decal film over it to keep the ink from washing off. I typically use MICRO-SOL to soften up the decal to conform to the surface nicely. As for needing white background, simply use the white film. I have had great results with this material. I owuld suggest you use a good graphics program on your computer though. I personally use ROXIO Photosuite 4 Platinum edition. It works nice and does all I need. The paper only costs $2.00 per sheet and can be purchased in three packs...the liquid decal film is like $2.50 for a bottle and it does like 2-3 8.5x11 sheets. Give it a shot and don''t be disappointed on your first few tries....it takes practice. lol Have fun!

packhntr, I'm curious about the quality. Can you get the same sharpness from this method that you can from the after market stuff that's out there? It seems to me that if everything you could get was available after market that would be the way to go considering the cost of software and materials. But for custom situations this could be very helpful.

For everyong, with respect to "white" what I've read is that you would use white decal paper.

Dave

Hi Dave. Yeah, I do mean to use the white decal paper....oops. I have had really good results. I have been making some decals for a RPG I like to play....Battletech, The decals are relatively small.....1/4" to 1/8" in size or smaller the detail is great!!! This is the way to go especially if you're needing some "custom" decals. Simply draw the image you want a decal of, scan it into the computer, touch up the colors, sharpness etc, print out a few times on regular paper to get the size you want and when you're satasfied, print out on the decal paper. If you don't have a scanner, simply download the immage from whatever website and manipulate it on the software.. I haven't had decent results with small lettering...1/32 or so tall.... Roxio is releasing a new versio of the software I use..... Photosuite 5 Still only $49.99.....I got mine at best buy. As for printer.....well, all I have is a HP 840c nothing special about it.....just make sure to have a fairly decent one and you'll be pleased. Shoot, now-a-days, most printers are "photo quality" or darn near.

packhntr:

Do you use water base ink? Does the microscale liquid decal film seal it in?

If I recall correctly, most all inkjet printers use waterbased ink.....and yes, the microscale liquid decal film seals the decal very well. I haven't had any problems with runs or anything.

There is a article to download about it in
www.mundohobby.com
This is a huge file (500kb) so, take your time.

Thanks for that link Alexandre, Haven't read the whole article yet but it looks helpful.

I'm going to give it a try. I've been a little under the weather and haven't made it back to the hobby shop for a while. The last time I was there I asked about decal paper for an inkjet and all they had was a pack with 10 sheets. A little more than I wanted to start with. They did have several single sheets for laser jet printers though. I can't remember the brand. And they did have both clear and white. (which was something I hadn't thought about Blackwolfscd)

Could that be the type of paper you are referring to Packhntr? And then I'd have to coat with the Dullcoat to use in an inkjet? I have a decent setup here with scanner and printer and imaging software so that isn't a problem. The biggest problem I could see was the ink running when you got it wet but I understand now how that works.

I don't want to seem like a one man advertising crew here but...I did find this business in SAM and while I haven't looked, they may advertise in FSM also. They list quite a variety of papers for all types of printers plus some helpful information on how to use the product. It looks like their inkjet decal paper comes pre-coated and you would only have to coat it once when you are finished printing. That may save a little work.

http://papilio.com/

Thanks for all the input folks, it's been a big help. And Alexandre, I'm going to d/l the article you mentioned.

Tony

Wingman: Ya, for the laser paper, you must coat the paper with dullcoat first, then print the image and then spray on the liquid decal film. It's easy to do. An d pretty cheap. Just make the preliminary prints on regular paper until you get the results you want. Have fun and good luck!