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Hi,
I haven't really used my inkjet printer in a long time, but want to try and make some decals for a what-if I am building. As such I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for any places that might print custom decals for you.
I tried doing a Google search, and came up with a wide variety of sites, but some seem more focused on large scale business while other seemed more focused on specialty stuff like Guitar Logos or decals for ceramics, so I'm not sure whether they are what I am looking for.
Since I am only looking to do a one or two-off print, I though I'd ask here to see if anyone has tried any specific sites and/or whether they have any recommendations.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Pat
Microscale...
http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=Custom
F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!
U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!
N is for NO SURVIVORS...
- Plankton
LSM
Are you familiar with vector drawing programs like adobe illistrator or similar? Can you get decent images of the markings you are looking for off the internet?
Printing your own decals is very simple. If you can make or get the artwork the printing part is very straight forward.
If you do not have any luck getting them printed, there is lots of info on how to print them yourself.
What markings are you looking for? The forum community may be able to help you locate the markings or may even have them and be willing to work out get them to you.
Thanks Stikpusher and Route66.
My intent is to draw up what I wanted to have printed and see if I can find a place to print them.
My biggest issue right now is that I haven't used my printer in so long that I suspect it would take awhile to get it back working and I'd have to buy new ink, and decal paper etc. As such I was just looking for recommedations on any places I could send my graphics to get printed, instead, since its hopefully just a one-off (or two-off) print jib.
Thanks again for the recomendations.
I'll definitely look into MicroScale, but from their webpage looks like a custom job would require 250 sheets as a minimum order.
If you have a smallish print shop nearby and you take in the blank stock, they might print for you.
I type on a tablet. Please excuse the terseness and the autocorrect. Not to mention the erors.
ugamodels If you have a smallish print shop nearby and you take in the blank stock, they might print for you.
I doubt any printer will run a single sheet through their offset/digital press, if they did they would charge big $$$$.
There are numerous companies who will produce "one off" decals for a reasonable price if you can supply the digital artwork. As soon as you need to have artwork created from scratch the cost will exponentially go up.
I investigated having decals produced for one of my projects, and having been a creative in a past life can whip up artwork very quickly. I decided that having vinyl mask cut was a better, easier and quicker process than having decals made.
My
If your printer is an HP, replacing the cartridge replaces the nozzles too (they are built into the nozzle), so it is easy to get them back working. If it is an Epson or Canon, you may need a thorough and difficult cleaning in addition to replacing cartridges.
There are decal papers sold that are intended to be used with laser printers, from same sources (like Micro Mark) as the inkjet paper. Problem is, the paper is sensitive to the fusing temperature, and some machines at copy centers run too hot for the laser paper. But if your local copy shop does have a lower temperature copy machine, you can print out the design on regular paper, and take that printout and the laser decal paper to your copy shop. Not all copy shops will do that, however. Sometimes, if the paper is susceptible to heat, it can jam up the machines, and the copy shops are sensitive to that.
One good thing, however- more and more inks in even cheap printers are resistant to the sealing solutions, so you can buy a cheap inkjet for about fifty bucks these days that works fine for decals. Cheaper than many kits now adays.
Don Stauffer in Minnesota
I'VE DONE THIS MORE FOR THE CHALLENGE THAN FOR NEED.
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT VINYL MASKS. I'VE BEEN USING THEM LATELY ON SHIP MODELS WITH GOOD RESULTS.
Sorry about the caps. Got distracted while typing.
Modeling is an excuse to buy books.
You could take your artwork to an office supplies/stationary store that does inhouse printing, something like Business Depot or Staples as it's known in here in Canada.
For printing at home, something I just found out recently is to save your files as RGB and not CMYK. For me, that helped big time in correcting a problem with printing proper shades of colour.
Another thing about home printers, from personal experience, you need to print something at least once a month, even if it is just a test page found with the maintenace software. Otherwise, the inks will dry up in the printhead, and I've never had luck cleaning that out - a lot of wasted ink in trying to do that.
regards,
JacK
GMorrison I'VE DONE THIS MORE FOR THE CHALLENGE THAN FOR NEED. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT VINYL MASKS. I'VE BEEN USING THEM LATELY ON SHIP MODELS WITH GOOD RESULTS. Sorry about the caps. Got distracted while typing.
Its getting late here so I may not respond till later, what would you like to know about diy masks.
Thanks for all the feedbacl.
A few yaers ago I had purchased a custom dry transfer that I drew up for the air filter of my old 1951 Buick Hobby car, for a fairly reasonable price off the internet and was hoping to find a place that might do similar work for waterslide decals.
From the Google searches that I have done, I guess that I might give one of these two places a try and see what they may be able to do.
http://www.circusdecals.com/services.html
https://www.bedlamcreations.com/request-a-quote/request-a-waterslide-decal-quote/
Regards
damouav GMorrison I'VE DONE THIS MORE FOR THE CHALLENGE THAN FOR NEED. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT VINYL MASKS. I'VE BEEN USING THEM LATELY ON SHIP MODELS WITH GOOD RESULTS. Sorry about the caps. Got distracted while typing. Its getting late here so I may not respond till later, what would you like to know about diy masks.
Is it a positive or negative first way to go?
IE mask light, then overlay dark?
I design graphics and get any vinyls cut that I want as a "favor", but prefer to be on the up-and-up.
I bought a set of pre made vinyl masks that are for aircraft ID code letters. They work easy enough by either method, positive or negative. I used them positive style with a lighter gray letter over an OD background.
I have a local signwriter who can run them out on his Roland Vinyl Cutter for me. But I have done some leg work and an inxpensive diy solution would be the Silhouette Portrait, Curio or Cameo 3 cutter and some vinyl mask media and app tape.
The portrait can be had for around $100 USD from amazon and will do a good job. I exclusively use Illustrator as it is the best vector based software for this type of work, the only additional cost with the Silhouette is software for some greedy reason.
Here are some markings I airbrushed this morning as reference.
The masking film I have is a little too thick, need to source some thinner media, this is why a little bleeding occured.
I think maybe you could tell the rest of us more about it. I bought a Cricut machine awhile ago to cut panels from thin styrene sheet, and still working out the kinks. But my daughter does use the vinyl self-adhesive films to create stencils for grit blasting designs on glass, and that sure works. I do intend to try it to make painting stencils, but how about giving us your experiences?
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