Proffessional Decal production?

In my prototype modeling days we used a printer who made great dry transfers, known to us in the industry as I 'n T, which meant Image In Transfer. Our clients would do up their logos and other graphics in Adobe Illustrator and then send us the file, which we forwarded to the printer. It was about $50 to get things set up, then by the sheet after that. I still have my contact there, but I haven't gotten around to using them for my own work. The inkjet has sufficed so far for decals. Might be worth it to check with local printers though and see if they offer the service, and if so, find out what kind of software is neccessary to create the images for them to work with.

Hi monrad,

Thanks for the welcome! While I'm only semi-pro at making decals, I'm sure I'll be able to answer at least a few questions. In the meantime, I'll go introduce myself!

Welcome sparetime pete, its nice to see a decal expert, we don't have too many of those. And don't worry I don't think you are any trouble advertising yourself. If you are in doubt you can read this to see what FSMs wiew is on this http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=461
Why don't you go to the " Welcome-introduce yourself" forum and say Hi!

Hi Brian,

AFAIK, most decals are printed using the silkscreening process, which is basically laying down ink (or a series of inks) through a screen 'stencil' . This link shows the basics of the process: http://www.silkscreenbiz.com/silkscreen3.htm .It is a fairly expensive photographic process to set up the screens, mix the inks and produce the print, which is why most printing houses (decal or other) usually have minimums set in the hundreds of copies. You can print decals on ALPS printers, or ink jet, but those methods favour low number production runs (<20) due to the cost of consumables. Of course labour prices will be higher, but that can be reduced by doing the artwork yourself.

I don't mean for this to look like spam, but I make custom decals on an ALPS printer for other people, so could probably answer any questions you might have about making decals.

If you're interested in having a commercial run done, try contacting microscale.com to get an estimate. They used to have pricing info on their website, but you now need to e-mail them. Otherwise, there are a few places on the internet offering custom decals (myself among them) for various prices. For my basic prices, go to www.sparetimehobbies.com and follow the links to custom decals.

To everyone on this forum, I am open to all questions about decals, or any other topic.

Regards,

Pete

Here is a downloadable primer on how to make decals. Look down to the bottom 1/3 of the page and you will see where the primer starts. It says:

"It's HERE! Make Your Own Decals 101. "

http://www.tangopapadecals.com/page2.html

Decals are not as hard to make as you think.

Most of them have Alps printers. The only printers I know of that can print white ink. Can also print metallic colors too. They are out of production and hard to find.

I'm usre there are other printing technologies that are used, I'm just not that familiar with them.