Making your own decals

CM... yes you can do it... assuming you are in the US you can get Testors decal maker from any hobby shop and even Wal Mart and Hobby Lobby... the sheets of waterslide are in a roll and you just have to press them between the pages of a book first to get them straight.

Just put in the CD, install the program, copy your picture of choice in, add the text and resize it all and do a test print on plain paper.. keep playing with the size until it is what you want then put in the right decal paper and go!!

Here is a plane I built for a recent GB with one of the forum members name on the nose art:



I think I had to manually enter like 3.27 or something like that to get the font down to the right size then play with the alignment and size of the pic to get it right...

it is possible!!

See if you can find a copy of the July 1999 FSM. There is an excellent article by Paul Boyer on making your own decals.

it might just come off as just trying to rake in those brownie points but this came to mind when I was on a recent trip, thinking how I could eventually give the model along with the individuals name on the plane as a gift. I don't think that I will go through with it though, but it is a great idea to create your own nose art. Thanks again

do you know the typeface name that you would use, I keep thinking of Arial or Helvetica

CM - for that decal I used one called "Tabitha" I just played around switching fonts until I got the look I liked... then I reduced the font size down till it would look appropriate on the model... I would print it at different sizes then cut them out in small squares and hold it against the cowl and eyeball it... seems tedious but it really wasn't... I think Arial might be a little plain... like I said play around and find what you like...

that decal kit is like $5 or $6 at Wal Mart complete with paper, software and a spray can of fixative (after printing your decal spray it with two or so coats of this so it doesn't run with the water to put it on)

Oh yeah... when you do your final print, go into your printer settings and put the highest quality printing, on my Epson and my HP it is "Best" I tihnk there might be a photo quality too... just turn everything to photo highest quality and best... choose plain photo paper as the type of paper in the printer settings too... it will saturate the paper and keep it from looking too light.

I'm absolutely desperate to make my own decals with the ability for printing WHITE !!! I am sick to the back teeth of micro-painting white on the models before applying clear decals and ending up not being able to position them with sufficient accuracy.

I have white stock, for use with laserjet printers, which eases the problem, but with intricate logos and type, cutting them is a nightmare - precision-wise. Totally impossible really.
Other white stock for inkjet is even more problematic because of the need for acrylic over-spray - which never seems to work. You end up with deep colours looking like an ancient cracked Roman mosaic-tiled floor.

A one-off sheet is WAY too expensive for professional print shops it seems.

Any solutions out there ?

Does the Testor Decal program allow you to reduce the image or do you us another program to reduce. I want to make some decals to use on Hot Wheel/Matchbox size vehicles.

Thanks

Don

many printers allow for several different ink cartridges like my hp allows a black,a color,and a Photo color cart.
which should i use the reg. color or the photo color one
Paul Boyer's article is 6 yrs old and that was not as much of an issue way back then but now it is

I just made decals for Italeri's 1/72nd scale T-45A Goshawk. The kit decals are for the first roll-out demonstration jet used for test and EVAL. I wanted my Goshawk to dipict an active swadron from TW-2, USS Forrestal. What I did was to scan the kit decals 1:1 size at 300 dpi in my Lexmark all-in-one printer and imported them into Photophop. I then used the scaned image as a guide to create correctly-sized lettering, stencils, and other marking for the aircraft. For the Navy style font, I have installed on my PC, "LongbeachUSN" and "ArmarilloUSAFPro" purchased from Tlai Enterprises (www.tlai.com) After I am satisfied with the new decals, I sharpen, and save as a .jpeg file in Photophop. When I'm ready to print the decals, I print onto clear laser decal paper, output to my color laser printer. Note: my Minolta Magicolor, laser printer doesn't print white put the color and black and white output is superior to any inkjet I've seen. Also decals from a laser printer does not require a protective clear spray overcoat.