Making Decals

[ebtbob]

Good Morning All,

       I am thinking about trying to make my own decals.   For any of you who go this route,  where do you go for your decal paper?  I think Walthers offers it,  but I would like to comparison shop and get your feedback.    Also,  any other info such as printer settings etc would be helpful.

Bob

[Tim]

Good Morning Bob

Micro-Mark sells decal paper in clear and white,
for inkjet and laser printers.

Tim
Souderton, PA

[Bojangle]

For my R/C planes, I found all kinds of decals at the office supply store.  They are made by the Avery company, probable Avery.com...I used very fine permanent markers available in many colors.  They are the adhesive kind, don't know if they make water slide ones. The dry transfer lettering sets are great too, I once made a topo map for local snowmobile club, takes a little time to line up the letters, but just a few rubs with a blunt stylus does the job.
Bo

[ebtnut]

You can get blank decal paper from Walthers or Micro-Mark.  The real problem today is a lack of equipment to do decal printing well at home.  They don't make the old Alps printers anymore, which was about the only way to do decent white or yellow letters.  None of your generally available ink-jets or laser printers will print white.  White is always assumed to be the paper background color.  Yellow is tough becuase the inks are so thin that they often don't print well enough to cover on a model.  Typically, decals are printed with permanent inks specially formulated to remain opaque.  An option some folks use is to take dry transfers (if you can find a suitable font) and put them on blank decal paper, overspray, then letter.  This done becuase it is way easier to line and space the dry transfers on an even, flat surface rather than try and do it directly on the model.

[Kevin Strong]

The last time I did decals, I used--I think--micro scale's decal paper, which I found to be a bit easier to apply than Micro-Mark's. It settled down over details better, with virtually no "silvering." It could also be that I'm getting better at applying decals, too. I still hate 'em with a passion, but they are a necessary evil when confronted with the costs of a sheet of custom dry transfers ($90+).

I've heard very good things about the decal paper sold at http://www.tangopapadecals.com/. I've not used it myself, but the folks on the Alps users group seem to like it.

Later,

K

[r.cprmier]

Bob;
A good supplier is "Bel" in Florida.   check the web.  Good quality paper, decent price; clear or white.

My white decals are done by "Rail Graphics", care of Ron there.

On printing with an ink jet:  Print them on a glossy setting, and let them dry really well.  Then, spray them with a varnish type fixative, such as Krylon, or Dulcote; but any varnish type clear will do.  I use flat spray, and have great results.  You have seen some of my work, so you judge.  I like.
RIch

[ebtbob]

Good Morning,

       Thankyou all for your imput.   It gives me a lot to investigate.   

Bob

[Chuck Prough]

Testors makes decal paper in clear and white. They also make a kit with a
CD program to make the decals. My locaal hobby shop sells the kit. They are printed using an ink jet printer.

Chuck Prough

[Paul M.]

Hi y'all ,

I'm not sure, but I think a place like Kinko's could probably print your decals. I seem to remember reading that somewhere, but I'm not sure where. I bet they could print decent white and yellow ink,too, for your decals.