Decal Making

No I haven't but it looks to be similar to the Testors decal making kit.

Why not just buy some blank inkjet decal paper from Bare Metal Foil or from Micormark, some clear spray and just go at it? That'll probably be cheaper in the end. Those types of kits usually include some crappy graphic editor that you don't need anyway. Most computers alredy have utilities you can use to design the artwork. Or if you want to get technical pick up an older version of Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator. They'll have more graphic power than you'll ever need for decal design.

Peteski

Apart from Alps printers (which I cannot find in shops yet here in Tokyo, have to call the company offices) which other types of printers would be able to produce white?

ALPS MD series printers are the only ones I know of that will print white, and the line has been discontinued in the US, though I've heard that they are now produced under the Okidata brand overseas. At least they were, once.

You can also find ALPS printers on E-Bay.

I have tried decal paper from Walthers, Micromark, and several others lately. All seem to work well these days.

I tried some of the first "inkjet" decal papers and was not satisified. However, friends had tried some recent stuff and influenced me to try again. It now works fine. I prefer the Micromark stuff. It softens with decal solvent a little better than some of the others.

I overcoat with Testors clears (either gloss or dull, depending on the final appearance I desire. I do two coats, the first misted on lightly (else the ink CAN run at this point). When that is dry I put on a heavier coat.

There is a microscale product that others have used that ordinarily is for protecting old, cracked decals, but they say it also protects inkjet decals fine.

OKI MD seriesis long discontinued. ALPS MD printers were also sold under Citizen brand, maybe easier to find second-hand in Japan?

[snip]

Since decal paper comes in white as well as clear, does that take care of the need to print white? Will just any ink jet printer now do the job?

I have used white decal paper in the past but the sort I got was for laser printers/copiers not ink jet printers.

I was making faceplate decals for an electronic device I invented so a white background with black graphics/lettering was ideal for me. For coloured decals I could have taken the sheets to a local print house and had colour photocopies made using the decal sheets instead of regular paper.

Once the decals were applied I sprayed them with a high gloss clear Krylon product to protect them.

As a rule, yes. The only thing is that you have to cut off all white that is not a part of the decal.

in article snipped-for-privacy@news.supernews.com, willshak at snipped-for-privacy@00hvc.rr.com wrote on 2/21/08 5:07 PM:

And that is the big hang-up. It's nearly impossible to cut all extraneous white away in anything but a very simple shape. The white is not just necessary for white areas of the graphic. Since the inkjet printer inks are somewhat transparent, almost any printed color will change when the decal is applied to a painted surface, and lighter colors will simply disappear.

I'd think the white in the thickness of the decal would show too...particularly against a darkly painted background.

Well Gernot, this is your lucky day! Since you live in Japan, Alps still sells the MD-5500 to consumers there. Actually if you were to buy some extras and sold them on US eBay, you could make some money and some lucky buyers very happy! Alps Japan is also still carrying the supply of ink ribbons at very reasonable prices.

Here is the info:

I highly recommend that you get one of these (and stock up on supplies) while they're still available. You just can't beat Alps MD printers for making one-off decals in any color you want (including metallic silver and gold)! Their output is also much crisper and sharper than any other consumer printer's.

I own MD-5000 and it is unbeatable for making decals!

Peteski

on 2/21/2008 11:49 PM Pip Moss said the following:

I have to disagree with you there. If that were so, all lighter colors would disappear when printing a photograph on white paper, and you know that that doesn't happen.

The problem is now that you have to cut the decal exactly around the white letter or object, so that the white will not obscure the non- white paint you are laying it over.

What I have done occasionally is to create the decal on a selected background color as close as possible to what I will be painting the model. Then one does not need to be as exact on the cutout.

This technique works very well over common colors such as black.

He meant that's what'll happen if you DON'T use white decal film. Clear decal film + transparent inks + non-white model = wrong colors.

If you printed a photograph on olive drab paper, you know it's not going to come out looking right.

if you used white decal paper, you wouldn't need white ink. of course, then you might need to print transparency

Hmmm..... this is getting complicated, but.... a double layer, the bottom solid white, and the top multicolored on transparent? i only think of it, because i've seen in articles where folks have done similar with kit decals that were too transparent, so apparently the thickness isn't completely a problem. I can't imagine trying to get them to register, though.

All depends on the color you're applying them on top of. F-1 Specialties sells "extra-white" decal film, or white under-decals for F-1 kits because a lot of the time the white in kit decals isn't opaque enough. That may work fine for cars, but for aircraft I'd think the thickness would still show white beneath the color and you'd need to wash the edges or something.

I seem to recall instances of decals where a white underlay stops short of the edge, and then the color is carried out to the edge of the clear carrier film. Took me a few years to realize just why you don't want to trim that clear carrier off - Aeromaster has decal printing down to a fine art in this respect, IMO. Theirs are the absolute best in the biz.

Yellow presents a similar problem, and I've also heard the the color that really tasks a printer is orange - most printers print orange as a matrix of yellow and red, or yellow and "orange-ish". The dot pitch of the printer comes into play in just "how orange" the final matrix of color appears, and any "newsprint" appearance.

I just did a search for the MD-5500 and near as I can tell, they are going for BIG BUCKS. One went for 1000 Euros and the other for $2125. Unfortunately, there are no dates that I could find for these sales. But if this is any indication, this is waaaaay too rich for me.

Dr Spiff

on 2/22/2008 12:46 PM Wayne C. Morris said the following:

We were talking about decals on white decal paper. He didn't mention clear decal paper in his response. Perhaps you have an insight into what he meant, but did not say. The lighter colors on white decal paper will not be transparent. I don't know about olive drab paper, since I have never printed photos on that color paper. I don't think they make olive drab decal paper anyway, but I could be wrong.