Inkjet Transer paper - how successful?

has a large selection. I have used their white and transparent inkjet sheets, and they are pretty good. You'll need some clear acrylic artists' spray to seal the decals.

The usual cavets with inkjets - you can't print white, and you can't print light colours on transparent sheet and put them on a dark background. You have to print on white sheet, with a background colour to match what you are putting them on - it can be difficult to get an exact match. The alternative is an ALPS printer (hard to find).

You could also check out

I have not used this product but ask how can you print white ?? The answer is you can't ... so the product is immediately restricted as nearly all (NSW) goods stock uses white lettering. You can of course print black and place it on white background as the later bogie stock had a square "box" painted white with black lettering. I also think that using any colours will be transparent especially using yellow which goes onto dark coloured (NSW) passenger cars. I looked at getting this product several years ago & found there was more restrictions than there were benefits.

lol

as mentioned, being a designer it is always a giggle when a client suggests adding a bit of white in

Steve

Steve Better still is an ALPS printer. Brunel Models in Melbourne has one and does custom transfers including white. Probably best getting the job done properly.

Doubtless that you would be able to do a better job of designing suitable graphics than most of us :-)

Kevin Martin

I have one myself - anyone wanting part sheets printed can send me their art-work

- it takes forever to fill a full sheet when you build one wagon at a time!

Greg.P. New Zealand!

An alternative, if you have paint to match the background, is to print the decal on a larger piece of white sheet, and touch in around the image or letters with the background paint.

To avoid wasting decal sheet, print a test copy on plain paper, cut a piece of decal sheet slightly larger, attach it over the plain paper print with sticky tape and print again in the same location. With my Epson, printing at maximum resolution on Ink Jet Transparency setting gives the best results - good colour rendition and not too much ink.

Is ALPS a Dye Sub printer?

Just a bit confuddled about this one

Steve

The ALPS printer uses dry resin ink & is applied in the same way that the old dot matrix printers worked only it uses CMYK printing (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) which prints by feeding & then retracting the paper for each change of colour. It is also capable of printing white / silver / gold as well all on the one sheet if you setup the artwork correctly..

No idea, all I know is that they can print white.

Kevin

Interesting timing! I printed some decals this morning, with an Epson stylus C63 onto Walthers decal paper 934-705821, as an experiment which appears to have worked.

Cheers Allan Lees

It's a dot matrix printer using inked tapes.

You can print with inkjet or laser on almost anything (including coloured decal sheet, e.g. silver) if you spray it first with clear matt acrylic. It's a case of trial and error. Seal again afterwards with matt or gloss to protect the ink or toner. I make fine black lining this way with an HP 5L printer.

very interesting ..... I have been wondering how to do lining work convincingly and this may just be the answer...... must look into it more

thanks

Steve

Steve

I have another brainstorm for you.

There is a product I used when I was doing PC board layouts called "Letraset" which is a dry transfer type product, preprinted on sheets. The lettering sheets are available in different fonts including Old English. I'll have to look around and see what's available these days. Will let you know.

Dave

Thanks Dave, but it's OK - I have used Letraset for many years and used to use it on my scratchbuilt open wagons. It is a good product though limited these days for the types of things I want to do. Appreciate the though and offer though, very much mate.

Steve

Steve, If you look at the rr-decals group on yahoo there should be a photo of a Blue Circle Cement road tanker I decalled a while ago. I used supercal decal paper, but I believe ther may be better decal papers out there now. Can't print white, but as the tanker is white that's not a problem. The white infill in the fleet number on the prime mover was painted & then a blue decal overlaid, likewise for the Blue Circle with the Australian outline. The decals are a bit thick, but that may have been me going overboard with a protective clear, and they did smudge a wee bit, but good enough for me.

Social Secretary just bought an Epson C65 which has supposedly (more) water resistant inks, I have not tried it yet, but when I spilt some water on a photo I printed on this printer it did not seem to smudge as much.

Hope this is of some use to you.

Cheers Alex...

very nice work Alex

My printers are capable of printing stunning hi-res images so that's no problem..... I want to make the "right" choice regarding decal paper. Like you I don't want it to be too thick etc. It looks like a trip to the city for further info

:)

thanks

Steve

There's a _choice_ of pritable decal paper???? What? Where? Who? =8^O

Regards, Greg.P.