Printing decals

[bbrowniii]

I have a couple of builds that need some non-standard decals. I have thought about buying some decal paper to print my own, but I wonder if I have what I need to do it. I only have a pretty basic HP printer/scanner/copier. Will that do the trick?

Once I print the decals, do I need to treat them in some way to make sure the ink does not run when I dip them in water?

Thanks.

[kaytermarram]

Thats the problem! Ink printers don´t work with water slide decals printed out, because the water ruins the ink. I am not 100 % sure, but read that a thousand times!

Frank

[TRM]

There is some Inkjet Waterslide Decal Paper available out there...transfer paper too. You need to clear coat the decals once printed and dry. I don't have the links at the moment, but I found a couple places, non-modelling specific craft sites, that sell both decal and transfer paper fairly cheap.

Clarity comes down to the quality of the image when printing. A high resolution image at 300 dpi should print out pretty clear.

[alam]

BBrowni,
I see you are in CT (I am in VA). I print my decal on laser jet; as long as sealed with clear coat - should not be issue. Plus, the print is pretty decent. I can print decals for you; I have the paper. Unfortunately, this can be printed black and white only. As long as you send me your stuff on a .docx file (MsWord), I can print it for you on laser jet. I will mail this to you in Connecticut.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO CHARGE AT ALL.
Let me know if it works
-Alam

[John Everett]

I seal my home printed decals with clear acrylic spray from the craft shop and never had a problem.



Ink jet printers work fine, but you will need to paint the surface with white or silver as the home printed graphics are somewhat transparent. The underlying color will be visible and will change the look of the decal.

[Thom]

Boyd,

What do you need done, send me an email or talk to me at the next meeting.

Cheers,
Thom

[bbrowniii]

Apr 9, 2015 10:27:07 GMT -5 alam said:

BBrowni,
I see you are in CT (I am in VA). I print my decal on laser jet; as long as sealed with clear coat - should not be issue. Plus, the print is pretty decent. I can print decals for you; I have the paper. Unfortunately, this can be printed black and white only. As long as you send me your stuff on a .docx file (MsWord), I can print it for you on laser jet. I will mail this to you in Connecticut.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO CHARGE AT ALL.
Let me know if it works
-Alam

Alam,

That is really kind of you. The good thing is, I do have a good friend who is local that can print decals for me (Thom, who also replied to this thread). I'm just more curious about the logistics that are required to do it myself. But thank you very much for the offer. That's really great of you.

Boyd

[bbrowniii]

Apr 9, 2015 12:22:53 GMT -5 Thom said:

Boyd,

What do you need done, send me an email or talk to me at the next meeting.

Cheers,
Thom

Thom

Trust me, you're definitely my back-up plan!

I was just thinking in the "teach a man to fish" mindset and wondered if I could do it with the printer setup I've got.

I'll see you in a week, decal request in hand!

Boyd

[deafpanzer]

Another reason to love this forum... members offering help!

[wing_nut]

Hey Boyd, I like the" teach a man to fish" attitude. And sorry for the long winded post.

Agree with what's been said about the need to seal. I use Testor's decal bonding Spray decanted to go thru the AB. Very thin smooth coat. I've printed color on an inkjet and black on a laser printer with results ranging from good to bad. There are decal papers specific for each type of printer.

Let's take the easiest one 1st. Black text, or image, printed on a laser with clear paper works great. An alternative to that that also works pretty well is dry transfer lettering applied to the decal paper and sealed in the same way.

There's clear and white paper. Printers will not print white, at least not the kind we're talking about. If the image has white in it needs to be printed on white appear or on clear with a white background. The problems with the white paper unless there is a white border around the entire image some delicate trimming may be required. Then when applied there may be a razor thin white edge to touch up. The alterative here is to paint a white background and print on clear paper. I've read where a 2nd decal was made and applied to Tamiya tape to then cut a mask for the white. The decal is printed just the tiniest bit smaller so the white is covered, or the mask can just be trimmed "inside the line" so to speak.

Another thing to consider is opacity. I had a big problem with that many times. It has to do with the type if ink used. I am pretty sure my printer, Canon, uses inks that are dye based and my colors where like stained glass. This will work great for a dio with a cathedral to make the stained glass windows. For a time there was a printer, Epson I think, that was hawking the fact their inks where pigments based and I had always wondered if that would make a difference. Folks in the printing or chemical fields feel free to weigh at this point. With printer prices being what they are these days, and if you have lots of projects that with need special decals, in might be worth it if it does work. I've also wondered if dry transfer letters worded well, what about printing a complex color image as a dry transfers then applying that to the decal paper as described before. Would that be opaque enough?

My thought is though that with the array of AM decals available it will likely be a one off scheme for a special project. We don't think twice about buying piles of resin and brass so why not get them printed so they are right.

[wing_nut]

Sorry one last thought (yeah right)... I have also "thought" about taking my image on a flash drive and a sheet of decal paper to a Staples or place that can print from a color laser to see if that had better opacity.

[bbrowniii]

Wing_nut

Thanks for the great comments, I really appreciate it.

I had kind of arrived at some of the places you suggested in your post. I picked up a sheet of clear decal film, which I plan to run through one of our color printers at work (don't tell the boss). I am hoping it will be of high enough quality to give me good clean decals that are not terribly opaque. Fortunately, most of the decals I want to do are simply black, but I do have a few with color (since I have a whole sheet, I want to fill it with as much as possible, so I'll have decals for several builds on it - a suggestion from dupes which I took to heart).

I had never even thought of the Staples idea. That is actually a pretty good one. If my attempt at fishing fails, maybe I'll buy another clear sheet and go to the fish store, eh? But, hopefully, I'll catch some keepers...

Thanks for all the help. And that is for everyone who chimed in. You guys are the greatest!

[Scott Fraser]

I have produced decals commercially.

There are three elements in a waterslide decal: the paper, the ink and the varnish. The paper comes coated with a water-soluble adhesive.

There are two technologies used. Most aftermarket decals are made with silkscreening, where a stencil is placed very close to the paper and ink is squeezed through the screen onto the paper. Major manufacturers take advantage of the economies of scale offered by offset printing. The difference between printing 500 pages and 5000 sheets is ninety seconds on the button. In offset printing, a light-sensitized metal plate is made for each colour. There are very few printers in the world that are set up to print decals on an offset press.

In each case, the first layer to be printed is white, the bleed, which is necessary for more translucent pigments to maintain their opacity. Then the other colours are printed, lightest to darkest. White shapes get a second layer of ink.

Once the ink has been laid down, a thicker coat of varnish is printed over the decals. This can simply cover the whole sheet or be applied around individual items, which requires another plate be made. If you're printing your own on raw decal paper, get some artist's medium and spray a heavy undercoat and then an overcoat. Cross your fingers that the decal won't disintegrate when it comes off the paper.  

Decal paper expands and contracts with changes in temperature and humidity. Lacquer-based inks normally take 12 hours to cure and if the paper shrinks it will throw off the register of subsequent colours. This is why the dots in roundels are often provided separately. If you are thinking of running paper through a printer more than once, this is something to keep in mind.

My own solution is to print the outline of the letter or number on white decal paper using a color laser printer. Then I paint the background in whatever colour the tank is, or if they are big enough I slice around the outline carefully with a new blade and stick them on the model. It's surprising what one can achieve with a good #0000 brush.

Regards
Scott Fraser

[bbrowniii]

Scott

Good info. Thanks a lot.

Some food for thought there for sure.

[dupes]

Lots of good info from both of these guys! Let me know if you try the Staples route...interested to see if the color density is heavier with a color laser versus my inkjet stuff.

Am attempting my second run of markings on white-backed paper to see if they're more opaque (I hope so).