Making custom decals

[kasskaboose]

In moving to our new house, some decal sheets got lost, so I thought to make custom ones. According to what some wrote earlier (here and elsewhere), below is the plan:

1. Get decal paper from Micro mark #82277.

https://www.micromark.com/White-Decal-Paper-Ink-Jet-Printer?quantity-pack=2

2. Find signs from Google images and put into MSWord.

3. Visit Office Depot.  Customers can  use their laser printer for $0.71 a sheet.  This way, I don't have to use a sealer and waste the ink for my inkjet printer.

4. Cut out the sticker and soak in water (about 10-15 sec) before gently applying to model.

Does that make sense?  Anything I'm missing.  It seems this is much easier than I thought!

Cheers!

[BigDaddy]

You realize the white decal gives you a white background, but not white letters?

Do you not need a sealer with laser printers? 

My experience with Inkjet is the colors were not very opaque.

[MisterBeasley]

No, you can't print white.

For signs, I paint a white rectangle the size of the sign on the building.  I use craft paint because I want a weathered look.  Then I apply the decal to the white rectangle and seal it.  I modify the original image by adding a dark border before printing.

Decal paper is expensive, so I usually do a batch of decals at once, packed at the top of the page.  Then I use a paper cutter to cut the paper right below them and re-use the rest of the sheet in my printer.  Do a test print on plain paper first, too.

[NittanyLion]

Will Office Depot even let someone feed their own paper into the printer? 

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

Wait. The paper has to match the printer. You need laser paper for a laser printer. Ink jet paper is for an ink jet printer.

You are correct that you don't have to seal the paper but that is only if you use laser paper with a laser printer. If you use ink jet paper with a laser printer you will probably still have to seal it.

My experience with printing at a store was that the first time I printed decals there it was ok but when I went back the second time several months later they would not let me, saying that the decal paper jams the machine and they don't like that. It was several years ago and I don't remember if it was Office Depot or Staples. Anyway I just bought my own laser printer. It was totally worth if because I print a lot of things for my business and while the toner costs more than ink jet ink the toner lasts 10 times longer.

Anyway good luck. I hope they turn out good. Print some proofs first before you use your decal paper.

[RR_Mel]

I don’t know whether there is a printing service that can print white in your locality but Blueprint Services here in Bakersfield has wide format printers that will print white.

 

Before I got my Alps MD1000 printer I had several sheets of decals printed there for $1.50 per sheet with me supplying the decal paper.  They can print from a bunch of different file formats.  I just put my file on a thumb drive and it was quick and easy.

 

The quality is excellent, better than what you can buy from the hobby decal outfits.

 

It was much cheaper for me to print decals at Blueprint Services than it was buying an used Alps printer and stocking the Alps printing ribbons but I like the advantage of printing a couple of decals quickly when I need them.  Another reason for my Alps is it’s easy to reprint because of a Mel screwup without having to drive back downtown.

 

 

EDIT:

 

I seal all of my decals with three coats of Testors 9200 Decal Bonder then let them dry over night.  A single coat will seal the decals but I like a little more thickness to work with.  Solvaset works to pull then down snug around details even with four coats.

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[hornblower]

BigDaddy

You realize the white decal gives you a white background, but not white letters?

If you design your decal with a colored background surrounding your white lettering, white background decal paper will indeed produce (not print) white lettering on a colored background.  The trick is getting the colored background to match the paint on the model. Depending on the paint color, this can take a bit of trial and error. Black is pretty easy to match.  You can also make the decal background large enough to cover a whole panel on the model. This makes it easier to hide the decal seams and can also disguise any decal background/model paint mismatch as a repaired panel. Another approach is to not try to match the model paint but to make the decal look like a separate sign painted onto the model.

The resulting white lettering will be somewhat translucent and some of the model paint color will show through.  This results in a faded lettering look if the decal is simply applied to the model.  If you want the white lettering to pop as though freshly painted, paint a patch of white slightly smaller than the decal perimeter before appying the decal.  You can achieve a similar result by applying a patch of white decal film prior to the final decal.  

I have made numerous white letter decals using the above methods with quite satisfying results.  Admittedly, most of the decals I have made have been white lettering on black backgrounds applied to models painted black.  However, I stripped, repainted and decaled a number of various old Blue Box bay window cabooses to create the small fleet of Southern Pacific bay window cabooses I needed for my layout.  It took a few tries, but I was eventually able to create a near perfect decal background color match to the paint color on the models.  A little weathering and any remaining color match disappeared.

[doctorwayne]

I wanted white lettering on a black background, so had the black background printed on Walthers clear decal paper, leaving the lettering and striping areas clear.  Once cut from the sheet, it was applied to a pre-painted white strip on the structure...

Wayne