Stuck on decals

[Fergmiester]

After months of designing and then finally printing only to find my decals were transparent because of the lack of white underprint I gave up on it.

One of the other members gave me an e-mail adsress for gmcgraphics and I got my first run of decals last week.



I'm happy, I just wished I hadn't put in so much effort in the design process. I also had help from Lupo who did the first design layout.

If your looking for graphic ideas check out clipart.

regards
Fergie

[pike-62]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mike DeHart

I want to start printing out custom decals from my computer but not sure on how to start. Is there a certain disc needed to download to design images etc.? I have seen custom decal starter kits advertised but they seem to be missing something, it just seems to easy and inexpensive. So can any of you pro's out there help me out with some advice and knowhow. I have a laser inkjet printer so i guess that would be my first step. THANK YOU , THANK YOU.
Mike

Hi Mike
I have been doing custom decals for over a year now and I have answered this question many times on other forums. If you are going to get into custom decals you actually are going to get into the graphics industry. What I mean by this is printing the decals is the easy part. Doing the artwork is where the skill comes in. There is no magic program out there to "download" a graphic and have it ready for printing. Most decal people design all of there artwork in a Vector based program such as Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator. This is where the talent if the designer comes in.These programs allow us to draw the image we want as a line drawing and scale it to any size we want with out losing any resolution. There are some decal makers out there who use raster based images (BMP JPG etc...) I have never had any luck using raster images for my decal work as I always wind up with ragged edges. Printing the decals themselves can be something of a challenge, but not impossible. The big decal manufacturers use either offset printing or silkscreening as the method of choice. Smaller guys like me primarily use the Alps printers or printers from other manufacturers based on the Alps technology since these are the only printers that can print white. White is important for a couple of reasons. First is obvious. White lettering. The second is the more important one. the ability for colors to show up on a clear decal film. If you were to print with a color laser printer or an Inkjet printer onto a clear film the printing will show up fine against the backing until you apply it to your model. Once the backing is gone the color you printed will almost dissapear. On trick that people who print with inkjets and lasers have tried over the years with some success is to print the decal onto white decal stock and then print the background of the decal the same color as the surface it will be applied to. This will allow for the colors to show up properly as well as allow for white. The trick here is to get the background color to match the model color perfectly. Hard to do but it can be done as I have seen it done. A little note on Alps printers. There are several for sale at any time on Ebay. I would guess though that 99 out of 100 are defective. If you decide to purchase one there be aware that you will most likely get a non working printer as the seller does not know how to package them properly for shipment or they are just trying to get rid of a non working printer. If you do get one that is non working Alps does have a policy where for a fee it will accept a non working printer and send you a refurbished model. There is more info on their web site. Also for more information on making decals there are 3 yahoo group sites that are worth reading through. RR-decal, Alps, and Alpsdecal. There is a wealth if information here that should help you decide how to procede should you want to try this.

Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com

[Anonymous]

I tried using a cheap testors model car decal program ,you can actually get a grayish white printed on black decal paper.but the paper and the film is way to heavy for application on any quality engines and rolling stock.It is however good for making signs for buildings and buisnesses.Just make sure background color is the same as the paper color you use to print on. If you find that you go elsewhere looking for custom decals EL"S trains listed on nmra web site is a very good source for custom decals,great service,alps printer, very thin decals. I found him to be much more reasonable on price than the bigger decal manf.He has done a few custom runs for me and i have been more than satisfied with the results.

[IRONROOSTER]

The biggest problem, is there is no easy way to print white, unless you have an ALPS printer (no longer made at cheap prices) that can use white ink. Otherwise white is really the absence of printing. Also, unless you have a color laser jet, then all your decals are printed in black, which unfortunately is not too widely used. The problem with white has prevented me from getting into printing my own decals.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

I want to start printing out custom decals from my computer but not sure on how to start. Is there a certain disc needed to download to design images etc.? I have seen custom decal starter kits advertised but they seem to be missing something, it just seems to easy and inexpensive. So can any of you pro's out there help me out with some advice and knowhow. I have a laser inkjet printer so i guess that would be my first step. THANK YOU , THANK YOU.
Mike