I've found lols of UTube vids about creating custom decals using a PC app and printer. But I don't know is if it's possible to create simple white decals? I am working on some Canadian grain elevators and I want to letter them for my fictional villages. The lettering needs to be simple white, no outline, no background.
Advice?Thx. D,
The early Alps printers would print white. I have an Alps MD1000 and it does a bang up job printing white on decal paper. The ink is actually on a ribbon similar to the old IBM selectric typewriters. They also make silver & gold ribbons.There are a couple of problems with the older Alps Printers as Alps no longer provides support. The newest driver is for Windows XP and the printers require a parallel printer port.Decal printed on my Alps.Gold ribbon.Silver ribbon.If you buy an older Alps make sure the print head is working perfect and tell the shipper to remove all ink ribbons from the printer before shipping. The ribbons will come loose and damage the interal mechanics of the printer.
Edit:The ribbon ink cartridges have a barcode on them so the printer can find the correct cartridge. The Alps is a super smart mechanical machine and sounds like a threshing machine but works great.
Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Turned 84 in July, aging is definitely not for wimps.
da1The lettering needs to be simple white, no outline, no background.
Look into Woodland Scenics alphabet dry transfer lettering. In some ways better than a decal since you can apply it over a matte finish with no decal film.
https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/DecalLetters
I used them to apply this Safety First lettering on my turntable.
Q2_on_TT3 by Edmund, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
I used dry transfers from Letraset to letter this Walthers grain elevator (the add-on is a scratchbuild)...
...another Walthers kit, with Letraset...
As best as I can remember, the signage areas on this business were masked-off and airbrushed white, then lettered using various sizes of black Letraset (the only colour I had on-hand at that time) along with cut-to-width masking tape for the white borders.The adjacent areas near the signage where also masked-off then the entire areas of the signage were airbrushed black....
As soon as the black paint (Pollyscale) was dry-to-the-touch, I removed all of the masking tape, then used small pieces of masking tape to remove the black Letraset, revealing the white lettering.
This sign area was painted white, then lettered with Letraset (don't recall if it was white or black...could have been almost any colour, as it was available in many colours). The sign area was airbrushed black, then the Letraset remove using masking tape, revealing the lettering...
For this one, I got some help from my brother. I supplied him with some Walthers blank decal paper, and he used his vector program to create the lettering as blank areas, with the remainder of the signage area in black. To create the lettering and border trim, I simply masked-off the areas of the structure where the signage was going to be applied, and airbrushed it white.Because of the length of the structure, the decal for the main sign was in two pieces, while the one on the public entrance was a one-piece decal.
Here's the results...
For your grain elevators, you could use a similar process (if you can create the lettering, of course, as blank areas), then colour the surrounding portion of the decal the same colour as your elevator.As far as I'm aware, Letraset was bought-out, but there's some info HERE on Image Transfers Inc.
Walthers does have blank decal paper available.
Wayne
Mel, Ed, Wayne.
Thank you for your replies. The work you shared is inspiring, for sure.
I think for my financial and effort budgets the WLS dry transfer letters offers the best solution.
Thx again for all your replies.D
For those who are looking for another option - There is a HP laser printer that can have a white toner cartridge installed, to print in color/white decals, or swap in a black toner cartridge to print color/black decals.
MicroMark sells the white toner cartridges.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Those are the Ghost cartidges from Germany, which are for only certain HP lasers. They haven't been in the Micro-Mark catalog for a long time, as they are quite expensive.
If you try to use an ink jet printer the ink is water soluble and will run if you put it in water. Any work needs to be sealed with a non water soluble clear coat.
Am I missing something? They make white decal paper. Just print the surrounding color. If all you want is white lettering, just use the same background color that will be on the structure you want the white lettering. Then cut the decal as close to the lettering as you can. The thin border won't be noticeable at all. I've used this method as well as white dry transfers. I prefer the decals over the dry transfers.
I use the Paint program that comes with Windows to do my lettering. Lots of fonts and sizes to choose from. You select both the color of the lettering and the background. They give you about 20 stock colors but you can also customize the colors to get something very close to the background color on your structure. It takes a little trial and error to get a good match. I'll print off a dozen or so paint chips to see which one is the closest match to the background color I want to apply the white lettering. If you want white on black, that's easy.
azrail Those are the Ghost cartidges from Germany, which are for only certain HP lasers. They haven't been in the Micro-Mark catalog for a long time, as they are quite expensive.
While they are no longer in the catalog that gets mailed, they are still listed on Micromark's website. They note that they now also fit a list of 9 Canon laser printers, and 6 HP laser printers. https://www.micromark.com/Ghost-White-Toner-for-HP-M254dw-Printer
Yes, they are very pricy, but laser toner or inkjet cartridges any color are pretty expensive if you think about it.
But for those who are doing custom logo's, graphics that are not letters/numbers only, etc.... Ghost toner cartridges are an option.
But any custom decals in white will get pricy - ALPS, or custom runs via decal makers all include a huge upfront expense, where some people may already have a compatable laser printer. Then, if they already have the right laser printer, all they need is the cartridge.
Not trying to push this option as better, just showing it is an option.
John-NYBW Am I missing something? They make white decal paper. Just print the surrounding color. If all you want is white lettering, just use the same background color that will be on the structure you want the white lettering. Then cut the decal as close to the lettering as you can. The thin border won't be noticeable at all. I've used this method as well as white dry transfers.
Am I missing something? They make white decal paper. Just print the surrounding color. If all you want is white lettering, just use the same background color that will be on the structure you want the white lettering. Then cut the decal as close to the lettering as you can. The thin border won't be noticeable at all. I've used this method as well as white dry transfers.
I've done something similar a number of times, printing on plain paper as well as labels. If your X-acto skills are good, you can get very decent results.
I'll have to try it on decal paper next. Thanks for the tip.
Having spent a career in graphic arts, I have pretty good dry transfer skills. But I only use if for a few letters, numbers or a word or two at the most. IMHO, alignment starts to get a bit difficult after that, especially with smaller type.
www.bostontype.com