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Re: Making decals

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 2:49 pm
by Mike_R
There are sheets made for doing this. I've tried one in the past but was a bit to thick.
Fox Transfers sell blank sheets but I think only suitable for Laser printers (they are the best for this work anyway as they heat seal the toner).
I have a pack of Lazertran Inkjet paper that I haven't tried yet. The instructions say that no sealer is needed. This one is white, although if over coated with solvent finish will dry clear.
I bought it from here http://www.londongraphics.co.uk/product ... sheets-A4) The London Graphic Centre.

I have also clear and white sheets from Bel Inc. in the US. Once again haven't got around to using them (I've had them since 2004 so the post mark says!!) I had planned to make up sets for a fictional commuter line, one day! These do need a sealing coat before applying.
http://www.beldecals.com/model_decals.htmll
These are advertised for model use. Min order is 10 sheets with $30 shipping to here so at least $40 plus duty, but they do make 17" x 11" sheets for those larger models. If going to Miami they are based there.

As I said a laser printer is best (there are different sheets for them), note that includes photocopiers. They normally do not need over coating.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:09 pm
by Mike_R
Thanks for that link.
I see they do dry transfer paper, I do like that for flat surfaces, would be good for cabside and number board numbers, I have plenty of UP locos that have the wrong numbers from UP's big renumbering project several years ago. UP also has the advantage that loco numbers etc, are not done in white.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2014 11:28 am
by Mikehughes
I've just purchased some Crafty decal paper. I've read the instructions and also taken note of what's been written here but would like some confirmation and or further suggestions.

I want to produce some decals to put on to one or more box cars.

The instructions say that you should print (I'm using an ink jet) in the best quality possible. I have no problem with that part.

Then you should spray with vaenish. Should this be matt or gloss? One coat or 2,3 or 4 thin coats, leaving minimum of 30 minutes between coats? Then leave for at least 24 hours to set.

Application. I've very limited experience of applying decals but I remember one instruction that you should spray with a gloss varnish before applying the decal to get a better surface for the decal. Anyone want to comment on this

When I've applied the decals, removed excess water and let it dry I want to add matt varnish afterwards. As the cars may be handled fairly frequently (they are to go to various layouts / shows, etc) would you put more than one coat on?

As a quick aside. I am only too well aware what can happen if you try to apply varnish before the decals are fully dried, although if left long enough it does give a very nice slightly weathered look!

Your thoughts please.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 10:33 pm
by Gloriousnse
mikehughes wrote: Then you should spray with vaenish. Should this be matt or gloss? One coat or 2,3 or 4 thin coats, leaving minimum of 30 minutes between coats? Then leave for at least 24 hours to set.
I'm assuming what you have is inkjet waterslide? Varnish finish doesn't matter, it's not the top coat, all you're doing is sealing the printing to the decal paper. If you're matt varnishing later then no problem with it being gloss.

I also varnished after cutting the decals out, to seal the edges of the decal, I found that worked better. (Though it makes it harder to remove the decal from the backing)
Application. I've very limited experience of applying decals but I remember one instruction that you should spray with a gloss varnish before applying the decal to get a better surface for the decal. Anyone want to comment on this
It's a good tip, depends on your base though. For instance sometimes I use car spray paint for the base colour, if i've done that then it's already gloss, no need to add a further gloss coat then.

You'll probably find the resulting decal is both a little thicker and stiffer than you're used to with Microscale etc, I found it's worth doubling up on your printing so you have at least one spare to hand just in case.

Good luck!

Re: Making decals

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:02 pm
by Mikehughes
Thanks for sharing know-how Martyn.

As for doubling up the number of decals, I'm intending to have more than that as I'm expecting to make mistakes and previous experience tells me the fewer backups you have, the more mistakes you make!

It'll be a few weeks before I do all this but I'll post my experiences when I've done it so that we can all share know-how

Re: Making decals - ALPS printers

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2014 3:25 pm
by mec_alf
ednmra wrote:Making Your Own Decals

Years ago there was an ink jet printer called ALPS, which could be used for making decals because it used white ink, as well as black and colours. These are occasionally available second hand, for example on e-Bay.
Martin B
The ALPS printers aren't ink-jet but dye-sublimation ones, using a bank of specialised single-colour cartridges and overlay each colour on the previous one(s). The model 4000, which I have, does not recognise the white cartridge (or the metallic ones) but there's a fix for it: the colours are bar-coded onto the cartridge so by swapping the bar code from one of the other cartridges you can fool the printer, but you need to be sure that you're ONLY using that one colour, otherwise the decal will be a strange hue.

They also appear under the Oki label from time to time.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 12:50 pm
by mec_alf
I've just cobbled up some decals for the Maine Coastal Railroad (please don't ask) using the GIMP software package and a downloaded Railroad Roman font. If I can find a Windows 7 driver for my MD4000 I'm going to dig it out and use it.
If successful I'm going to print out some white letters. If all goes well then I might be able to produce custom decals for people, subject to the vagaries of time/money/urgency etc.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 8:51 am
by mec_alf
I can't locate a suitable driver for the ALPS MD4000, although it is theoretically possible to run old versions of Windows under Windows 10 Professional, but have come across an alternative solution.
Ghost White Toner does white cartridges for various laser printers that replaces the black cartridge, allowing you to print white decals. I'm experimenting at present with the drafting package and plan initially to do the data items - EXL, IL, BLT, CAPY, CU FT. etc and associated numbers - in black and then, once I've got the font height correct, in white.
As they say "watch this space"!

Re: Making decals

Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 9:53 am
by mec_alf
I now have the Ghost White toner cartridge installed and it produces white decals, just like it says it will. I have Excel spreadsheets with Railroad Roman and Railroad Gothic numbers and the Data items; these will allow mixing and matching of car details and reporting numbers.
The decal sheets I'm currently using are Letter (8.5" by 11") rather than A4 and the reporting numbers are randomly-generated ones between 1000 and 100000, with up to 200 different numbers on a sheet (4 blocks of 50 numbers, with each block printed twice).
The next phase will be to master producing coloured reporting marks/numbers and multi-coloured decals such as heralds, since the white areas have to be created on a separate layer from the black; this is where Draftsight comes in useful.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 12:36 pm
by Mike_R
Can you just swap between black and white cartridges? I suppose colour with white will depend on how good the printer repeats the paper position. Keep us up to date, sounds like it might be worth me buying a laser printer. There are building signs as well as railroad stuff I can see would be easier to do if I could print them onto decal sheets.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 2:53 pm
by mec_alf
Mike_R wrote: Sun May 26, 2019 12:36 pm Can you just swap between black and white cartridges? I suppose colour with white will depend on how good the printer repeats the paper position. Keep us up to date, sounds like it might be worth me buying a laser printer. There are building signs as well as railroad stuff I can see would be easier to do if I could print them onto decal sheets.
Mike,

If you're printing decals with both black and white then the two colours have to be on different layers as the white cartridge is fitted in the slot usually occupied by the black one. There is a slight "drift" according to Ghost if you are printing both black and white elements. For colour other than black the problem does not arise.

I'm going to Mech-Models' show/open day on Saturday and will bring my decal sheets with me if anyone wants to see the actual product.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2019 8:16 am
by mec_alf
I now have produced sample sheets of both Railroad Roman and Railroad Gothic data elements for box-cars available on legal (8.5" by 11") decal paper, comprising numbers from 1 to 12 for the month/inch and 00 through 99 for the year/foot plus "CAPY", "LD LMT", "LT WT", "EX W", "W", "IL", "IW", "IH" "CU FT". These scale out to slightly more than 6" tall in H0, and randomly-generated car numbers (2 per car), with 300 numbers on a sheet; these scale out to 9" in H0.

Re: Making decals

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:13 am
by mec_alf
If anyone wants a sample of the decals - either a set of Data elements or 4 sets of car numbers - please send me an SAE, and advise on which set you want. My contact details are in the Directory.