And we're off.............

First I think a brief explanation of how mass produced decals are made might be helpful in understanding the limitations that come with making your own decals. Several companies make ‘water-slide’ decals; they typically are pad printed onto clear decal paper stock. The inks used come in many colors including white and metallic colors such as silver and gold. Because the inks are water based they need a sealant to protect them. This typically is clear polyurethane which is applied over the ink. They apply the sealant using a screen pad which only applies sealant to an area slightly larger than the design, this saves money.

Unfortunately, making your own decals using an inkjet printer has some limitations which you should be aware of. First, the majority of inkjet printers will not print the color white. Those that do are very expensive; printers use the white background of the paper as white color in the design. Second, all but the most expensive printers will not print metallic colors such as gold or silver.

I’ll discuss some other limitations concerning sealing the decals later, right now let me show you how I got started.

I purchased the Testors Custom Decal System (704-9198) and an extra package of white decal paper (704-9202). Read the instructions and install the software and your almost on your way.   

SUPPLIES.......

When you become prolific at making decals, (and you will!) you’ll soon find yourself running out of supplies like decal bonder spray and decal paper. I have never tried any other brand of decal paper than Testors, so if anyone has, please feel free to comment.

 There has been some talk on various forums about using a gloss finish spray such as Testors or Floquil as a decal bonder, all I can say about this is that I have tried them and they do not work.  The spray left the surface of the decals sticky even after soaking them in water. And when attempting to slide the decals on to the surface they stuck to anything that touched the face of the decal, (fingers, paint brush, etc) usually tearing and ruining the decal. My advice is not to use anything but the following as a decal bonder.

Using the decal bonder that comes with the kit works fine however, I’ve also used the above.

The one on the left is Last Step Decal Bonding Spray made by Super Cal unfortunately; this company no longer makes it, so if you find a clear Polyurethane spray (like the one on the right) it will work.  The obvious advantage in using the large can is cost. 

A FEW OBSERVATIONS.......

After printing the decal sheet I tape the sheet down to a cardboard box using double sided tape, (do not cover the coated side with tape, you will remove the decal coating). The box keeps me from handling the sheet after spraying on the bonder. Apply the bonder spray using a couple of light coats, (usually up/down and side to side) then set aside to dry for about an hour. After drying I usually repeat the above steps and wait for them to dry again. Then you can remove the sheet from the box and use the decals.

Sometimes I find that I don’t have enough designs to fill up an entire sheet or perhaps I’ve got some designs for clear paper and some for white paper.  Being a somewhat impatient person I don’t want to wait until I have enough designs to fill an entire sheet so I’ll let you in on a trick that works for me. I go ahead and print out the partial sheet of designs, I make sure what designs I do have are clustered at the top of the sheet, (remember about maximizing the design space on the sheet?). Once I have printed the designs I trim off the designs square to the rest of the sheet, (I haven’t sprayed them with the bonder at this point)

Now I put the partial sheets of decal paper with no designs someplace safe, (like back in the package or in a zip lock bag). It’s important that you don’t spray the decal bonder on the unused sheets or you won’t be able to reuse them.

The partial sheets with designs can now be sprayed with bonder and used like normal.

Now let’s say that later I’ve got a partial sheet of designs I want to print again, well rather than using a full sheet I use the ruler on the design screen to determine if I have a partial sheet large enough to print them on. Sending a partial sheet through the printer by itself won’t work. You’ll need to print a calibration sheet.

From the decal maker software, under the File menu is the ‘Calibrate Printer’ selection. Select the paper bin setting you wish to use and then click ‘Print Calibration Page’, (button on lower left). This will print a page which shows you how the decal sheet is oriented with respect to an 8 ½” x 11” sheet of paper. Ignore the text information printed on the Calibration sheet; we’re only interested in the area inside the lines. Now with this Calibration sheet you can use double sided tape to tape your partial decal sheet to the Calibration sheet being careful to align it inside the lines on the sheet approximately where the designs will print, (do not cover the coated side with tape, you will remove the decal coating). Now you can send the combined sheets through the printer. Separate the sheets, remove the tape, apply bonder and you’re good to go!

I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have, I may not have all the answers!!

You are doing some things the hard way.

Instead of spending all your time with calibration, there is a much simpler method.

Take your partial design, and print it on a normal piece of paper for the printer.  Cut out a section of decal paper with a little extra.  Use scotch tape to tape the decal paper to the piece of paper you printed on, with the tape only covering an overlap area, and the decal paper covering the image on the paper.

Now reload that piece of paper in the printer and PRINT IT AGAIN.  Now spray the decal with your fixative, then cut the tape off the decal.

I've done this quite a few times and it works.

Also, to get a color with no ink - make a stencil and prepaint the area for the decal with that color.  In my case, I needed a two color decal - white and black.  Good news was the background was white anyway.

Finally, add a decal setting solution as you apply the decal.  And dab it dry, not wipe it dry.

Wish I could say "that's never happened before"

Meaning "doing things the hard way" LOL

Your way sounds a bit easier, but I've had nothing but problems putting tape on the design, (coated) side, the tape wants to lift the coating off when you remove it. The double sided transparent tape on the back side works every time I've used it.

Using the setting solution is a must, thanks for reminding me of that!

I have just started to use "reverse printing" meaning white on black or what ever color, so I haven't much commentary on that yet.

I'm glad to see that others are creating decals, there is a lack of chat about it. Tips and tricks are always appreciated.

Well, there is a reference to it in my article

But while it (the article) is accepted by MRH, it (along with the companion article) is yet to be scheduled, and I am working on article #3 in the series.  Article #3 is a custom car interior from scratch.  It is coming along, but I have to keep trying ways, then back up and retry, until each thing is right.  The bar took 4 tries, and is still too short for a perfect bar.  (But, if I correct the height, I cause a different problem....)

As for tape, that's why you cut the taped area of the decal free from the rest of the decal.  No lifting of tape, no separation of tape from the film, cut it away.

Also, it is imperative that the tape "lead" the image thru the printer.  This way you only use 1 small piece of tape.

As for white on black, I pre painted the base white, then put a black decal over it.  Then I didn't have to buy the "expensive" printer that can print white.  Same could probably be done for metallic colors, but I haven't had occasion to try it.

My current project involves making HO scale grained wood parts by printing scale grain on cardstock.  It looks really good.  Tried a metallic color this way, and it did not work.  Ended up getting some bare metal foil instead.

Printer

Being that most decals use to be printed on a ALPS, what is out there today that can be used, for someone wanting to do their own decals at home.  Does a printer that say has 7 ink colors be the best bet?

No spraying to "fix" needed with

I have used this product with great success. Evans Designs sells decal paper for inkjet printers. Click here to go directly to the web site. I have made custom decals for many different applications.

One of the best features is that using lighter fluid to help adhere the decal. All of the above decals on the buildings and the ones that follow were printed on this product.

Using canola oil will make the make the white of the paper transparent which is really cool.

The trailer on the right is yellow. Notice how the sign's background is the same color. Canola oil!

They have some videos explaining the process on their web site.

Print, let dry 20 minutes or so and apply using lighter fluid to bond. Done!

Testors Custom Decal System

I was in my local HS today and noticed the testors decal system. Only 12.00. I figured, why not try it. I has some decal paper, a can of decal bonder and software. How can u go wrong? Well, after installing the software and running it, It states that you must UPgrade the software to the 'Standard version' for another 12 bucks if you want to use your own photo's or artwork. WHAT!!! You can't import your own designs. Wow! Totally useless.

2slim -- The photo of the decal system you are showing is different than mine. The box appears twice as wide. Did u get the standard software with your kit, and approx what was the cost. I think I got dupped by a mini version that is pretty much crap...

PS- whats your first name slim?

Randy

Randy

Here is the kit I purchased from my LHS a number of years ago. It came with one (1) sheet of decal paper a CD with the software, (Testors standard as it turns out), and a can of the "last step" bonder. Super Cal no longer offers the kit, and they no longer offer the "last step" bonder. You can purchase decal paper from them, but it 's more convenient to buy the Testors brand at the LHS. I can't remember what I paid for the kit I got. It kind of sucks that Testors wants you to upgrade to be able to use your own designs. I've heard that you can use a computer drawing program to create and print the designs, wish I had better info to advise you with. FWIW the Testors standard upgrade is a pretty idiot proof system, (speaking as a confirmed idiot 8^) Perhaps others can provide better advice.

Todd

Thanks Slim

I kind of figured that you had the standard version of the software. I'm sure you wouldn't have been too pleased with the 'shell of a program' version supplied with my kit.  Even the worst of demo software shows all the options and bells, even though they are not enabled. This software has nothing.  So, enough of that. Needless to say I am pretty disappointed in this particular kit. (taking deep breath now ...)

I'm curious what others use for software. I guess pretty well any image software will work. I just thought a decal program would have all of the bells and whistles relating to small image scaling etc. all set up.

Randy

Custom Made Decals

I have to agree with Bob Langer. The decal paper you get from Evans Designs is by far the best that I have used up till now. I have tried almost every different manufacturers paper both clear and white with absolutely no success. I have tried all different types of over spray and had basically the same results with all of them, the ink runs, the decal cracks or won't stay on the surface you apply it to and many more problems. I just recently got 5 sheets from Evans Designs and the very first one I did came out perfect. You will see the results on the next building I post pictures of, it is the one I got 92 AP Merit points on. I do have one more decal system I am going to try only because I had already bought it before I discovered Evans Design decal paper. It is "Papilio Aqua Slide Paper" it comes in both clear & white. It does require an over spray called "Decal Film Clear Flexible Fixative". They  also recommend you use their decal mounting fluid. I bought all of these items as a sample pack. The system also comes with a foam sponge and extra spray nozzles.

Richard

What Software?

I personally got interested in making my own decals, so I ordered some sheets of decal paper off of eBay for about $3.50 each, one clear and one white. I opened a plain old Word document on my Windows based computer, and used the "Insert Image" function to put my own images on the page, where I could adjust the size and position of it just by pulling on it with the mouse. Then I put the paper in the printer, a simple Canon ink jet with 3 colors and black, and printed. Voila! Decals!

I got the images I wanted from Google, I simply put in the name of the company I wanted in the Google search engine and then once it showed it's findings page, I chose "Images", and got hundreds. I wanted to do a Suburban Propane plant in N scale, so I Googled Suburban Propane and then images and wow! what era do you want? what size? for what item? all of them where there. so I selected the ones I wanted and then inserted them into the Word document, and printed them off. Now I suppose if I wanted something completely custom, I could use Word Art in MS Office that works with MS Word. It will let you use any font, bend it around into any shape, make it any color, very useful tool. Fun to play with too.

I use MicroScale Decal Film to top coat my decals, you can brush it on, it's very thin an takes a few coats. But beware if you work the decal too much you can rub through it and smear the decal, which makes it look faded or weathered actually. I wish it worked better, but it does work and is easy to use, and washes up in rubbing alcohol. Don't try to clean your brush in water, it won't work. Not on the first washing anyway.

As far reusing the page after having printed on it, I save the word document that I made of that page, so all of the existing images on that page keeps my place on what areas of the acutal decal paper have not been printed on. Then I just tape over the holes left from cutting the old decals out and run it through the printer. I cut the decals out closely after fixing them with a razor knife, not destroying the edge of the decal paper. This allows me to keep feeding it back in over and over with the tape over the old holes so it won't hang in the printer.

I've found that using my own homemade decals works better than a lot of store bought decals. many of them are old, and tear if you look at them wrong! so thin and delicate that I just could not work with them, destroyed them in an instant before I got them floated into place. That is very discouraging when you pay a lot for a set of decals and your project depends on them. With printing your own, if you mess them up, make more! Gotta love it!

Now I'm not claiming to be an expert by any means, I've only made up a hand full of decals and had some trail and error, but I can say that I have successfully made decals with my method and been very happy with the results. and I only have less than $10 invested in all of it!

Which software?

Well, for a variety of reasons I have Photoshop. (Been using Photoshop since version 2 in 1994, currently running CS5).  So I can pull in images, size them manipulate them etc.  I can do pixel level repair on them.  I can scan things in and manipulate them.  Back in the 1990s, to print color image paper, there was a fixative they recommended to spray over the color image.  I bought a can.  I use that for my decals, and not for the color paper anymore.  At the current rate of use, It will last me for years yet.

My new favorite trick is to simulate wood grain in interiors of passenger cars.  First, find a photo of the wood type you want, preferably next to a ruler or tape measure.  Then, using photoshop, size the image up to "full size".  Now size it down to 1/87 for HO.  Now you have an image in scale.  Copy and paste the matching grain ends and you can extend it out.  For some zebrawood, I found a cabinet door photo on the internet. It was about 6 foot high.  With that I can make whole pages of grain to cut out and use.  You can also print the grain on both sides of card stock before cutting it out for use.  I built a whole magazine table from just card stock that way, got a few more tables and table tops to finish up.  The drop down desk from the wall is fine. And the wooden bar looks great.

And for the coaches I am working now, even more fun.  The end walls had photo murals of sceneary of one destination in the real cars.  So, I have found some similar photos, and sized them for the end walls, print them on paper and rubber cement them to the end walls.

Great Ideas Mycroft

Some great ideas Mycroft! I've got a version of Gimp2 on my PC that I recently downloaded, another photo editing program that was free to download and seems to be pretty well equipped. But the learning curve on photo editing software packages is somewhat steep to me. I've learned to clone out bad spots and alter the colors and such, but as far as pasting pieces of pictures of woodgrain together I wouldn't know where to begin! I also read an article on making backdrop photos from real photos, by stretching them and making them into layers, still way over my head right now. But for the purpose of making decals, I can see how regular photos of anything from curtains on windows and paneling on walls and store fronts could make some great decals, anything you can take a picture of, or find a picture of, you can miniaturize and put into or onto your model. You may even be able to do some rail fanning and take pictures of a box car, and make decals of the car sides to use on a model using some Photoshop techniques.

That is the thing about making your own decals, once you get a system down that lets you make decent decals the possibilities are endless! By the way, do you remember the brand name of that photo paper fixative? Sounds like a good product for decal making.

Speaking of Gimp 2

I just downloaded a copy of Gimp2. Installed it and when I try to run it it stops responding. It says "Looking for data files" "Fonts ( this may take a while )". So what did I forget to do? Download a font file or am I missing something on my computer?

Bernd

I have the Testors kit, Black coal hopper question....

I bought it at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon a few months back and have not even opened it. I have Accurail data only USRA coal hoppers in black. All I need is very simple block lettering BW & BR to put on the hoppers and also road numbers. Will it work to print "negative" letters on white paper and then cut out and apply the decal or is there not enough opacity in the blacked in area of the decal? I would think weathering would hide decal edges well enough or will that be an issue as well?

MIchael

Gimp 2

Bernd,

I'm not sure. I've been using GIMP for years and I've had zero problems with it.

George

Photo paper fixative

I wrote the original e-mail at work, so when I read the request at home for the name, I tried to find the can.  That was 24 hours ago.  Just now, I found the can (a computer laptop had been moved in front of it).

The can is: Krylon UV-Resistant Clear Acrylic coating 1305

Thanks

for the reply George. Guess I'll need to do a little investigation. Looks like I might be missing a font file or something. I'll figure it out eventually. Had it on once a while ago and it worked fine. I removed it because it was a bit frustrating to learn. Now I really have a need for it.

Bernd

problem with color decals

Maybe some of you can give me some advice on a problem I am having.  I've successfully made by own black and dark blue decals (on clear decal paper) using my HP inkjet- and installed them over white or stainless steel backgrounds.  However, I am not getting sufficient opacity to use yellow or red decals over dark colors (say royal blue or pullman green).  Is this just a lost cause (short of buying a used ALPS), or is there an adjustment to give a more opaque color?

Tom D

Russell

One thing I've found about store bought decals, (I have a lot of older ones too) if you take and spray the older decals with some of the bonding spray it rejuvenates them. I found this out the hard way, I needed some decals for a specific project and wouldn't you know it, the first one on the sheet exploded. After a 10 minute rant of 'colorful euphemisms' I thought " I'll spray them with Testor's Gloss coat"  I chose a small decal from the sheet and tried it, it didn't work, the gloss coat made the surface so sticky it stuck to every surface but the model. Then in an epiphany I thought "the bonding spray seals the ink to the decal paper, why wouldn't it work to seal an old decal?" Well I found it to work very well and haven't had any problems with old decals since.

2slim  

I never use a whole sheet of

I never use a whole sheet of decal paper , but do it the way Mycroft says , cut out a piece of decal paper slightly larger then needed for the decal and overlap the previously printed on normal paper. A tip, do the print on normal paper using concept mode on your printer, saves a lot of ink ( ink is more expensive then gold ) and it's only there to mark the spot where you want to tape the decal paper. As for sealing , I use Testors Dullcote or Glosscoat and it works fine , it just takes patience. I will try the Polyurethane though maybe it works easier.

Gimp