Don't Use Too Much Clear

Warflight - be careful about applying too much clear.  It will make the decals too thick and they will not conform to any surface contours very well.  All you need is enough to seal the ink.

Make sure the ink is dry before you apply the clear.  I usually give it 24 hours just to make sure.

I did these decals on my HP inkjet using Testors decal paper and I am pretty happy with how they turned out.  They will always be thicker than professionally done decals but you can't notice unless you look closely.  You can still use MicroSol on them to help them conform better.

Just wondering, could drying

Just wondering, could drying the ink be hurried by putting newly printed decals in a warm oven? Or maybe a micro wave? or a hair drier? Just wondering.

Not long ago I came upon some

Not long ago I came upon some clear and white packets of Testors decal paper I bought at Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupon. I bought them quite some time ago so I wonder if they are still any good. My idea was to use negative printing on the white so I could letter and number my black steamers for my fictitious home road. Wondering if anyone has had experience with that?

Negative Printing

Michael T. - if you look at my pictures above you will see that I have done exactly what you are thinking of.  I printed the black onto the white decal paper everywhere except for the numbers.

As far as the shelf life of the paper I think the only way you will be able to tell is to try it and see.

First test.

The logos in black work pretty well. The logos in yellow, however... it's too clear. Too translucent. They would work on a white background, but that's it. Unfortunately, they are made to go on SOU green, or Boxcar red backgrounds.

So I made a new sheet. This time I used MS Paint, and used a much darker yellow (almost orange)

I also attempted to use "Microscale Liquid Decal Film" on a test piece. It did not work. It liften most of the print, and after drying, it didn't want to separate from the backing properly, and turned to mush in the hard water we have here. The spray stuff didn't do that.

The directions say to use five coats of spray, but it was suggested to me by several modelers that was too much, so I will experiment with two coats.

This is the first test. Black ink, five coats of Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic spray.

 

Software

If you are doing your own artwork for decals, you want to use a vector graphics program. This will allow for smooth scaling of your work.

A good free program is available at https://inkscape.org/

Yellow too translucent

Gold Printing.

I would love to find someone with a printer that can print in gold. Like, shiny, metallic gold.

Keep It Up

Good to read about your decal adventure Warflight. I hope I get motivated by your work. I have always avoided decals, homemade and commercial, because I figured I would make a mess. That's why all my steam locomotives and heavyweight cars have no road names and numbers. So, I look forward to your  how to do it solutions.

Decals...

I used to be the same way, but then I watched some TMTV where they did decaling right, and I realized all these years I was doing it wrong. Then I got REALLY good at decaling, and have never looked back.

suggestion.. try a test pattern

Solution to White...

The reason the yellow doesn't work is because printer inks are transparent, they rely on the white paper to make them visible. You need to be able to print white to get color decals to work on a model that isn't white.

If you're able to create your own art well enough to consider printing your own decals, you can always outsource the printing.

I print full color decals with white from customer supplied art all the time, with no minimum run,

I have standard pricing for 1/4, 1/2, and full size sheets, but I also print little tiny pieces for people too.

Feel free to contact me at billy@pdc.ca for custom printing of your own art. I can usually ship within a day or two of receiving the art.

Numbers

After having it for several years, I just unpacked my Bachmann two truck Climax last night. It is earmarked for working the mining/logging switchback on my pike and I had always thought of it as "Old number 4". I lucked up because I didn't remember it was already  number 4! Maybe that's why I chose it. All I need to do is change the herald on the tender.

Problem is, I will have to number my Mogul and any other locos I acquire with that same style of lettering. I have a font saved somewhere on this PC called "Railroad Roman" but I'm having Windows issues and can't find it. This thread has awakened my motivation to get my locos done, either DIY or through Bill and I'm just kind of wondering if numbers were fairly standard back in the 1920's or 30's? Would they be hard to match or should I just plan on re-doing the "4"?

Transparent Yellow Issues

Hi Warflight,

I've used ALPS and Laser printers to print yellow, both with mediocre results.  Even when the ISO paint values were used to generate the correct color value, the yellow fades when applied.  I also tried multiple layers of white and yellow attempting to get the correct yellow.

The best yellow I've created by painting a yellow square on a Nickel Plate loco, creating a black and transparent decal and applying it over the yellow square of paint.  The transparent areas allowed the true yellow color to show thru.

Other Applications

I’ve had great success printing signs onto MicroMark White Decal paper, using an Epson printer.  I design and produce the signs in Microsoft PowerPoint!! 

The current version of PowerPoint has some powerful alignment tools, flexible shape creation tools, and can import and resize almost any type of graphic art or photograph.

One of the nice features of using decals for signs is that they can conform to the underlying surface.  This is particularly useful to simulate a sign painted on clapboard or other textured surfaces.  And of course you have 100% control over fonts, colors and design!

Other Applications

I’ve had great success printing signs onto MicroMark White Decal paper, using an Epson printer.  I design and produce the signs in Microsoft PowerPoint!! 

The current version of PowerPoint has some powerful alignment tools, flexible shape creation tools, and can import and resize almost any type of graphic art or photograph.

One of the nice features of using decals for signs is that they can conform to the underlying surface.  This is particularly useful to simulate a sign painted on clapboard or other textured surfaces.  And of course you have 100% control over fonts, colors and design!

One handy tool for the design work: scan your scale ruler into a PDF file and place it on the PowerPoint drawing.  You can move and rotate the ruler to measure and scale your output.  Just be sure to print with the “SCALE TO FIT” box in the print dialog box UNCHECKED - so that the output will exactly match the screen appearance.

I wish...

I had a printer that could do white. I just looked on Amazon, and found nothing.

I don't want to use white decal paper, because colour matching the red and green are next to impossible... it will never be good by my standards... I sent an e-mail to Bill however. As well as the proper fonts for SOU.

 

Weathering doesn't help?

Once a loco or car is weathered is color match a big issue? I'm hoping with black that it won't be but I do wonder about the red and green. When I can find and access my Railroad Roman font, I'm going to send something to Bill too. I just need simple B.W.& B.R. (Black Water and Blue Ridge) in white for steam tenders and maybe a different size for boxcar red or mineral red freight cars.

Shelf Life

I ordered some sheets of decal paper a while ago, and used them within a few days of receiving them, only to find that the brand name printed on the back of the backing sheet had imprinted itself on the decal surface (mirror image of course).

Fortunately, the decals were quite dark and applied to a textured surface, and once weathered did not show the decal branding. The decals were used for curtain sided wagons, the decal completely covering both sides and the roof.

I don't know if was caused by long storage by the supplier, or too rapid packing after printing.

seems Bill will be busy into the New Year

Custom Service

@Peter

If you are able to supply the art, I'll be happy to print custom sheets of it for you, as I don't have ready made data sets. Microscale and others offer these generic sets for much cheaper.

I specialize in accurate custom decals for people, so the data is usually very customized and the art belongs to the client when the project is completed.

white decals

I model BN and could use white decals, any ideas how to do them?

Terry Harrison

BN 1977 Twin Cities

Curling

Any suggestions on how I can prevent decals from curling?  When I first started printing my own, I had no problems. Now they all curl into tight tubes. I've experimented with varying number of coats of clear, acrylic vs lacquer, different brands, all with no luck. Thanks in advance. 

PRINTING WHITE DECALS

The only reason I bought an ALPS printer was to print white decals.  Alps has been out of business for quite a while now. The guy with the custom printing service is probably your best bet.  I do some of this locally; but not commercially.