Printing your own decals

[BB401]

I have seen dome beautiful examples of home brewed decals in some of the posts here. Has anyone done a "how to" post of the process of creating them? I would greatly enjoy knowing how this could be accomplished.

[Pseudotheist]

I tried to get a thread going about the various options for decal paper: http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sho...53-Decal-paper

I don't know that it generated a whole lot of useful info about different paper qualities and options, but there are definitely some tips in there. From my accumulated experiences here's my advice (which may or may not be in the previous thread).

I'm assuming you have a color inkjet printer; if you have a laserjet, all bets are off, but you will probably create a better product.

1. Make sure your images are high resolution. My default settings were originally 300 DPI, which worked for some images, but was too grainy for things like serial numbers. I now print everything at 600 DPI, and everything looks much clearer. True fact: I can't even find specs to tell me if my printer can actually print at 600 DPI or better, but gimp lets me set that resolution and it looks much better.

2. After your printed decals have had time to dry, spray them with several FINE coats of sealant spray of some sort. When they say fine, they mean it. My first generation of decals were hard to apply because I did not take this seriously enough. Make a single quick pass for each coat. And I really mean quick; think similar to swiping A credit card.

3. Don't trust that your sealant spray is actually waterproof. When cutting out your decals leave as much border around the actual printed decal as you can. Do not drop your decal in the water like you would with professionally printed decals. Instead, gently lay them face down and paint water onto the back of the decal paper until it is saturated. Give it plenty of time to loosen the glue, and once the decal slides free, inspect the leading edges of the decal for any attached strands of backing paper (particularly if you're using clear decal paper). If you see any, you should be able to gently lift them off by running a moist brush along the back of the edge. Once your decal is positioned, try to avoid using microsol or another setting solution on the printed surface of the decal. You can brush around those unprinted edges to try to blend them in a little. If you have any edges lifting off the surface, those solutions will work better if you get some on the back side of the decal paper, against the plane. If you're placing multiple decals in close proximity, you may want to paint a gloss coat over your first decal before attempting to apply the second (you put a gloss coat over your paint job before starting the decals, right?).

Hope that helps; don't hesitate to ask for specifics.

[Пилот]

I make my decals in higher resolutions. Sometimes 3000 dpi, or even more. It makes granulation minimal. When I scale image, I actually don't scale it's pixel size (I don't downscale 1200 x 800 pixels to, say, 75 x 50), but I scale it's resolution down (I get something like 2813 dpi, or 3861 dpi etc.) - in order to get wanted dimension. I use GIMP program which offers size in mm, and allows to change size through resolution change.

White colour is always a problem, as printers don't recognize it. So, when I need white surfaces other from simple forms (Polish chequerboard is simple, for example, but most roundels aren't), I try to find RGB code for particular paint I use (i.e. Vallejo .793 etc.), so I make my decals square. Also, light or bright colours (red, yellow etc.) have the similar problem on dark surface. In all that cases I print on white decal paper. It usualy works well, but sometimes some painting adjustment is needed. For this method is very important to use non-mixed paints.

This site is very useful: http://scalemodeldb.com/paint for RGB search.

On the other hand, when painting various winter schemes, transparent decal paper is better than white.

[Womble]

If you use a laser printer you can skip the sealing before applying the decal, as laser toner is waterproof. Just print, cut, apply, sol to settle the decal and varnish the model.

Ian