Make Your Own Decals!

Hi, I was reading a little on the decals threads and just wanted to throw in
my $.02 worth.

If you have a computer (which means if you are reading this, you do) and
a paint program of any value - you can make your own water slide decals!
Yes that's right! Make your own!

    The ideal situation is owning an ALPS MD-1000 to a 5000 series
printer, you have all you need to make professional decals. If you only have a
deskjet or bubble jet no big sweat - just use a copier.  If you don't
mind black only decals, you can use a laser printer. Deskjets and bubble jet
owners can use a copy machine. There are several companies that sell 8.5"x11"
decal sheets for you to print on. As mentioned above, color is best done with
the ALPS MD series printers (they are dry ink cartridges), where as a
deskjet's ink will run when it is submerged. However fused toner is not
effected by water so no problem.

Some of the companies that make decal paper for sale are:

Microscale: http://www.microscale.com/trimfilm.html
Micro-Mark: http://www.micromark.com/decals.html
Papilio: http://www.papilio.com/newpage1.htm
Champion Decal: http://minot.com/~champ/tips.html
And more - Try Decal Film in your favorite search engine...
Decal Information:
Train-Web: http://www.trainweb.org/tylick/decals.htm

Thanks,

> Scott Spieker wrote:

I've also heard of using various kinds of spray fixatives to seal the ink to
the decal paper. Apparently it doesn't effect the decal film itself, but keeps
the ink from running off.

If anybody's interested, I'll try to dig up more information.

> There are several companies that sell 8.5"x11" decal sheets for

Another alternative (the paper we are going to use) is Tango Papa Decals. This
gentleman makes his own decal paper, and it comes quite highly recommended on
the ALPS decals mailing list. Plus the prices are some of the best I've seen.
Here's a clip out of an email he sent me:

> BakerTom@aol.com wrote:

As an aside, most of the colors you can print on an inkjet (or an ALPS for
that matter) are semi transparent, so you 'll either need to underpaint the
aread of the miniature white or just print them on white decal film.

...and finally, the website of ALPS

http://www.alpsusa.com/new/

Tom