forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com

WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Hints and Tips/Questions about modeling => Topic started by: Plodder on July 02, 2021, 12:54:23 AM

Title: Printing decals
Post by: Plodder on July 02, 2021, 12:54:23 AM

I've had a couple of goes of printing my own decals. Inkjet iprinter on clear decals paper. I'm pleased with the results,colour and definition, but when  I  apply them the colours  are  translucent, and  don't look anywhere near a good.. Anyone  tried this , and  any tips.?

Title: Re: Printing decals
Post by: Alexis on July 02, 2021, 01:10:37 AM

Have you tried using white decal paper ?


Alexis

Title: Re: Printing decals
Post by: coyotemagic on July 02, 2021, 05:31:30 AM

Increase the color density on your printer, then seal with a clear acrylic.
Cheers, Bud

Title: Re: Printing decals
Post by: Plodder on July 02, 2021, 05:39:37 AM

Hi Alexis,I dont want a white border on the decals,and cant cut them accurate enough to leave no edge. Hi Coyotemagic, colour from printer is good, I use high quality photo setting,and  clear coat.

Title: Re: Printing decals
Post by: hsmed on July 02, 2021, 04:30:29 PM

Hi Plodder

If you use an inkjet printer, there is - as far as I know - no way around using white decal paper, if you want to avoid the background colour to bleed through.

But you can avoid a white edge by using the colour of the subject as the background for your decal. At the picture, I have applied the white 'Red Horse' lettering to a bright red area of the car. The way I made the decal was, that I drew a large red square and filled in the white lettering - then printing the whole square at a white decal sheet. In this way I have the white letters with a narrow red frame.

(https://danskerbiler.dk/whitedecals.jpg)

If you look closely at the picture, you can see a small colour difference between the red paint and the decal, but this can be minimized by adjusting the colour at the decal - however, I was satisfied with this.

You can see, the white is a little pink due to the red paint - this is due to the decal paper itself not being 100% opaque. This could also be minimized by applying two decals on top of each other or by applying a white decal square before the decal with the lettering.

However, this technique is hard to use if your background is not in a uniform colour as in my example.

Another way is to use a laser printer with white toner. You can buy a white toner kit for some laser printers - see link - but I have not tried it myself.....yet :-)
https://www.ghost-white-toner.com/

Hope, you can use some of this - and if you succeed it would be great to see the results :-)

Title: Re: Printing decals
Post by: kensar on July 02, 2021, 09:53:20 PM

One way I overcome this limitation with inkjet printed decals is to paint a white background.  I have a Silhouette cutter that makes this somewhat easier.  For example:

(https://i.postimg.cc/YjKzNX7D/Fokker-Dr1-17.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

(https://i.postimg.cc/pTSZrW6H/Fokker-Dr1-18.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

In this case, the decal is printed with a black edge to hide any inaccuracies with the outline shape.

Title: Re: Printing decals
Post by: RLWP on July 03, 2021, 06:37:15 AM

I've had terrible results with clear paper, excellent results with white.

I've usually managed to lose the white edge with either paint or weathering

Richard

Title: Re: Printing decals
Post by: Plodder on July 05, 2021, 07:55:23 AM

Thanks for the replies I will try with white paper.

Title: Re: Printing decals
Post by: Alexis on July 27, 2021, 10:57:12 PM

Lets us know how this works out for you .


Alexis