Hey guys whats the best printer out there for making decals ? I know the Alps ( was good )butI need the best quality printer, printer paper, and ink.the good thing about the Alps was it printed white, so any help or suggestions wold be great

I use my PANASONIC KX-PX-8000 color laser printer to print decals. Just $8200.00 when my wife bought it two years ago.

Guardian, I am going to try and make my own decals with this decal medium. http://www.beldecal.com/inkjet_decals.cfm I am going to buy the white backed paper. I plan to use my scanner to scan in plastic model decal sheets. Then I will put them in Adobe Photo Shop to enlarge them. Then I plan to print them on my Epson 750 Photo Stylus inkjet printer. My printer will print an 8x10 color glossy at near photo quality, its very sharp so its should make good decals.
Good Luck Viper

hello guys!!
i use a Citzen wax printer here in Brazil over water transfer paper, unfortunately it doesenīt print white or grey shades

what printer can print white?have the website?

thanks!

Ghost Rider that seems a little high $8200.00, I hope I can find some thing cheaper

Hey guys:

I made my decals (water transfer) by scanning and otherwise creating the subject in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator (you can just as easily use less expensive apps.) then printing them on photo paper with my Epson Stylus 740 inkjet printer and finally taking the color printout to a local copy shop and having them run the copies on decal paper. This approach is cheap and produces great results, however I think it would be tough to create accurate scale decals this way since you have to control both the color matching of the injet output as well as the color copier. For sport projects however it is more than acceptable.

One of the neat little touches I did was my name in a nice font to use below the canopies of my planes.

Antony

Hi Antony, sounds cool. But I am going to use that waterslide decal paper straight from my Epson Photo Stylus 750, which is a six color inkjet printer. So I can control the color a little better. I do have a question? I have Adobe Photo Shop and Adobe Deluxe but not Illustrator? Will these two programs work as well? What did you use Illustrator for?
Thanks Joe

Hey Joe:

I use Illustrator if I want to do a design from scratch. It allows you to draw perfect compound curves as well as color filled shapes. You can control line weights precisely. As a result your printouts are crisp and precise, unlike the typical scanned image. If I don't have a good quality image I scan what I do have then import it into Illustrator and trace over it. Essentially I redraw the design.

Hope that helps.

BTW, I didn't print out onto the decal paper directly with the inkjet because 1) I wasn't sure that the printer would print on it well and 2) I had my doubts that inkjet ink would stand up to the solvents in the clearcoat. You may want to test the latter before you do any decal application on your project.

Antony

P.S. -- If you have Photoshop don't waste your time with Photo Deluxe. It is considerably slower at just about everything.

Thanks Antony, now I understand. I plan to scan in the decals from a plastic model kit. Did you see the url I have pasted above for the inkjet decal paper? They sell the Krylon Crystal clear spray with their paper to spray over the decals so it should work. They also said you can use Krylon Fixative if you want your decals to be more of a semi flat appearance. Thanks for the program info.
Joe

Ha Ha, Ghost Rider mentioned his wife bought it, but he didn't tell you it was for her business at the local mall.

She makes Tee shirts and Coffee mugs, among other things with any picture you want on 'em.

All generated with a computer and printed out on ..... you guessed it .....8200 buck printer!

Joe:

Thanks I missed the link the first time around. Let us know how the stuff works.

Antony

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I would be interested to know how thick the decal is.

Definately keep us posted.

hello Fellas,

hereīs what i do : i make the decals using a plastic model/pictures of real plane information with Coreldraw program.
then i print with wax jet printer onto clear waterslide transfer sheet, spray over a clear gloss and then apply to model.
the low down is that you canīt print white or gray and if you use laser printer, when you put the decal on the weater, the colours will disappear...
anybody here knows how can i print white instead of the silk screened method?
thanks..

Anyone know if the Krylon spray that is used over the decal is compatible with PPG clearcoats such as DCD 35, 2021, etc ?

Gordon

Gordon:

The best way, is to print your decals and spray them with the PPG clear. The krylon seems to break down in the water
before application. The PPG is there and provides much better surface when you go to clear the plane.


W.G. Hunter

I know that it is high but that is what my wife uses for her business. She uses it for large production runs. If you want decals printed, you can e-mail your design to me and I can have it printed for you. She carries a variety of slide-off decals.