Hi,I had a Idea about selling nose art decals to the war bird guys.But mainly I wanted to see if my Idea works.What I wanted to do is,To print nose art on to decal paper with my home printer.I called a decal paper co. and asked them how can I make them water proof on the water slide decal paper?They told me after I print them to spray them with a polycoat and this would work.have any of you tryed this? Or do any of you know a source for nose art decals?

My source is the dozens of books I've collected over the years. "Vintage Nose Art", "Classic Nose Art", and at least a dozen more specifically focused on nose art. Then there are the various plane-specific books with plenty of nose art, half a dozen unit history books, conflict books (WW I, WW II, Korea, etc.).

About the only market I can think of for decals would be where the nose art isn't easily obtainable, or where the 'customer' hasn't figured out how easy decals are to make.

Krylon "Cryatal Clear" works nicely to 'fix' the ink on the decal before application. A fuel proof clear coat may also be needed.

With BelDecal selling every sort of decal paper, I think it would be tough to market 'ready made' decals unless you can offer hard-to-find designs (and can find folks wanting those designs).

IMHO.

Another concern would the stability of most of the inks found in most home, inkjet type printers. Although the clear coat will make them fuel proff, what I have found to be the problem is the UV degradation over time. Your nice decal will start to fade out to a mear ghost of it's original printing.

It's been my experience that about one season is all you can expect to get out of a full color print from an inkjet before the fading becomes very obvious.

Epson makes inks that they claim will not fade for 90 something years. If that is true, maybe expecting them to last 10 years would be reasonable. I can't remember the name of the ink right now.

The problem is with reds and yellows mainly. Thats why you almost never see true red or yellow house colors. The are always more of a yellow oxide or red oxide. Thats why red cars always fade quicker as well. The additive used in red car paint to keep it from fading is only made by one company in the world. (they have a patent on it) So red and yellow ink that holds up to UV will be very hard to find. Be sure to let everyone know if you do find one that holds up!

Georgee,
I have been doing just this for a couple of years now. I can tell you from over 5 years of testing that the inkjet and laser printers are not well suited to this. The main reason is that the inks used are made for plain paper, not decal film, so it is a very transparent layer of ink laid down. If you print on clear paper and put it on an olive drab paint job, colors like red, yellow, and blue will vanish into the paint. The only ways around it is to use white decal paper, or paint the area where the decal is going to be placed white.
The other thing was mentioned about fading, this is very true. They will fade pretty fast in the sun.

The inks I use are wax based and are available in white so I can print white on clear paper. I can also make multiple passes so that I can make the color deeper and it will not blend in with the paint color of the model. They are waterproof, but not fuel proof, so they need a clearcoat after they are applied.
You can see some of my work at www.heavydatehobbies.com
Hans

I once saw a guy who cut a pic out of a Victoria's Secret catalog, and put clear monocote over it!!
It was on a P-51 that he flew in combat, and it looked good from 3-4 steps away.
But heck yeah!! Thats what makes WWII planes great!!
Sleek lines & hot chicks with huge t!ts!!