scale buff

My Feedback: (24)

Can anyone tell me how to make homemade decals or mylar transfers. I want to make some decorations for a model and there are none available commerically. Thanks!

Frank T.

Vulturetec

I just made some water-slide decals for the first time on my inkjet printer. There are a few places selling them, some types of the paper are available from hobbytown stores.

Just make the design you want using photoshop, or better yet a vector-based program like CorelDraw or Illustrator (that's probably the hardest part if you're not familiar with those packages, but they produce the cleanest graphics), or if worst comes to worst draw it out, scan it, and use any number of desktop publishing packages to print them out to scale.

Print, and check your artwork on white paper, then just use the special decal paper.

The sheet I got suggested I should use "econo" settings on the printer (not sure why). Other websites said use the "glossy photo paper" settings. I ended up using high-resolution glossy photo paper settings with no problem, let the ink set up for a short time then lightly sprayed 3 light coats of clear on them. They went on fine and look pretty good.

dant-RCU

My Feedback: (3)

A search on "homemade decals" will get you a lot of information.

Dan

Forgues Research

My Feedback: (7)

I don't know if this will help,
After I made my drawings, I print at a good resolution on coated paper, and this becomes my master.
I then purchase some Laser, transparent label material from Avery.
Then I go to Photocopy center eg. Mail Box etc. and ask them to use my label paper and make a color photocopy of my master. No coating necessary as with the laser photocopy, it is permanent.
Here is some exemple of what I did. but the whole airplane was done that way.
http://www.geocities.com/traviscouch/extra5.html

scale buff

My Feedback: (24)

Thanks, guys, you've all been a lot of help. I think with the suggestions you've given me, I should be able to get the results I want. This is such a great site!!!!! Thanks, again

Frank T.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

There are a couple companies out there selling water transfer decal paper.
Micro Mark, Bell Inc. to name a couple.
I found using an ink jet printer larger solid color graphics want to bleed. I tried making "meatballs" for my Zero but the large red center wanted to bleed all over the place and made a mess.
But smaller more complicated graphics came out very nice.
The clown in the pic is very detailed, and the lettering somewhat simple, you can see how the larger red area has started to fad a bit.
These were made using Print shop deluxe and Micro Mark clear ink jet decal paper

Also keep in mind your printer thinks you are using white paper.
So colors kinda differ when you put the decal on a colored surface, Light colors like pink, red, yellow, need a white back ground to show up nicely. So if you want these colors to show up correctly you need to print them on white decal paper or apply them to a white surface.

Takes a little practice and some wasted paper but the results are worth it. And best of all you can say you made them.

Good luck

heavy date-RCU

I have been playing around with lots of ways to do decals and have decided what works best for me is the Alps printer and CorelDraw.
The ink from the Alps is waterproof and the decals come out just perfect. If you get real good paper, the edges vanish and the whole thing looks just like paint! The best part about the Alps is that it will print white so you can use clear decal paper.

If you use an ink jet printer, buy some decal film from micro-scale. It comes in a 1 oz bottle and you can apply it with a foam brush after the decal sheet dries after coming out of the printer. You will need this to waterproof the decals before you can put them on the model.
Good luck, it is a lot of fun to do!!
Hans

pauser98

I wonder if there are any stick-on type of inkjet printing paper for making decals and still be fuel-proof? I will need some soon for a FW190.

Denjones

I can't take credit for this but I did find it here on RCUniverse. I have tried it and it works great.

I had an Idea for making decals and decided to give it a try this week. I went to the local staples office products store and picked up some 8 1/2" x 11" clear ink jet labels. The Avery #8665 Clear Full Sheet Labels. They were rather expensive at $20.00 for 25 sheets but you can get lot's of decals from 25 sheets I used a graphics program to design my own decals. I tried different fonts and sizes to print my AMA number.found cool pics on the Internet and just copied and pasted them into my graphics program. Ideas are endless! After I filled an 8 1/2 x 11" with assorted graphics and text I printed them out on my ink jet printer and left them dry real good overnight. Then I took a can of clear Lusterkote and sprayed over the whole decal sheet with a light coat and allowed to dry overnight. The next day...I cut out each decal. I then sprayed Windex on the plane where I wanted to place the decal. Peeled off the backing of the decal to expose the sticky side, placed the decal on the plane. The Windex allows you to move the decal around to get it nice and straight. Then I squeegeed the excess Windex out from under the decal and patted it dry with paper towels. The clear Lusterkote keeps the ink from running when you get Windex on it. I left the decals set overnight to dry and then again sprayed clear Lusterkote over them after they where on the plane.... This keeps it sealed nicely without the edges coming up after coming in contact with fuel.

Forgues Research

My Feedback: (7)

Go one better with no lustre coat, here is what I said a bit earlier"
I don't know if this will help,
After I made my drawings, I print at a good resolution on coated paper, and this becomes my master.
I then purchase some Laser, transparent label material from Avery.
Then I go to Photocopy center eg. Mail Box etc. and ask them to use my label paper and make a color photocopy of my master. No coating necessary as with the laser photocopy, it is permanent.
Here is some exemple of what I did. but the whole airplane was done that way.
http://www.geocities.com/traviscouch/extra5.html

pauser98

Thanks, guys. Great idea!

I will go out and try now.

Chris

Bearly Flying

Another way of getting custom graphics is to use a laser printer and Ultracote ( I find Monocote too heat sensitive). Draw up your hearts desire on a print program, Tape a suitable sized piece of Ultracote( or whatever) to a standard 8 1/2 x 11 printer paper and print your logo on the background colour to suit. Monocote tends to shrivel due to the heat of the printer more than Ultracote. Iron on the Logo over whatever surface you like.......Don

r1morris

My Feedback: (1)

If your looking for printable decal materials heres a UEL you may get some good info and prices from.
www.DecalPaper.com