decal help please

[Redironrob]

I need a bit of advice.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a printer to print inkjet waterslide decals?

I have an Epson ET2750 and it is not the best machine.

One problem I have has been that folk like Canon and HP have said that their printers will NOT print decals (presumably because neither actually make that sort of paper) however the do list nail art transfers and fabric transfers in their paper types.

So I am confused.

Thanks

Rob

[Bigmet]

...One problem I have has been that folk like Canon and HP have said that their printers will NOT print decals (presumably because neither actually make that sort of paper) however the do list nail art transfers and fabric transfers in their paper types...

The problem you are probably looking at, is that most (almost all?) consumer grade printers have no white ink print capability which leads to a difficulty in production of decals, which frequently require white areas and text. This isn't a general consumer level product requirement, because the white content of any image is provided by the paper; but this doesn't work for us awkward customers that want to apply white elements in transfers onto the typically coloured background of our models...

There was a specialist printer for this purpose produced by 'ALPS', which was both expensive and was withdrawn getting on a dozen years ago. I am totally out of touch with 'printer world' now, so have no idea what alternatives are now available.

[Dad-1]

Bigmet is right in that the 'ALPS' printer could do white, silver, gold.
My buddy has one, but they have not been made for some years and becoming difficult to get
the print medium, I believe had some sort of wax content. Worse than that the last drivers were
for Win98 and did work on XP as well. Buddy Gary did an XP emulation programme for his Win10,
but every Win10 update crashed it !! Don't think he's used it for a few years now.

You can get white printable decal paper that with careful use can just about work, but trying to match
colours surrounding white lettering, areas left 'clear' in artwork programmes is more than just difficult.
It would work on a well weathered wagon by brushing a little of the body colour onto the surrounding
reasonable match colouring.

I can't recommend it, but I tend to print what I want onto basic paper. Then cut out a small patch of decal
paper that I securely Sellotape over the printed subject, placing the tape all along the top and sides. Then
feed the paper through the printer a second time. THIS I'M TOLD WILL NOT WORK WITH LASER PRINTERS.

Using clear decal paper the inkjet inks are opaque and do not give sufficient depth of colour to work. Black
if you have the option of 'Quality' print can produce usable results.

May Add a wagon decal I printed. Need to locate the URL

This was done on Clear decal film - see how indistinct and 'dotty' the blue is. It works for some jobs.
https://image.ibb.co/nxO8kQ/IMG_2251.jpg

There was no photograph of the coke wagon, obviously being an imaginary item I hadn't bothered. This is
a very old Ratio kit that I made in the colours of the Bridport Gas company - they never had any wagons !!
This was printed on white decal paper, with a black edging to meld rather into the grey wagon and if weathered
would blend in better.


Geoff T.

[SANDYONE]

Hi

Still interested interested in decal application ?
I have a lot of experience in designing, printing and applying decals...to loco's etc..
If you want any more info, please let me know..

Peter Clare [Liverpool]

[mattmay05]

If it's of interest, I did a lot of custom waterslide making about 10 years ago now, I have written at length here on the forums about it, its difficult, as printers and colour matching plus no white ink so must be a compromise.

You can read a bit more on the ones I made for my P Class many years ago:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_s5cq ... suDLc278ig

I now use a gent who does small runs of custom transfers I do most of the image cleaning and sizing, and he prints them.