How To Make Decals

[Kenny Horne]

Hey Ted,

I've only made decals a couple of times, but I'll briefly post my procedure and findings.

Printing decals is a simple procedure.  Really all you need is a printer, and some decal paper and if you want to do anything beyond text, a graphics program of some sort.

I use an Epson printer which though has many faults (as in they just stop working far too prematurely and their ink costs too much) is my favorite brand because the print quality is very good and best of all the ink resists fading very well and you can dip a printed page in water and the ink will not run.  This is critical for me especially with my card stock (paper) models that I also enjoy building.  For decals it seems obviously good as water is involved in the process, though I suspect the setting stage (more later) cures this problem. 

The paper, or more correctly film, I use is "Experts-Choice" brand though Testors also makes films.  Both of these are locally available and I know there are others, but I have only used E-C.  The film comes either clear or white, as most printers do not print white.  Not printing white is a problem as printers assume that you are printing on white paper.  This means that if you are printing black registration letters for example, you'd simply print on clear film and end up with a nice decal such as you are used to.  Worst case would be white letters, as now you'd have to print dark outlines on white paper and cut out each individual letter.  No different than if you printed on paper, though the resulting letters would be paper thick instead of film thick.  Also the white is not as opaque as you'd like, so you'll kinda see the colour behind the decal.  White decal on red wing would therefore look a little pink.  On my prototype spitfire model, the registration letters needed to be printed on white, so I printed a blue background that did a good enough job of matching the paint colour.  This way I was able to cut out "K5054" as one decal.  The result was good enough for me, though not, I'm sure, for others. 

The final step is to spray on a shot of clear lacquer, to set the ink onto the film.

Now cut out the decal and dip in water as usual. 

All I'm likely to do are very simple graphics as I'm dense when it comes to creating artwork on a computer... though I have read of folks painting onto decal paper.  I really don't have the skill for that either, though I suppose that I'd be more likely to paint neatly onto a sheet than onto a finished fuselage.

These are my limited experiences and I'm sure that I've left out some important details, so feel free to ask and I'm sure that I or someone will be able to chime in with a suggestion.

Kenny

[Oceaneer99]

I use the Testors decal film (white or clear), which is used with a can of spray fixative (which smells a lot like lacquer) to seal the ink.

some printer information:

I also with an Epson printer, which I bought because their ink is a pigment (instead of a dye) and is fairly to very water resistant (my old printer was fairly water resistant, the new Epson ink seems to be nearly impervious to water). 

The old printer was a 777i, and the ink would run a little bit of a drop of water sat on it.  This was a slight issue with cardstock models if I used liquid white glue to build them, but I found that spraying lacquer over the print before cutting reduced the issue. 

My new printer is an Epson Stylus CX8400, which uses DuraBright Ultra ink.  A lot of their printers use this ink (though not the "photo" printers), and you can dip a piece of cardstock printed with it into water, and there is no running whatsoever. 

When I was printer shopping, I tested prints of all the brands in water (they must have thought I was nuts in the store).  The second best after the Epson ink was the HP Vivera ink, which is a dye.  It runs a little bit, about like the Epson 777i did.  HP has a more expensive line of printers that use pigment ink and are supposed to be very water resistant as well. 

I think that with the protective spray on the decal film, you can make most inkjet printers work, so don't go out and buy a new printer just to make decals.  In my case, the ink for the older one was getting hard to find, and my scanner died, so I ended up buying an all-in-one with a scanner and a printer, for $60, that was better than my old scanner and old printer.  In general, I don't print photos on my inkjet printer, and use it only for crafts and hobbies, so I figured I'd go for the not-perfect photo quality with really good water resistance model.

back to decals

Kenny did a good job in his post, so I'll only add my observations.

The clear film decals are transparent, even where you print.  My first try, I printed RAF roundels on them and was horrified to see that the camouflage pattern showed right through.  I tried again on the white film, and it worked much better.  This does mean that you have to trim very close to the printing to avoid having a white line around the outside.  Some people have had problems with the ink bleeding if you cut too close to the printing.  I had this problem once, but it was fairly mild in my case.  Since then, I have sprayed the protective coating after cutting, making sure I hit all the edges.

I have been able to print black letters on clear and put that onto color surfaces without a problem (such as the black K-number on my Spitfire).

White letters are the big pain.  I've tried a couple of techniques:

1.  Print a faint gray outline of the lettering on clear decal film.  Use a small brush or steel pen to fill in the lettering with white paint.  This works, depending on your skill.  I make the ID letters on my 1/144 Spitfire this way.  They are a little rough, but not awful.


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-10

2.  Print on white film, trying to match the background color of the model as closely as possible.  This means that you will have white letters in a colored rectangle.  This was the technique that Kenny described.  If the color match isn't perfect, you can paint over the edges a bit after the decal is on the model.  This was the technique I used on my 1/288 Heinkel.


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-333

To save film (which is a bit pricey), I print out a copy onto cardstock.  Then, I cut out the decal sheet to cover the image on the cardstock and use a removable-type glue stick ("Post-It" note style glue stick) to tack it to over the image on the cardstock.  I then run the sheet back through the printer and print on the decal film this time.  You can get a lot of 1/144 scale decals out of one sheet of decal film!

Garet

[davetunison]

Thanks guys, this is all news to me.

[teddon61]

Ken and Garet, thank you for the very interesting articles about decal making. It is obvious to me that it is a art form by itself.
Some of the procedures mentioned remind me of what some modlers were doing back in the 60's and early 70"s, I remember being intimidated by the procedure then and remain so to the present.
When I first read about the decals on this site I thought that computors were being used to produce the images, that's what I found confusing, that appears to be cleared up.
As I mentioned earlier, I paint directly onto the project, including nose art, it is tedious. I mix the colors using artist acrylic paint in tubes, and since I mix for each project there are very few planes with the exact same color.
We live in a condo, no basement, so all my work is performed in a bedroom, which means there is limited room for equipement, the airplanes already completed require 15 bookshelves, so room is at a premium.
Again thanks for the info!!  Ted Billings

[lastvautour]

Sorry for the off topic, Ted, please provide us with pictures of your book shelves.

Lou

[teddon61]

this is a second try, thanks for the info on decals.I pictured the process to be different than you have explained. For one, I thought that you were using your computors to find the markings then transfering them to the decal film.
I remember a process much as you describe back in the late 60s or early 70s, only then there were no printers used, one actually painted the pattern onto the film, then slid it onto the project.
At the time it seemed to me to be too much effort, however now it seems more reasonable. I doubt that i will try it at this late date in my aircraft construction, but I do appreciate the info.
I mentioned above that this was my second try because I could not get my message sent last night no matter how many times I clicked on POST. HERETed Billings GOES !!!

[Ken Pugh]

I do something just a little bit different.  I use the computer to find the images and print them, but I print them on tissue.  I tape the tissue to a carrier sheet of paper.  After I get the image printing the way I want, I print everything on the tissue.  Remove the tissue from the paper and you have your "decals."  The tissue is left over from Guillow's models.

I started doing it this way when I was playing with stick and tissue rubber planes.  I glue (with glue stick) the cut out image to the model.  The image is not very opaque, so this is actually a guide to paint onto the model.  It is easier to me to fill in with paint the tissue image than to try to paint it onto the model itself.  Kind of like paint by numbers.

After several clear coats it all blends in and the tissue comforms to the surface real well.

Ken Pugh

[Oceaneer99]

Ken,

Wow, that's neat to hear how you are making tissue decals.  I've seen them used on balsa and tissue planes that way, but never considered it for solids before.  Thanks for sharing!

Garet

[lastvautour]

I have some tissue left over from my flying days. I must try that. Thanks for sharing. I never would have thought of that.

Lou

[teddon61]

Lou,
I will get my granddaughter to take the pictures and show me how to put them on the site, at 70 years old, I am finding it hard to learn new tricks.
I must warn you however, that 20 or more airplanes cramed into a bookcase makes it hard to pick out individual air craft, a problem that I find very frustrating, In truth, though I spend many hours in the same room as the planes, I rarely have a good view of them, to the point where I will bring some into the dining room simply to have a better view. I can't talk my wife into allowing me to keep them there permantly. don't know why!
Ted billings
PS what site should I put the pictures on?

[Oceaneer99]

Ted,

Surf on over to the SMM gallery and set up an account there:
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/index.php

Once I see your account, I can set up an album for you (or you can do that).  If you have problems, send me a message or e-mail.

We can't wait to see your work!

Garet

[Kenny Horne]

Hi Ted et al.

I've done a bunch of tissue printing (as well as on cotton and wood veneer) and I've found that tracing paper is also a great medium for markings.  It is thin though it holds ink better (doesn't run as badly.)  Of course white is still the great problem, as these thin papers are rather transparent.  Painting a white background that the tissue/tracing paper or decal film will then be placed upon is sometimes an answer.

Kenny

[Ken Pugh]

Hi Kenny,

The white problem gets back to what I was saying about painting in the lines of the printed image.  I fretted over painting a white background and getting everything properly sized, lined up, and doing this all with a brush instead of spraying.  When I started painting over the image again to sharpen it up and make it opaque, I just painted in the white as well.

The Fleet biplane in my solid folder uses tissue markings, though you can't see them in that pic.  I put another one in to show them.  You can see some bleeding in the black letters so I touched them up with paint and everything was sharp.  That was when I started just using them as a guide for painting.  The Oscar has the meatballs done in simple paper, though they still needed painting over to get rid of the dots in the ink.  Again, by having the print as a guide, painting a neat circle was a piece of cake.  After making paper markings, I'll go back to tissue.  The tissue takes some effort taping the sheets to paper, but the results are good.  They also separate from the paper because you only tape the edges.  I thought this would be a problem with my printer but they come out fine.

I have tried using cheap wrapping paper but it doesn't like water and turns to mush.  The cheap tissue in a Guillow's kit works fine.  I have the monster B-29 sitting on the shelf so I'll have plenty of that tissue available for quite a while.  I like building those kits and planking them in basswood so tissue supply will never be a problem.

I have also tried using light silkspan but it doesn't work as well.  The silkspan is thicker and the ink wicks through the fibers somewhat.  The image is also lighter because of this.  Everything I try keeps sending me back to plain old tissue.  I have thought of doing the homemade decals, but the expense of the paper and its efficient use turned me off.  Tissue is much cheaper and easier for me to throw away when I make a stupid mistake.

Ken Pugh

[dave_t]

I bought some of the Testors transparent decal paper to experiment with. Do they make a clear coat spray specifically for the purpose of sealing the ink or will any lacquer spray work?

[Oceaneer99]

Dave,

Testors sells a clear spray, which is in a small can and fairly expensive.  I'm still on my first can and that's all I've tried.  However, it smells suspiciously like lacquer spray.  I think as long as the spray is compatible with your inkjet ink, you are probably fine (but test first!).

One of the other manufacturers of decal paper (DecalPaper.com) includes these instructions:

Step #3: Spray your printed sheet evenly with Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear High Gloss spray until the sheet has a shine (2-3 coats). Allow 30 to 60 minutes to dry and set. (This product is available at any craft or hardware store such as Loews, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Walmart, etc. Any acrylic clear coat spray will work.)

Garet