Hi there!
First time posting here, My question is: how or where can I get a custom window decal for my dpm kit? I want to do a starbucks logo.
Should I go with a web site, or is there software i can use? Any advice would help me alot!
thx!
You could get blank decal paper, photograph a logo and print the logo on the decal paper. For that matter, photograph the whole window of a Starbucks and put the whole window on the decal, that way you get the interior too.
Or photograph a sign, print it to the size you want and paste it in the window as a solid sign.
You won’t get a commercial custom decal maker to do it since its a copyrighted logo and it would be illegal for it to be reproduced. Depending on how or what you do with it, it could be illegal for you to use it also.
YMMV.
Dave H.
[#welcome] to the foruns!!
You could also take that same image and print it on a blank, clear, transparancy sheet using an ink jet printer. If this is your first time doing that, you may want to do a little experimenting. Then you can make a lot od different windows.
I might also recommend using a vector image of the logo. Wiki is wonderful for this (sometimes):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Starbucks_Coffee_Logo.svg
Go to Google, click Images, and then search for Starbucks Logo. You’ll get a gazillion hits. Right click on it and save it to a file on your computer.
You can print it on paper and glue it in, or use transparancy film if you have it. I do like decals, personally. These are a couple of window-decals I’ve done on my own. Both the ground floor restaurant and the upstairs offices have window decals, printed in MS Word. (Click on the pictures for a bigger image.)
These are also home-made decals, applied to a wood fence. Here, I downloaded the graphics and used them to make the decals. Before I applied them, I “whitewashed” a rectangle on the fence so that the colors would come out right. I use clear decals, so I need the white backing.
Custom decalers advertise. Read the ads in your model magazines.
Mark
wow, thanks for all the input guys! I just got the kit in the mail today, so i’m not going to rush it (like I do with many things!). Mr. Beasley: that’s the same corner cafe kit that I just got! any tips or words of advice? This is my second attempt at a building kit, I noticed it dosen’t come with a floor or base. What should I use? Plus, I’d like to keep my buildings removable, I don’t want to permanetly attach it to my layout.
Noyt to do my own plugging, but I put up a tutorial in usin Paint and Word, we since had some debates on printing methods. But the idea’s the same.
Assemble the walls without the roof and then trace an outline of the inside of the walls onto a piece of foam core, sheet plastic or cardstock to create a floor. Then cut out the floor with an x-acto kife and a straight edge, keeping the cuts nice and neat and square.
Glue the floor onto the layout where you want the building to be located.
The floor will act as a “plug” onto which you can firmly set the building. You can pop the building off as needed. Only the floor is permanently attached – the building is not.
If you want to move the building later, mMake a new floor and scrape the old one off.
Love the tartan tablecloths in the House of Haggis! [:)]
I’ve not done custom decals for windows, but have tried the printing on transparency film deal, especially I thought it would also give me a better interior than I could easily do. Biggest problem was that under certain viewing angles and lighting conditions, you could easily tell the actual interior was empty. What I ended up doing was printing the window subject on thick paper and more carefully lighting the structure.
The House of Haggie building is completely removeable. The lighting and interior details are all attached to the base. The floor is just a printed pattern, glued to the base. Since this is “downtown,” the sidewalks are styrene, and the building shape is cut into the base so that light doesn’t leak out the bottom:
The plaid window shades and tablecloths were just downloaded patterns, printed on plain paper. The sign over the window is my Scottish family crest, scanned in from a plaque and re-sized way down. Then I printed it on cardstock and glued the pieces to some floral wire.