I want to redecal my steam loco roster because I am tired of looking at the different road names. I have never ventured into the custom decal zone and really have no idea how to start. Is there a software program that I can use? Is there a better decal paper? And finally, if I want my ficticious road name to resemble a known road will this software allow me to alter a particular emblem with my roadname?
Testors sells a decal “kit” that I believe comes with software. I have not used the software. I have played a little with the paper.
If you Google (or your search engine of preference) “Decal Paper” you will find many other brands.
My Testors paper came from the LHS, it was in the section with the RC Cars.
I just use any program on my computer that will print. For text only work, I will use Word. For graphics, Paint or Photoshop depending on how much I am changing it. There are plenty of railroad logos out on the Web to choose from. A little cut-n-paste will result a custom logo with your own railroad name.
The only “real” work for me is choosing what scale to use to when printing so the final graphic is the correct size for the rolling stock or loco. Print on plain paper first to save the decal paper.
Keep in mind when making your own decals with ink jet or laser printers, they can only be in darker colors - black, blue, etc. You cannot print white, yellow, orange, or any other light color. If you are going to decal steam engines that are probably black, you may need to go to a custom decal maker for white decals.
You CAN print white decals. I do it all the time. Use a good word processor (e.g. MS Word, Open Office, etc). After you type what you want your decals to be, highlight the print and select format. Select paragraph and find the tab that has the font color. Select white and OK. Your letters vwill seem to disappear. Don;t worry they are there. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SHEET OF DECAL PAPER IN THE PRINTER. Now select print.
WHAT !?!
So now tell us you are using an Alps printer that has been out of production for ten years, or explain how in the blue heck you print white decals without white ink.
Perhaps you can show us some samples? You can print paper signs with white lettering - the white paper supplies the white color. Decal material is clear, so having the lettering on your computer that shows up as white will have no ink where the letters are, it will be clear.
You can print using this method on white decal paper - it has a coating of white all over. But the background on everything will also be white.
So please enlighten us with samples of your printing white using an ink jet or laser printer, which do not have white ink!
Actually, that won’t work with an Alps. The artwork that is printed white on an Alps has to be a solid black and spot color selected. Also, the Alps printers are still being made and are available.
Don’t waste your money on this kit. The software that comes bundled in the kit has a handful of designs that are just for scale car models and not for trainmen. It has things such as flames, plates, and other useless stuff for anyone else not doing 1:25 scale cars. The images aren’t even scaleable so that we can use them. The software doesn’t let you open your own artwork, unless you buy the fancier one that they offer online. You’re better off just buying the paper and the sealant seperately if you want to use the Testors stuff. Just a heads-up.
Rather than trying do-it-your-self decals that may have problems while you are trying to learn the process, you may want to take a look at a custom printer like Rail Graphics
http://www.railgraphicsdecals.com/
If you have a number of locomotives, cars and cabooses that need to be decalled, you could be ahead of the game by going this route; particularly if you need white and do not have access to an ALPS printer
Thanx for the link. I was thinking of doing the emblems in B&M maroon and gold due to the no white printing capability, but was not sure how that would look on steam. I do have a number of locos both steam and early diesel that I want to eventually decal along with some home road freight. I may experiment with the color version and check out the custom mades also. I know microscale does design and custom jobs also.
Again thanx for the info.
The Testors package of decal paper I bought has both clear and white decal paper. Depending on the type of decal you are doing, the white paper would allow for the white on your decal. Of course, the decal must have a dark color on the outer edges and you would need to carefully cut it out to eliminate any white edges from showing.
The package I bought I think cost about $6. Pretty cheap. It’s fun to play with.
You won’t be able to do gold on a home printer either. Probably your best bet is as myself and others have suggested is to have custom decals made. They do them by silk screening, with colored paint.
And the mini CD that comes with the Testors kit isn’t intended to be decal making software, it is as mentioned just some designs suitable for auto modelers. The kit is not marketed to model railroaders, but to modelers in general. Walthers and others offer clear and white decal paper. One nice thing about the Testors kit is the included small can of fixative, which must be sprayed onto ink jet printed decals to make them waterproof.
I made the decals for this model, except for the stripes with the kit:
I have a alps and its well worth the investement, alps supplies is the way to go even though they are in new zealand it cost alot less to buy white cartradiges from them then try to compete with all those fools on ebay
Be aware the alps are a fussy printer but if set up right work really good, yahoo has a alps group that tells how to set them up right
So do you use it for applications other than decals?
I take it they work OK with Windows XP (to Hades with Vista)
I use my Epson C120 ink jet printer. Here is a picture of my locomotive decal set. Created with Corel Draw and saved as a jpg file. As you can see you can create any color or hue you wish.
Well, igoldberg that wasn’t the question - you are basically printing red & yellow (onto white decal paper?). We already know that - what you seemed to have stated in a previous post was that you’re printing WHITE lettering using a standard ink-jet (which has black, cyan, magenta, yellow inks) and that seems…rather impossible (or at least one dang neat trick).
Different question to everyone - on the Testors decal paper, must you use the Testors sealant, or can you get away with spraying a different clearcoat like Krylon?
Although I don’t use an inkjet to print decals with I have read extensivly on the subject and have heard that Krylon Kristal kote is the prefered sealant. Personaly, I would not even waste time with the Testors kit. There are several sources on the web to purchase decal paper for both Laser and inkjet printers. http://www.beldecal.com/ is one of them.
As for printing white with an inkjet, it won’t happen any time soon. The entire inkjet/laser printing industry is set up to print with a semitransparent ink/toner that uses the white paper to render the colors properly. This is best demonstrated if you try to print something on a colored sheet of paper. The darker the paper the less visible the image will be. also the color of the paper will change the color of the printed image. For example, yellow printed on a light blue paper will give you a green color. There are no available inks/toners that are a solid opaque color. This is what is needed to be able to print white. Those of us who have Alps printers know that in order to print any color on a clear decal film you have to print a solid opaque white undercoat first. This basically takes the place of the white paper.
A while back, there was an article that appeared on one of the forums I lurk on . It was for a company who developed a method to get a white print on paper. It involved using an injet type of printer, some kind of reactive emulsion and a white powder substance that would stick to the printed image. This is all I remember about it and I never saw it again.
Acceptable decals can be done on an inkjet/laser provided you are going to put them over a light color surface.
Dan Pikulski
Actually, you have most of the software you’ll ever need. MS Word and MS Paint are great starts.If all you want is to modify an existing logo, then you can do that with the Paint eraser. If you have the need for any fancy effects, scaling, or sharpening, then I reccmend Photoshop (Caution, SharpLearning Curve ahead) But others like Paintshop work too.
All you do is set your color to white which is 0 cyan, 0 blue, 0 yellow. The opposite is true, 255 cyan, 255 blue, 255 yellow gives you black. Try it with a graphics program that allows your to set the saturation levels and you will see what I mean.
OK, how does that PRINT white? all that does is leave blank spots on the paper. If you run a sheet of clear decal paper thru the machine it WON’T come out with white on it. It is imposible to print white with conventional inkjet/laser cartridges.
An addendum to my previous post. There is a laser printer, I believe HP, that has a white cartridge available. It is kind of klunky to use though and rather expensive as you need to put 4 cassettes into the printer to trick it.
Dan