Need suggestions for freelancing with decals

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Hi,
I have recently begun fiddling around painting and decaling my own cars, with the longer-term objective of getting around 40% to 50% of my rolling stock into the livery of my “Grand Lake, Alta, and Truckee” railroad. I have conceptualized this road as a modern era independent that serves the Western mountains (CA, NV, UT, WY, and CO). I completed my first attempt this afternoon, and have a couple of questions.

First, are there decent options available for laser printing decals? To date I have been using a laser printer with a commercially available decal paper, but the film seems just a little thick, making it difficult to get the decals to "disappear’ completely. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Second, I have been using Walther’s solvent to set the decals, but have ordered some Micro Sol and some Micro Set. How different is the latter process from the Walther’s process? Is there anything I need to know?

Finally, can anyone point me to some good resources on the subject? I’ve picked up a couple of useful pieces from the Kalmbach website, but a lot of the information I’ve come across is a little contradictory.

Many thanks!

-Tom

2

Tom–

For what it’s worth, I’ve had very good luck with custom decals from Rail Graphics. Both their service and products are exceptional. The down side is that you are going to pay a lot more than if you do it yourself on your own printer. For me, it’s well worth it, especially since I had them do the artwork and layout for me. By the way, your concept and execution are excellent–I envy your talent. Keep up the good work!

Mike