Form my Early locomotives, I used Ink Jet Printer decals to make the lettering for my Kramerton Boise Central (Now Oregon Midland) locomotives. However, the ink waashed off, and they were so transparent that they could only be placed on a light color. Now we are trying Laser Printer decals. Will these work better? Is there any way, that I could get my hands on some “make your own” decals, that will be Opaque enough to place on a dark color, or do I have to pay someone a considerable sum of money to make them for me [;)]. How, for example, did Tony Koester do the Yellow lettering fo rhis AM?
Most any home printer is going to give you less than desireable results over darker color. The inks are by design some-what transparent to create the full spectrum of printed colors. Unless you have access to either an Alps or Kodak printer capable of printing white, you just aren’t going to be happy with the results.
You “could” print your decals on blank white film - that would give you the desired result, by it would require some very accurate trimming so no white showed around the edges.
Folks like Tony (AM) and Allen (V&O) had their decals printed by one of the custom decal companies. They are printed using a silk-screen process (same as Microscale) and are very opaque. The down-side to this is that most of these places not only have a minimum order, but also require you to either provide the artwork or have them do it at additional cost.
Mark.
Contact me off list and I should be able to assist.
Teditor.
I ran into the same problem you are facing. The color washed off of the decal paper because you probably didn’t coat the decals with a clear polyurethane finish?
I got some ink jet paper and made my decals in “Word” then took them down to the local print shop and had them print them off on their color Laser printer. Cost me $1.15 per sheet total for my decals. Microscale was going to make them for me but wanted $300.00. I may still have Microscale do them if these do not work. I want to try to finish the first batch of locomotives today and can get back to you to show success/failures.
The problem with these printers, besides age (ALPS has not been made for more than 10 years), is that the company that makes the inks has discontinued these products. I have seen notices on a number of medium to smaller decal manufacturers sites that they are having to find another way of printing when their ink supply runs out. Many are converting to silk screening. The big guys like Microscale have printing presses
As to custom decal manufacturers, I have heard good things about Rail Graphics
Great, let me know how it goes. The man at teh hobby shop told us with the laser printer decal paper “You can’t scrub it off” o at least the ink will stay on[;)]
I finally got to put some of the home made decals on one of my locomotives today. They look very nice (not pro but way better than expected). The orange logo looks awesome on the lighter color of the locomotive body but doesn’t show up as nicely on the darker portions. I may print some of the the decals on white paper (the nose stripes and side stripe markers mainly) to bring out their color better.
Pics to follow.
We have a local shop called Romisco Signs which specializes in billboards, large business signs, magnetic signs for vehicle doors, etc., and they make custom HO scale decals for us at a very reasonable cost using a laser printer that can print white on clear, including graphics (a saguaro cactus). Check in your local area and you may have a sign company with similar capabilites.