Printer

[Albert]

Which printer would be the best one to make my own decals for 1/87 cars. I would like to make logos, shields, plates....

Time ago we talked with Eric of the Oki printers, able to print in white.

Now I have seen the sublimation/thermal printers for digital pictures. They print in a small format but enought for 1/87 decals. They are around 160 EUR.
Do you think it would work if I use decals paper instead of photografic sheets?

[cfesmire]

Albert,
From my experience and the knowledge of others, one gets some very nice decals with the use of an ink jet printer like the one you probably already use with your computer. I believe that the results lie mostly in the choice of paper (film) one uses. Of course there is the artwork itself. I have found a great deal of clip art type material that can easily be converted to scale and a simple drawing program can produce decal atr work also.
Our good friend, Todd Terpstra has a nice tutorial regarding the subject: www.toadwerks.net/hintstips8.html

Good luck!

[Albert]

Thanks Chester,

It is the best link I have read about printing the own decals.
I will try with Bare Metal Foil decal sheets.
I have been using "Super Cal" but I a not satisfied with it.

[Sylvain]

Very interesting links, thanks! Now I have to find some of these decal sheets.

[cfesmire]

I have switched to the BMF product and have had very satisfactory results. I began using the JetCal paper and it affords the opportunity to get white images but the color quality is inferior to the BMF paper. If I need white, I underlay the JetCal paper with the white background and decal over it with the colors on the better paper. The JetCal paper also does not react to decal setting solutions so if you have detailed contours under the decal it will not conform to them.

[Eric]

The old Alps MD printers and the newer OKI DP printers are still the ones I'd prefer for decals. I have tried inkjet, but the result isn't as good because the colours tend to bleed. A problem that is non-existant in the Alps/OKI dry printers. Plus the fact that the dry printers are capable of printing white and metallic (!) colours ofcourse.

However, since Alps printers can not be bought new anymore and the refurbished ones are getting pretty difficult to find and OKI has announced (several times already) that their DP printers will no longer be available 'shortly' I think that we only have one viable option left... a colour laser printer.

Any experiences with this method ? Anyone ?

[Eric]

Albert said:

Now I have seen the sublimation/thermal printers for digital pictures. They print in a small format but enought for 1/87 decals. They are around 160 EUR.

Albert,

I have not seen any of these printers yet, could you let me know which brand(s) and model(s) you are referring to ?

Thks,

Eric

[skunk]

I am thinking about buying a printer, does anyone know what there is in the market that allows for silver/white prints etcetera? I am willing to spend some money. Todd's site toadwerks doesn't work anymore, it's become some kind of stupid site trying to sell pets (I think) with tons of pop-ups.

I will also ask on mo87, a lot of those guys print their own decals.

[Lee]

skunk said:

Todd's site toadwerks doesn't work anymore, it's become some kind of stupid site trying to sell pets (I think) with tons of pop-ups.

That is a real shame and loss. Maybe we should start coping and pasting information instead of relying on someone's website to be around forever.