Has anyone printed their own decals?

[CJSomerset]

I’ve been playing with 3D printing making my own stuff from scratch ( Think life sized Steampunk Nazi Zombie apocalypse )



So far I’ve been using left over decals to enhance the finished prints, but I’d like to be able to make exactly the decals I want..

I’ve seen printable water slide decals for sale…..Has anyone tried than? I can see that printing white is going to be a problem……

[Panzón]

I've printed a few decals using a color laser printer (decals printed on an inkjet printer must be sealed with a varnish before use). It's not especially difficult-- generating suitable artwork is the hardest part-- but as you've pointed out, the inability to print white without investing in a special printer can be problematic. Many commercial decals are printed over a white background so the colors show up better. I've used white decal paper, but there are two potential problems that I ran into. First, one must cut the decal very carefully and precisely to avoid a white border (assuming a white border is not part of the decal's design), and second, even if one is able to perfectly cut the decal, a white edge may still show up in the thickness of the decal. If you print on clear decal paper, the decal may not show up well if it is applied to a dark model, though clear paper works great for decals applied to white or lighter-colored models.

Here are some clear-paper decals I printed (13EEE and Panzón Customs) on a Hot Wheels car I repainted:



The dark printing shows up OK on the lighter background, but the self-printed decals don't show up as well as the small commercially printed decals.

And here is a decal (Panzón Customs) printed on white decal paper on a 1/25 scale model:



I simply printed on the white paper, and then just cut out a rectangle to the size I wanted to look like a vinyl sign on the side of the car. I think it looks as good as the commercially printed decals, but of course, it's a very simple decal.

Anyway, all I can tell you from my limited experience is that the pros of printing one's own decals are that you can have decals with your own designs , and any size you choose. The cons are that for the decal to look good on the finished model, one must carefully design the decal, keeping in mind the type of decal paper being used, the color of the paint used on the model, and the intricacy of the decal's outline (especially for small decals) if using white paper.

[CJSomerset]

Thanks Mike that’s exactly what I needed to know. I think I’ll give it a go…..

[digger303]

I've printed a few decals using a color laser printer (decals printed on an inkjet printer must be sealed with a varnish before use). It's not especially difficult-- generating suitable artwork is the hardest part-- but as you've pointed out, the inability to print white without investing in a special printer can be problematic. Many commercial decals are printed over a white background so the colors show up better. I've used white decal paper, but there are two potential problems that I ran into. First, one must cut the decal very carefully and precisely to avoid a white border (assuming a white border is not part of the decal's design), and second, even if one is able to perfectly cut the decal, a white edge may still show up in the thickness of the decal. If you print on clear decal paper, the decal may not show up well if it is applied to a dark model, though clear paper works great for decals applied to white or lighter-colored models.

Here are some clear-paper decals I printed (13EEE and Panzón Customs) on a Hot Wheels car I repainted:



The dark printing shows up OK on the lighter background, but the self-printed decals don't show up as well as the small commercially printed decals.

And here is a decal (Panzón Customs) printed on white decal paper on a 1/25 scale model:



I simply printed on the white paper, and then just cut out a rectangle to the size I wanted to look like a vinyl sign on the side of the car. I think it looks as good as the commercially printed decals, but of course, it's a very simple decal.

Anyway, all I can tell you from my limited experience is that the pros of printing one's own decals are that you can have decals with your own designs , and any size you choose. The cons are that for the decal to look good on the finished model, one must carefully design the decal, keeping in mind the type of decal paper being used, the color of the paint used on the model, and the intricacy of the decal's outline (especially for small decals) if using white paper.

Good to know thank you and I think your right the paper most likely makes a big difference.

[RangerNeil]

Interesting how topics pop up together - having wrecked the front roundel decal on the SPV the question was asked about printing one off and now we have an excellent thread on how to print them off!

[NoelSmith]

Making your own decals sounds interesting.
Considering that white or clear decal sheet comes in a standard paper size like A4 for example, unless your printing is carefully planned to maximise the amount of designs per sheet, it could result in a lot of sheet wastage.
Unless of course any of you guys know a way around this.

[Panzón]

Making your own decals sounds interesting.
Considering that white or clear decal sheet comes in a standard paper size like A4 for example, unless your printing is carefully planned to maximise the amount of designs per sheet, it could result in a lot of sheet wastage.
Unless of course any of you guys know a way around this.

The printer I use allows me to print at various smaller sizes such as 3 x 5 inches or 4 x 6 inches, so I just designed the layout of the decals to that smaller size, and then cut the decal paper to size (I was getting 4 smaller size sheets out of each full-size sheet), and printed. I assume the same could be done with any printer that can print on photo-sized paper.