HAS ANYONE USED THE PRINTABLE DECAL SHEETS?

Buckyroo · Post by **Buckyroo** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:50 am

Saw some printable decal sheets at the hobbie shop and was wondering if anyone has used them in the past and if they have worked well or not. It would definitely be easier than masking and multi painting the markings. Let me know if anyone has an opinion on this subject.

Kris

:p51:

Ruger · Post by **Ruger** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:25 am

I have, and I wrote most of what I noticed about it HERE. There are even a few pics of some of my early trials. So far I'm happy with it, and plan on doing more, just as soon as I remember where I put the stuff.

The linked thread also contains a copy of Cabe's advice to me when I asked the same question you are asking, as he had done it all before I did. It proved helpful. Check it out, and feel free to ask any questions, I'll try to answer as best I can.

MV

Buckyroo · Post by **Buckyroo** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:49 am

I found this article while snooping around today.

http://www.internetmodeler.com/artman/p ... decals.php

pcoughran · Post by **pcoughran** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:53 am

I used Experts Choice decal paper to print decals for my PTE A-10.

You have to put a film over the decals after printing. Either airbrush or use a wide soft brush. They recommend something called Microscale Liquid Decal Film. I brushed mine on. You have to make sure it has a good coat or maybe even 2 or 3. The first couple I did I only put one coat and when getting them wet they wanted to roll up. When putting on the model they did not want to unroll.
After putting lots of Micro Set/ Micro Sol on them some of them worked. But, I printed another sheet and put like 3 coats of film on and they were much easier to get on the model without rolling up.
I was pleased overall with the results. Just make sure you have a good gloss coat or two down before putting decals, then put on another gloss coat and dry then finally your flat coat if you want a flat finish.

Coreyeagle48 · Post by **Coreyeagle48** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:46 pm

Greetings:

I would recommend the Vita Cal decal kit for making your own decals. The kit comes with everything you need and if you follow the directions you can produce some good looking decals.

My B-25 was done using one of these kits and the decals came out nice. I am currently working on another project and I am going to do decals in this kit again, just waiting for the weather to warm as I have no place to spray here inside.

Here is my B-25 I did using the Vita Cal decal kit.

viewtopic.php?t=14477&highlight=briefing

Some things I noticed:

-Follow the kit directions defintely!

-You will need to use white paper if your decal has any type of white in it as printers do not print white.

-Yellow can present some problems, especially if being placed on a dark surface. The yellow printer inks have sometimes doesn't show up to well in relation to a dark background, I painted in the yellow and white serial numbers due to this

-Defintely dullcoat over them. I still have not gotten to do this yet on my model but I am sure would hide the decals when I do.

These do work great. They worked for me like any other water slide decal. I thought they were pretty durable and worked well on my model.

***

I also tried using sticky paper like Avery address labels and so on for making decals. This worked okay, but they do not stay on very well at all. It'd be good to practice with or to get a layout of the decals but not for the model unless you are going to glue them down and coat over them with dullcote a few times. This type of paper is think and leaves a pretty visible edge line.

Hope this helps

Corey