As far as decal paper goes, is it better to use the water slide decal paper or the dry rub on decal paper. I know the water slide has to be clear coated after printing, does the same apply to the dry rub on?

thanks for any help, I'm going to attempt to make my own decals for the first time.

About two weeks ago I printed my first decals, a set of Equatorial Guinean air force roundels for a Hind heli gunship. I would have just bought some, but decals for this small air force aren't commercially available.
Will you be using an inkjet or laser printer? Each requires its own special decal paper. If you're going to take it to a print shop, call them first, and ask which type of color printer they use.
I used a Bare Metal Foil clear inkjet sheet. The roundels I printed are a green outermost ring, then a white ring, with a red circle and a blue dot in the middle. Unfortunately, printers which print in white ink are very rare. I had some white circles in my decal dungeon, which I applied to the model first. When these had dried, I applied the newly-printed roundels over them.
After printing my decals, I sprayed them with a coat of Testors Clear Gloss to seal them. If you're using laser paper, I think a spray coat before printing would be a good idea. The instructions will guide you through this.
If your decals will be partially white, you can print them onto clear decal film like I did, if you have some kind of white backing. Or, you can print them onto white decal paper, but then, you have the problem of trimming away the white surrounding your decal. One answer is to print an area around your decal in the color the plane will be painted.
I hope this helps. Good luck with your decals.

Thanks for your input jphillips.

I will be using an ink jet printer and because I need white in the decal I will have to use white decal paper. To use water slide or dry rub on is my main concern at the moment, each must have plus and minus points.

Thanks again...

Des

My answer was to go to "Kinkos" with "laser safe" decal paper.

Ink jet definately several coats of clear BUT! you must use the clear coated ones within a day or so if you have compound curves to cover. Otherwise just one light coat until you are ready to use them. Use the same clear coat both times and I would go with a lacquer based clear. Modern lacquer based clear coats for hobby use don't yellow over time. I use Testors. Others have a good bit of luck with Future Floor wax. I has a polymer base and stays reasonably pliable.

I have no experience making decals myself with inkjet or laserjet.

But the subject does interest me and I have a few questions:


How stable is are such homemade decals?

- are the colors staying OK or are they fading after a short time?
- do these decals continue to stick to the surface?
- are there more problems with silvering?

-H

Great timing as I've just picked up some white decal paper (laser) at the scotnats show at the weekend.

I now have to print some stuff but it will only take up a small piece of the letter sized sheet.

Is it ok to run this through printer multiple times or is laser printing a one shot deal?

For the items that are white should I print a black outline round them to ease cutting?

Thanks for any guidance as this is really new to me, but if one can print ones own decals
then a whole lot of modeling possibilities open up.

In fact if I can get it to work I'll revisit my irish/soviet strutter (don't ask)
and put a harp decal on it rather than the crudely painted harp on there at the moment.

I've been printing my own decals recently on laser waterslide paper. In response to the OP's question, definitely water-slide, I don't see how a rub-on type would work on anything but a flat surface.

In terms of fading, injets use either dyes or pigments- pigments last a lots longer, in most circumstances. Laser are (I think) all pigment based, and I think should offer the best longevity- they are also very tough- I didn't use and pre or post-printing coating of the paper before application, and then used MicroSol and Set- basically I just treated then like a commercial transfer. The didn't have any problems at all. No silvering, conformed to surfaces well.

I'm pretty sure I have bad paper...I tried to print out some decals today and got "wet globs of mixed color"...I was using an inkjet printer and modelmaster decal paper. It was just puddles.......very discouraging!
Oh, I was using our HP photosmart C6180 and had it on "best" image print-