Home printing decals

[sirenwerks]

Is it possible to print decals @ home of yellow lettering such as this - http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=979604? I assume it's done on clear paper, but would the red beneath bleed through? Also, how about printing 'silver'? The WP had silver lettering on box cars, flats, and gons, and I'd like to be able to print those @ home as well, if possible.

[DKS]

Yes, the carbody color would bleed through yellow lettering. One trick some fellows use is to print on white decal paper, and surround the lettering with printed carbody color. The tricky part is getting the carbody color to match.

Although you can print colors with an inkjet, silver would require the use of an ALPS printer.

[bbussey]

You do need an Alps printer.  The silver you can print without issue.  The yellow is a problem if it will not be applied to a white background.  Black, white, silver and gold are opaque.  Magenta, cyan and yellow (and combinations thereof) are transparent.

[sirenwerks]

So do the decal printing companies do a double print to get it right?

[DKS]

Most decal companies silkscreen the art. Thus they can use opaque inks of the correct color.

[Chris333]

So how do we silk screen with such detail? Lasers?

[DKS]

So how do we silk screen with such detail? Lasers?

Sorry, my bad, was thinking of something else entirely. Offset printing.

[tom mann]

So how do we silk screen with such detail? Lasers?

I would love to own whatever equipment is necessary to silk screen my own decals.

[DKS]

So how do we silk screen with such detail? Lasers?

I would love to own whatever equipment is necessary to silk screen my own decals.

I was thinking of something else entirely when I wrote silkscreen. Offset printing is the technique. IIRC, dry transfers are done with silkscreen.

But considering that it is possible to produce surprisingly fine detail with silkscreen, it might be a viable process for DIY decals...

http://www.monoprints.com/info/techniques/nik3.html

[Puddington]

Silk screening is, technically capable of producing the detail we require but the screen format is usually a little large to produce a couple of sets of decals. That said, I have a buddy in the industry trying to locate an old screen proofing press (they are long since discontinued) for me...... were one available then I beleiev that a very neat little operation could be set up given the modern pre press techniques and relative inexpense of pre pres materials for screen printing.

[sirenwerks]

Maybe I'm not seeing something important... I know ALPS is out of the retail printer business, but is there just not enough market for a color printer that prints white (hello, craft market?) or is there a patent issue or did the technology never really work all that well? Why hasn't anyone picked up where ALPS left off?

Out of curiosity, do paint manufacturers, or model manufacturers for that matter, readily provide the R/G/B or C/M/Y/K or Pantone designations for the colors they produce/use so printing background colors on white decal paper is less of a guessing game?

And when using white decal paper, is there any sort of white that shows at the cut edge of the decal, like a paper underlayer below the ink?

[Zox]

...a very neat little operation could be set up given the modern pre press techniques and relative inexpense of pre pres materials for screen printing.

There's a silk-screening device for home use that's being sold at Michael's, among other places:

http://www.whatdoyudu.com/

It might be adaptable for the purpose.

[bbussey]

Maybe I'm not seeing something important... I know ALPS is out of the retail printer business, but is there just not enough market for a color printer that prints white (hello, craft market?) or is there a patent issue or did the technology never really work all that well? Why hasn't anyone picked up where ALPS left off?

Out of curiosity, do paint manufacturers, or model manufacturers for that matter, readily provide the R/G/B or C/M/Y/K or Pantone designations for the colors they produce/use so printing background colors on white decal paper is less of a guessing game?

And when using white decal paper, is there any sort of white that shows at the cut edge of the decal, like a paper underlayer below the ink?

I believe Alps still holds the patents and is preventing development at the low end so as to protect its current market share.

When ESM commissioned Microscale to produce decals for the NH/B&M/BAR 6-4-6 passenger car sides a couple of years ago, we supplied either a Floquil or Scalecoat designation.  With the G26 mill gons, we supplied paint chips.  In the past however, on both paint and print colors, we use to provide Pantone designations.

There is a thin edge of white around the perimeter of a white decal that would need to be covered, unless the decoration around the edges of the decals is white.

BTW, Microscale does provide custom decal services.  The minimum quantity would be far greater than desired most likely ... but if you provide the finished digital vector artwork (instead of utilizing them to create it), both the price and the lead time is extremely reasonable.

[Chris333]

For the offset printing they must use some sort of heatset or UVset ink.

[wpsnts]

Microscale made the decals for that caboose. If that is the lettering you are looking for I would look around for the decals and paint the car body.
MS also made several silver WP decals. Notice the word "made". They stopped producing many of their WP decals

I can recommend an excellent custom decal printer.
Rail Graphics
http://www.railgraphicsdecals.com/

I have used their decals many times and the results are outstanding. He has a minimum order but the quantity and price are quite reasonable. Coincidentally I have been pondering the same lettering as on the WP caboose for several different WP models I am going to do.
Send me an email if you'd like to discuss going in together on an order and save so money.
wpsnts@earthlink.net