# Making Your Own Decals?!?!?!?!



## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

Ok Boys, lets see it here how to make your own decals. 

I bet there is a real simple way to get this done.

We need your help. Please post here the different ideas, papers, and printers you guys do this with.

I have HillTops van and a neighbor who drives UPS and want to make a truck. I have the prints I want to use just need to know how to shrink em down and transfer to decal paper?!?!?


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

Fordcowboy has been trying to get me to make some lately. Just been busy.

His idea (if I got it correct) is to print your images out on paper and then take them to a printing place that has a Laser Printer and give them your Decal paper sheets to print.

Sounds like it would work to me and will give it a shot after I figure out our new art program. Our last computer dumped. Now with windows 7 our new computer will not support our Adobe Art program...dang.

The only way I have made my images into decals so far is to send the images to the fingernail decal people on E-Pay and that has worked very well.

On one instance a certain fingernail decal maker used some decal paper that was more like a very fine thin plastic for thier base. This does not work well at all and they can only be used on flat surfaces as they don't soften up to form with Micro Scales decal set solution.

Bob...am also wanting to make my own custom decals someday...zilla


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## bluerod (Nov 1, 2005)

*ups decals*

joe i think i have some ups decals that came with a ho ups truck i got from alocal hobby train shop years ago think there with the police decals that i cant find at the moment check out a new wealther cataloge see if sell them i keep looking thanks bob


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

First question is ... PC or Mac?

I've printed decals using PC before and had to do it in a label via Word or some other similar program.
It's trial and error to get the sizing and placement right. Use regular paper to test with.
A whole world of fonts is available. You can also lift logos from all over the web.
They come out looking okay. Inkjets print transparent, so you can only do so much.
You can print on clear labels (not recommended), or clear or white decal paper.

I then got a Mac, and all this decal stuff got a whole lot easier.
I could copy all kinds of stuff and pull it into a label maker, crop, adjust color, duplicate and print.
All this stuff you can do on a PC, but it just seemed a whole lot easier on a Mac to me.
The Mac will tell you how big the label is, in inches, MM, while you are adjusting size.
Makes it so easy to get it in the ball park before printing.
I had a huge collection of decals, from individual logos to entire car schemes.
Injets still print transparent, but I then got a laser printer, which was gonna change the whole game.
Laser printers are better because they use toner instead of ink. It's much more opaque.
Not a month after I got the laser printer, my old Mac crashed, I lost all the data.
It really knocked the wind out of my sails. I haven't done much with decals since.
That's why I now use Carbonite. All computers will one day crash, and lose all information.
You can't afford to have this happen to you. Your decals and pics of slot cars are priceless and irreplaceable.
Carbonite backs up your files automatically, you won't even know it's there, until you need it.
Look, don't be like me and lose everything slot related to an untimely crash.
Pics, programs, track info, car setups, race info, HT address, favorite vendors can take years
to replace, and are all at risk without Carbonite.
So get Carbonite today.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

ALPs MD5000 printers use dry ink technology in a cartridge form and have white along with silver and gold foil. yes, they are expensive. the only other way to print white on clear film is hiring a print company. resizing images is fairly easy with nearly every photo program that comes with nearly every operating sytem available for all types of computers these days. try Micro Mark for decal paper kits to get started, if you get the hang of it, then shop for better paper prices. with anything other than an ALPs, if your art has no white, use clear film. if the art includes white, use white film and be prepared to trim very close to the edge of the image when cutting them out. the Micro Mark kit comes with a clear paint to set the ink on the paper and preserve it. after placing these decals it is best to clear coat them again. I do a few for personal use, but I am not prepared to do it for others at this point. yes, I have an ALPs MD5000 and lots of cartridges. very expensive in comparison to what you can do with what you already have.


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Bob sez:


> ... Now with windows 7 our new computer will not support our Adobe Art program...










:freak:  :freak:  :freak:


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Rich sez:


> Laser printers are better because they use toner instead of ink. It's much more opaque.


Rich,
Can you print laser on the same decal stock (paper) you use for inkjet? What decal stock worked well for you on the laser printer?
-- D


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

Micro Mark offers film for either. check out their site for more info. I do recommend their starter kit to experiment with before getting too involved.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

I also have made a few decals, and also am still not equipped to handle making them for others. ( I still have your decal paper Partspig, I haven't forgotten) :lol: There are some tricks to making decals. The biggest one is the method I've used to shrink the design down to size. DO NOT shrink them down on your master!!! It will make the design all fuzzy and distorted. Wait until you go to print them, and resize them in the printer software. There should be a preferences button, and you can fine tune the size you need there. Also, I've been using transparency for paper type as opposed to using the photo paper option. I found the ink doesn't run or check as much going that route. There is a mathematical equation for figuring the amount of reduction you would need, but that stuff is over my head. I just set the settings and guess, print on regular paper, and work from there. 

You can also play with the other settings on the preferences page too. You don't want your decal being printed on 2 sheets of paper, so un-check the center print option, and you can also play with the border sizes too. This will get your decals on one sheet, and allow you to move it on the sheet so you can maximize the number of decals you can get from one sheet of decal paper. Always check the print preview so you can see where you stand. JFYI, I'm using an HP inkjet printer, and use Windows "paint" for my design software. Remember, as stated before, inkjet is on the translucent side of things, so you want to make your decals on clear paper for light colored bodies, and on white paper for darker ones. 

Here is a trick for using white paper... Take a picture of the body you're making the decals for. Make your decal designs and "paste" them over the picture. Then take your handy eraser and trim away the rest of the car, leaving the parts that you want on the decal (the parts you wouldn't want to have to cut out) and have them as part of your final decal. This way, you can print on white paper and it won't show up as much. **Note** There are two options for pasting one picture over another. Use the transparent one (usually the bottom one). You might have to go in and clean up the image after doing this. The next tip will assist you there. **

One more tip... Take advantage of the view!!! Most "paint" types of software have a "zoom" option and you can blow up the image to like 800%. This makes trimming photos /decals/ etc. really easy. It's also easier to add detail to decals when everything is blown up like this. When you're done, click the view button, and un zoom back to 100% and you'll see what you missed.. ( I always miss something!!  ) There is an "eyedropper" option on paint that will match any color, so if there is fuzzy white areas from overlaying images and you need to match the correct color, use the eye dropper to pick up the exact color you need off your image. Then you can use the brush to fill in the blanks.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Dslot said:


> Rich,
> Can you print laser on the same decal stock (paper) you use for inkjet? What decal stock worked well for you on the laser printer?
> -- D


I actually am still looking for good decal paper for laser.
The stuff I have is _supposed_ to be for laser, but it is too slick.
Once printed, the toner sometimes rolls off on the way out the printer while its still hot.
If I could find a way to slow the rollers down, I think I would be fine.
It prints slow, and then rolls it out real fast. I haven't found any kind of setting for this.
In the meantime, I wanna take some regular inkjet paper and try it.
It's much cheaper, and this expensive stuff hasn't worked well anyways.​


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## pshoe64 (Jun 10, 2008)

*Dry Transfer From Laser Printing*

I'm going to jump into one of these systems after new years. I spoke at length to a couple of friends that use this system on 1/72 scale aircraft. I thinking if it works on that scale, compound curves on aircraft and the like, it should work on our cars. Has anyone else tried this? It even creates white, chrome and gold foil among other cool to use stuff.

http://www.pulsarprofx.com/DecalPRO/index.html

I use Photoshop and Illustrator to create the artwork, scale it and colorize it.

-Paul


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

I've seen the video and this looks to have potential. A lot of steps to make one decal in that video.

They still don't have any info on their Hobby/Micro detailer page.
I'm still waiting for more information.


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## slotrod65 (Dec 4, 2005)

making decals really can be split into two steps: drawing the image, and the printing on decal paper.

I draw all of my decals using Coreldraw. Why: because Coreldraw uses raster graphics, which means I can enlarge, or shrink any image withut it getting blurry, or pixelated. 

If I want to reproduce an old decal, I scan the original, and import into Corel, then draw over it. In a sense, I trace it. Most old decals are blurry, and indestinct. Old original Aurora decals are just awful to redraw. I think the original art was just hand lettered, and was not done by a draftsman.

Printing. Well, only one printer prints white, gold, silver, chrome.... That is the ALPS. Ther ALPS 5500 can still be purchased in Japan. The last one I bought was about $900. ALPS printers on ebay are a crap shoot. The printer heads burn out easily with no notice, and it is shot. There is no one who will repair them. I have burned through 8 printers over the years, most were second hand.

As long as you do not need white, I suggest going with Mirco Mark paper, or laser printing.

I will be glad to answer any questions or give any advice if you want to take a crack at Coreldraw/self printing yourself. Just PM me.

Phred


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