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I'm in thought of creating a very hard freehand sketch for my IG regiment called "Wild Cards" and i thought the use of decal paper could help me, any thoughts on this? thanks (oh and the symbol is 3 cards overlapping each other with 'WILD CARD' written above it). Please tell me if I'm being too general.

The company that make the paper have a program that helps you with all that it sets up the printer and has a draw program if I am not mistaken.

Gutteridge wrote:I'm in thought of creating a very hard freehand sketch for my IG regiment called "Wild Cards" and i thought the use of decal paper could help me, any thoughts on this? thanks (oh and the symbol is 3 cards overlapping each other with 'WILD CARD' written above it). Please tell me if I'm being too general.

I used decal paper to make waterslide transfers for my Flesh Tearers space marines.

I purchased the paper from micro-mark.com in the USA. I know others have provided links to stores in various countries that sell decal paper.

I used a scanner to scan a design from the 2nd edition Space Hulk rulebook. I put that picture into Photoshop, cleaned it up, darkened some spots, and then scaled it to fit on a shoulder pad. Once i had it scaled, I copy/pasted many copies onto my photoshop layer. I also made larger versions for Rhinos, Speeders, dreads, etc.

From there I printed with an Epson ink-jet printer onto the decal paper. After that dried, I sprayed a decal/ink fixative onto the decal paper, to keep the inkjet ink from running. Once that dried I cut them out and applied as usual.

Couple of things: there is different paper for inkjets and laserjets. laserjet decal printing doesn't require a fixative.

Decal papers come in white and clear. And most home printers don't print "white" as a color. So you need to think about how to format your insignia so that you get what you want. For my FT decals, I had to print a black "border" around the sawblade on white decal paper, so that the saw was white, and the black border blended with my black shoulderpads.

I used micromark's decal setting set (setting solution, softening solution), and applied them over a gloss coat, and then when done a dull coat to tie it all together.

If you want to see pics of my decals, or have any other questions, let me know.

Thanks for the tips, and I'd like to see some pics, if possible!

i have a inkjet printer but what setting do i have to use the decal paper with? is their anything in the printing options i need too know? or is it just similar to printing normally? and how much detail can you get into the decal paper? sorry for the large amount of questions and thanks for the information above.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/236025.page#660021

Take a look at the last post there.

Gutteridge wrote:i have a inkjet printer but what setting do i have to use the decal paper with? is their anything in the printing options i need too know? or is it just similar to printing normally? and how much detail can you get into the decal paper? sorry for the large amount of questions and thanks for the information above.

I used the "photo" printing option when I printed mine.

Depending on the picture, its resolution, and your printer's resolution, you can get pretty fine detail.

Otherwise, its just printing normally.

I found it to be a trial and error process. I printed several small tests, cut them out of paper, and made sure they'd fit on the pads before the "final run".

I also used an Epson printer for my first run. Then I bought a Canon printer, and tried a second run, and it was a mess. The ink didn't dry right, and it interacted poorly with the fixative. I actually went out and bought another Epson printer so that I could do the decals. Which is to say test it before doing a full job.

I will post pics later tonight.

OK, here is a pic of one of my landspeeders. You can see the decal on the shoulder pad of the driver, and the rear wing of the speeder.

In real life, the edging of the decal is not so obvious compared to the high res picture. Of course, this has induced me to go back and better feather the decals.


As you can see, the white decal paper is opaque enough (at least the ones I bought) to print around the white, and use them. This decal paper, along with the ink, and fixative, made the decals thicker than GW decals, hence the slight ridge. This ridge could probably be minimized by applying more decal softener around the edges after it has dried, before dull coating.