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I have done some searching. I am looking to create/print white decals like the ones GW does. However those appear to be actual White decals on transfer paper. Laser printing seems to be the way to go as inkjet the ink can run and has to be properly sealed. From what I can tell you need a special printer called an ALPS 5000 to print white? IS this the only printer that does this? Anyone know of any hobby shops that can print white decals, if so please link them (not just a black outline on white paper, or White letters that I have to cut out.) I mean something like the white skulls, logos, on clear decal transfer that GW has with Space Marine Kit for example.

I called Fedex Kinkos, they couldn't do it. I called GW, and was told the outsource all their decal printing to a company in the UK, she was not aware (or lied and couldn't tell me) who they use. Anyone know who they use?

Also as far as images go, i was planning to just use photoshop to get an image upto 300+ dpi to make sure its visible, may have to buy a stock image, but hopefully photoshop can let me get some regular image off the internet to a a sharper and higher dpi.

Any tips as far as software, printing, locations, etc... for replicating the GW style white transfers would be great.

Tl;DR: I need to print custom white decals on clear paper like GW has, not on white paper. Please provide guidance.

http://www.fallouthobbies.com/decals

They have pre-made sheets and take custom orders too. Haven't used myself but probably where I will go for my Salamander decals if I can scrounge up more old sheets.

Could you not do a very light grey on a clear sheet? On top.of.paint it would.probably.look white but it would be something that a laser printer could.manage.

Just buy the white decal sheets instead of the clear. The white areas of your design will not print and just leave the white decal paper - the only issue is you have to trim the decal really close to the edges, since any edge will show as white and this can be a pain to do on a tiny decal. You can get around this by placing a colored area for the background that is close to the color it will be placed on top of, then you do not have to trim it so close.

I have used both the Testors decal sheets and on a large project I bought the white laser decal sheets from decalpaper.com.

Another plug for FalloutHobbies / Chapter Customizer.

Printing white is an expensive prospect, there are very few printers that can do it, and they are all 'professional' tier machines.

I've used their Lion transfers on my models and they are excellent.

They do full custom jobs in addition to what they already offer.

 Flinty wrote:
Could you not do a very light grey on a clear sheet? On top.of.paint it would.probably.look white but it would be something that a laser printer could.manage.

Unfortunately it doesn't work like this. A printer prints 'light grey' with fairly widely spaced dots of black. On top of white paper, this looks like a light grey. But if you print it on clear decal paper, when you put the decal on the model the colour will look like a slightly darker version of whatever colour is underneath it. This is the thing to remember with clear decal paper. Any regular printer will assume that the image is being printed on white paper, and it uses the colour of the paper 'showing through' to help create the lighter colours. The lighter the colour, the more it relies on the white paper, the darker the colour the more ink and the less it relies on the whiteness of the paper. That's why you use clear decal paper if you're printing dark decals to stick over lighter backgrounds, but if you want light decals to go over darker backgrounds you have to print them on white decal paper.

The best you can do if you need to use white decal paper isn't just to do an outline, but to do a large blob of whatever your background colour is surrounding the light image. So, if for example you were creating decals for Dark Angels, you'd entirely surround the symbol with a dark green, as close as you can guess to matching your paint. That means that you don't need to cut it out incredibly precisely, so long as your cut is in the green area you'll be fine. Then when you apply the decal you can seal it onto the mini with some varnish then blend your paint over the edges of the printed green so that it matches. It's more of a pain than using the clear paper, but it's the best you can do for homemade decals if you need light symbols on dark colours. It's how I've done most of my Salamanders and Deathwatch decals.

It's a bit fiddly, but it's not too bad and the results are still pretty good if you do it well. I'd rather do that than pay a company a premium to print white ones for me.

KaoxVeed wrote:
http://www.fallouthobbies.com/decals

They have pre-made sheets and take custom orders too. Haven't used myself but probably where I will go for my Salamander decals if I can scrounge up more old sheets.

I looked at them but they are way expensive, like more than FW mega sheets. And they limit it to two symbols. Not going to work.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MDSW wrote:
Just buy the white decal sheets instead of the clear. The white areas of your design will not print and just leave the white decal paper - the only issue is you have to trim the decal really close to the edges, since any edge will show as white and this can be a pain to do on a tiny decal. You can get around this by placing a colored area for the background that is close to the color it will be placed on top of, then you do not have to trim it so close.

I have used both the Testors decal sheets and on a large project I bought the white laser decal sheets from decalpaper.com.

Yeah I am aware of this method, but I dont want to trim the decals. Can get tedious if they are complicated or on small shoulder pads.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ulfhednar_42 wrote:
Another plug for FalloutHobbies / Chapter Customizer.

Printing white is an expensive prospect, there are very few printers that can do it, and they are all 'professional' tier machines.

I've used their Lion transfers on my models and they are excellent.

They do full custom jobs in addition to what they already offer.

I don't see the Lion ones. Are these premade or did you customize these?

 Dynas wrote:

Ulfhednar_42 wrote:
Another plug for FalloutHobbies / Chapter Customizer.

Printing white is an expensive prospect, there are very few printers that can do it, and they are all 'professional' tier machines.

I've used their Lion transfers on my models and they are excellent.

They do full custom jobs in addition to what they already offer.

I don't see the Lion ones. Are these premade or did you customize these?

They are premade, on the chapter customzer site https://www.chaptercustomizer.com/chapter3/ rather than fallout hobbies.

Thanks. Still not going to work, I have a dozen or so different images. Any other thoughts?

There are two choices:

Whatever you self-print you'll need to trim the decals.

1) Print on white decal paper with a wide border of close to the colour you want, then paint over to blend it in. This is the method done on these Wars of the Roses archers. The decal is actually an easy-to-cut oval, with the colour around the knot:



2) Print an outline decal, paint in that what, then apply another decal over the top. This is the method used in this tutorial.

http://www.winterdyne.co.uk/maz/winterdyne_tutorial3.pdf

Hmmm. That is a good tutorial, but still requiring me to repaint the white or edge border.

I am looking for something like the White Ultramarine symbols you get in the Tac Marine boxes. White decals on film. I just apply decal, microsol afterward, and its done. I don't have to paint any borders or prepaint areas. I can put white over blue and boom. Done. That is what I am looking for.

Then yes, you'll need a printer capable of working in white.

That's either an ALPS or screen printing, or you can get white laser toner (needs a dedicated printer and it's only made for a few). None of which are particularly cheap options. Likely that going to a third party will be cheaper than setting yourself up.

What images are you trying to print? Maybe some of us know existing decal sheets that could help you.

One of them is the Reek Sigil in this Forum Avatar. The creature with the horn. There is also the Lannister Lion sigil I want in white, and yellow (that i can get). There are some phrase as well. Others are cool pics I have found online. I have compiled them but not formatted them in photoshop yet as I don't want to go through all that and get a photoshop licence for a month until I am for sure I can get it printed.

Why use photoshop? GIMP is free?

Depending on where you want your decals, you might also consider another method - use a stencil and airbrush.

If you produce a vector of your whole image or only of the white portion, you can either print that and do exacto magic, or have someone laser cut that vector out of cheap flexible plastic or have someone use a cutting plotter to cut it many times out of cheap foil meant for window signage.

The idea is that you place your stencil where you want the logo, then hit it with a bit of white from your airbrush. Later apply a regular transparent decal with the non-white colours on top.

That said, you could also just paint a white dot and make sure to cover it with the darker parts of a transparent decal placed on top of the white dot ;-]

Example: