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Back in the day I used to create decals for my models. I had an ALPS printer and all was right with the world. I even sold a line of decals for a number of years - but from my ALPS printer and some printed in the traditional manner via Microscale. These days I don't have the ALPS printer so I don't do my own decals anymore. Which means that I do a lot more hand-painting of markings. This has an upside (an increased ability to do freehand work) and a downside (lack of consistency and potentially more time required). I must say, I miss doing my own decals.

I admit that I've never tried doing them with traditional printers. It seems like that's only going to get you so far since you can't back-print with white. Have any of you tried printing your own and what has been your experience with it? Is it worth the effort?

Also, who is doing custom decals these days? Anybody?

I asked a similar question concerning waterslide decals, various users posted towards the bottom of the thread on their experience.

LINK

Not a direct answer to your questions but I hope you get some value from it.

I've used laser decal paper to make colour decals.

The key drawback is the need to cope with either clear backing which assumes you have a white background, or else the white backed film which requires you to cut the design very carefully to make it neat.

You can get around that by painting a white panel on the model where you are going to apply the decal. If your decal is pure black it doesn't matter. If your decal has an easy to cut out edge, the white backed paper is probably the way to go.

So, nothing's really changed in the world of decals, then. I keep hoping that an alternative to the ALPS would appear. It's strange when a piece of technology just sort of fades away.

I really love the stuff that I got created via Microscale, though. Nothing beats a well-done screen printed decal. The ALPS was great for the ability to do small print runs for sale and really small print runs for personal use, but the colors could be lacking if you did anything but primaries.

This is a subject very close to my heart, and its fair to say- can be extremely frustrating.

My freehand skills are between poor and non-existent, which makes creating a custom army logo a real pain.

However if my eyes serve me right, the ALPS printer website can provide custom decaling, which could be the answer to my prayers.

So thanks Dullspork for bringing them to my attention, and if you have any other info, please share with the group!

 CadianXV wrote:
This is a subject very close to my heart, and its fair to say- can be extremely frustrating.

My freehand skills are between poor and non-existent, which makes creating a custom army logo a real pain.

However if my eyes serve me right, the ALPS printer website can provide custom decaling, which could be the answer to my prayers.

So thanks Dullspork for bringing them to my attention, and if you have any other info, please share with the group!

Actually, Alps is a manufacturer of printers. They used to have a desktop printer that used a thermal transfer ribbon that included white as a color. Because of this, it was perfect for making custom decals. Sadly, the printer is no longer available.

- Jay