Re: Testors Sure Thing Decal Maker 11 ((LINK))
Qiana Castagna
I purchased the Testors decal system. I cannot recall the specifics, but advertising on the package indicated the upgrade was included. After installing, I also found that the software was the basic version and did not include the upgrade.
There is a new product called Decalpro FX which means you can produce pale decals to go on dark backgrounds. The original art work can be done in black on white then a so called toner overlay is applied which produced a white decal if you use the white tone, yellow for the yellow toner etc. The decals themselves are rub down decals and are produced using quite complex multi stage process.
The examples given are quite large and complex but last time I looked the customer photos showed both HO and large scale freight cars lettered using this method. There was one quote on the site from an N gauge modeller who uses this system
I don't have any special software. I create my sheets in MS word and use the built-in tools to get them to the exact right size and then just print (at highest resolution/quality settings) them on the "water-slide" paper.
I have used Micro-Mark Decal paper, both white backed and clear with good results. As for a finish coat, I used a product made for coating photos printed on an inkjet. Spray on, dry and repeat, same as for the polyurethane spray. This is designed to stop home printed photos from being affected by moisture - should be available at good camera stores, which is where I got mine. Then I used the standard micro - sol decal setting solution with no problems. As far as designs go, any good paint or design program should be able to achieve good results. There is a good little (Free!) app called Sketchpad 3.5 that I use on my mac to do simple design work.
Getting the background color right is a tricky thing. In theory, it works, in practice, not always. Best bet is a black color, or other dark color. I did some engine decals that way recently, and printed black around where the numbers/letters should be.
I used to get my decal paper from Micro-Mark but always thought it was too expensive there. I started looking around and found Their inkjet paper is identical to Micro-Mark's but is half the cost. I order 20 sheets for $17.00. The same number of sheets at Micro-Mark is close to $32.00. This is just FYI.
One more thing. I spray the newly printed decals with Deft Clear Wood Finish (lacquer). I use semi-gloss and it works great after about three coats. A 12.25 oz. can sells for less than $6.00 at Home Depot (the only store that sells it). Before applying my decals i give a car a couple of light coats of Deft Gloss. Both Deft products dry quickly and work great for me. Deft does not make a flat finish so I am forced to use Model Master #1960 at $6.00+ a 3oz. can. That's kind of a rip if you ask me. Oh well, it is what it is.
As I do N Scale, I only need half the paper width. I get a sheet and divide it in 2, cutting it in half top to bottom, so instead of 22cm wide it is now 2 sheets at 11cm wide. I tape the top of the sheet to another piece of paper with a 1cm edge on the side, and as high up as I can. This now creates a carrier sheet. So now you have a half width sheet and the carrier ready to go.
Measure from the top and record the distance the decal paper goes down. When your decal is about to be printed, move the pictures to the bottom of the sheet so the last one is just above the bottom of the decal sheet. This will print it in the lowest position on the decal sheet. Once printed you can cut the bottom of the decal sheet with the item you needed, and the sheet is ready again for the next print without any fuss. You can use basically all the sheet before doing it to the next one.
In Australia, I also use White Knight Crystal Clear Acrylic satin (as the Matt is no longer made!) for coating the decals after printing them. The most important thing is that it has to be NON-YELLOWING! Other items after a year or two will start to go yellow and this destroys the look of it! Also, once the decal is put on the model, you can spray it again with the spray and dull down the shine on the loco or wagon at the same time, and seals it against the body too.
So I ordered custom decals and some of the stripping isn't up to par for me. I was wondering if it is possible to cut the stripe off of the decal sheet, airbrush a better color, and apply the decal that has the airbrushed paint?
You are correct it's in a hard area. The engine I'm working on is the NS Pennsylvania Heritage Unit. It's the front of the engine where the stripes curve. The decals I have are an image from a photograph and it looks grainy. Since I all ready have to cut out the decal, I was thinking after I cut it out I could stick it to masking tape and paint/airbrush it to get ride of the grainy look.
"The engine I'm working on is the NS Pennsylvania Heritage Unit. It's the front of the engine where the stripes curve. The decals I have are an image from a photograph and it looks grainy. Since I all ready have to cut out the decal, I was thinking after I cut it out I could stick it to masking tape and paint/airbrush it to get ride of the grainy look."
I'm not sure how you could mask where those stripes converge to a point? If I had to decal one of these I think I'd make up two color decals with a drawing program so I could apply the yellow and the maroon as one wide decal. The side stripes would be a long bar and the nose stripes a pointed curving triangle that way.The hardest part would be getting the decal maroon to match the body paint maroon......DaveB
When I first wanted to make decals I thought it was some sort of voodoo at work but after researching it (google), it turns out to be pretty simple. Printers don't print white so either avoid white in your decal our you will have to use the white decal paper and match the non white portion to the color of your car. Or you paint the area you want white and conceal the transition with your decal but that makes the colored area look funky. Buy the decal paper for the type of printer your using either ink jet (most common) or laser jet. Buy some decal bonder spray. Most clears will supposedly work as well but I have only used the Testors decal bonder. Lay out your decal sheet in the program of your choice. I use a combination of Paint Shop Pro and MS Paint but I'm sure there are many programs that will work. I save mine as a JPEG file. Print a test sheet. If I am happy with the test sheet I tape the decal paper over the printed area and print it again after changing the settings to other photo paper. A couple of thing to keep in mind: if you print it as a JPEG (I do) then print it from your normal photo viewing/printing program, un-select fit to screen, that can throw off your size. Most drawing programs (word also) have an option for a ruler and a grid, use them. I try to fill up an entire decal sheet every time I print by adding license plates, inspection stickers, under-hood decals, racing decals, gauge panels, pin stripes, etc. Once you've printed your decals let them sit for an hour or 2 for the ink to dry a bit. I've seen people recommend to let it sit longer but an hour works well for me. Give the sheet a couple of mist coats of the decal bonder. After awhile (10 minutes works for me) give it another couple of mist coats. Let dry for at least a few hours, a day would be better. I have used mine within an hour of spraying them but I prefer to wait a day or so. If you can see finger prints in the clear areas of the decal sheet, its not ready yet. Cut close to the decal with good, sharp scissors. Unlike kit decals these will not easily slice with a xacto blade on door gaps so plan accordingly. I have not used micro-sol but I have used the Testors decal setting solution and it works fine. Here is a link with info about the testers kit, I haven't used it so I can't speak for the software. -catalog/testors-brands/testors/tools/decals/ I think the software is in addition to the kit. Next to detailing engines, making decals has become one of my favorite things to do in this hobby. Good luck, and don't forget to post your work, I'm looking forward to seeing it. If you don't have a printer that will work for you, some people make a disk with their decals and go to a print shop and have them printed for them.
I print my decals on an Alps printer which can print white and metallic colors so my techniques are different than what you normally use for ink-jet or laser printed decals. I also prefer using vector-based graphics rather than bitmaps (but I understand that this is not everybody's cup of tea).
JPG is a lossy format (it compresses the file to save space but that also means that there is a loss of image sharpens and even some color irregularities. This gets progressively worse when the file is opened, edited and saved multiple times. Do yourself a favor and use one of the non-lossy bitmap formats like TIF, PNG, GIF or even the old BMP format. PNG is probably the most widely used non-lossy format (which uses compression). That way you can open and manipulate the image 100 times and the image will be as sharp as the first generation image.
The Testors program is very basic, primarily just premade designs, some blank license plates, letter fonts, and a freeform blank page. They also have an expanded content option from the Sure Thing (which is their supplier) site that greatly expands the available premade content. The freeform blank page is really the best part of the program, great for making signage, plus you can resize images to whatever size you need. I use it with images of plates I have from other sources.
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