Laser printed dry-transfer decals...

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bsexton

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I know I'm losing my mind, but I could have sworn I either read in a forum or got an email today about a "system" that would allow you to print dry-transfer decals (including white) with a laser printer. Anybody know what I'm referring to?
 
There are a number of decal making systems for both laser and inkjet printers; I don't think you can do white with the laser. In any case you'd need a color laser printer, if you are just starting from scratch then the inkjet printers are much more affordable. The only way to do white decals is to use a very expensive Alps inkjet printer (now OOP, look on Ebay) or to print on white decal paper and cut out the decals to the correct (white edged) border.

I make all of my own decals, including some pretty complex designs, for my RC models and rockets. The attached photo is of one of the vertical fins of my 1/6 scale F/A-18C turbine jet ... the devil image was scanned off a hi-res photo of the actual Hornet (here at MCAS Miramar), photo-shopped to clean it up, then printed on clear decal stock using an Epson R200 printer. I've also attached a pic of a typical rocket decal page (as used on my PML Explorer), here being clear-coated before cutting them out.

A commercial decal house wanted over $300 for just this one decal...for that I bought a scanner, printer, and enough decal stock and ink to last me the last 3 years.

Try it, you'll like it!
 
Originally posted by GSTARRAIDER
bruce,
are you talking about alps or roland printers ?
No George -- I'm familiar with the alps but this was specifically to create dry-transfer (rub on) decals using a laser printer.

Getting old is heck!!!
 
Guess you can only attach 1 pic per post....

Whoops, misread your post re dry-transfer...sorry about that, these are classic wet-transfers.
 
Oh yea, there are such systems.. I looked into this a while back
you can do awesome decals this way including metalics(foils)
they are very crisp and will look painted on from the start

these differ from alps because it's a dry transfer(rub on) rather than water slide aplication..the startup cost is high because you basicaly buy rolls of the media and you have to buy each color ,metalic, ect and you can often be layering so registering the paper and media is something that takes some practice, learning curve.
You really have to be doing alot of repetive decals.to use the material efficiently..

heres just one supplier,, read on

https://www.pulsar.gs/DECALS/a_Pages/5_Library/5a_Other_Types_of_Decals/Types_of_Decals.html

*Edit- sorry I missed the previous post , same place
 
...and boy is mine wasting. George and Andy win the prize! Now I remember where I read the article -- this month's Sport Rocketry has a section under New Products about DecalPro which you guys just referenced. Thanks! Sounds interesting...
 
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