Scale Decal Making

[smaire]

I am working on a Nike Nike Smoke from Peter Alwya's data. Both Nike motors have data stenciled on them in yellow on the OD base color. I have tried making decals using decal paper and an inkjet printer, but seem unable to get a yellow color that is either dark enough or bright enough to be seen when put on the OB base color. Tried also to use 2 layers of decals, but this did not work either.

In the past, transfer letter has worked for the same purpose, but transfer lettering seems to have gone the way of the Dodo bird.

Any thoughts?

 

[SolarYellow]

Cricut mask stencil and paint.

 

[neil_w]

I am working on a Nike Nike Smoke from Peter Alwya's data. Both Nike motors have data stenciled on them in yellow on the OD base color. I have tried making decals using decal paper and an inkjet printer, but seem unable to get a yellow color that is either dark enough or bright enough to be seen when put on the OB base color. Tried also to use 2 layers of decals, but this did not work either.

In the past, transfer letter has worked for the same purpose, but transfer lettering seems to have gone the way of the Dodo bird.

Any thoughts?

Inkjet-printed decals are transparent (or I guess, translucent) so the background color shows through. You can't get a light color on a dark background. Decal color will blend with the background color. Works best when either (a) you're on a white or light gray background, or (b) the foreground is very dark.

White-backed decals solve that problem but then matching the background color of the decal to the paint is very difficult, unless it's something easy like black.

Double-layering the decals can work... if the first layer is some sort of opaque white. Ghost toner-printed decals can solve that sort of, but they're hard to come by.

The most straightforward solution for what you're describing is vinyl, either cut or printed.

[addendum] Or mask and paint, as @SolarYellow suggests.

 

[James Duffy]

In the past, transfer letter has worked for the same purpose, but transfer lettering seems to have gone the way of the Dodo bird.

Any thoughts?

It is possible to have custom dry transfers made for one-off projects such as yours. It isn't cheap, but the final results look fantastic. You can learn more starting at this post.

The earlier comment about using a Cricut to produce a vinyl mask merits some exploration, although I have suspicions about the ability of a Cricut to produce the very fine lines of text such a marking would require. Let us know how it goes!

EDIT: Here's a link for my preferred dry transfer producer. Again, this process is not cheap, but the results look great.

https://www.allout-graphics.com/

 

[Bruiser]

The smallest letters that I can cut a mask out for on my Cricut are about 3/16ths tall and they are not perfect by any means but neither are military stencils.

Bob

 

[Capt. Eric]

I've used white vinyl sticker paper in an inkjet printer with good (not perfect) results. For finer details, I'll give the graphic a matching color background and cut around that, but as Neil said, it can be tough to match perfectly. If it's small, I'll print it in a few different shades to see which is best. Test prints on scrap sheets help too. It's a tedious process sometimes, but usually worth it. For a few larger projects, I've gone to stickershock, which look great.