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Printing small decals

paddy

paddy

Well-known member
today i managed to get a design quite small without loosing to much detail/resolution.
It means i have to design my own decals first as i can t seem to do this with cut/paste of internet pictures but its a start.

First picture is the design printed on A4, it measures 8x4mm which is about 1:8 ish. (thinking about Revells 1:8 jag)

_DSC8526.JPG


and this is it zoomed in, it is actually sharper than it looks, its just camera shake.


_DSC8527.JPG
 
The quality of the paper can make a big difference on the sharpness of what you are printing. That is looking really good Paddy.
 
yea this is just a4 copy paper buy the decal paper i have was made by BMF. From memory last time i tried it many years ago it smudged.
 
Inkjet printer? All in flurry, were we?
I put my images in a Google Document. Sizes can be reduced up to a point without losing much resolution. The printing menu allows you to further reduce or increase the size of your images again if you need to.
I print my decal proofs on glossy photo paper, fit them to the model, make notes and proceed from there.
 
More progress today printing on transparent decal paper, in reality i will need to do this on white paper in most cases as you obviously cant print white

_DSC8530.JPG


The yellow strip is 10mm x 1mm and the letters are half a mm tall and still very readable. Considering its a very cheap inkjet printer its not bad on resolution but it fails a bit on density of colour which is just down to the ink.
Anyway the above shows that this 1:8 Jag is going to be covered in decals :)

Sorry if this is all old hat to most of you who have probably been making your own decals for the last 50 years :)
 
paddy said:
More progress today printing on transparent decal paper, in reality i will need to do this on white paper in most cases as you obviously cant print white

View attachment 165929

The yellow strip is 10mm x 1mm and the letters are half a mm tall and still very readable. Considering its a very cheap inkjet printer its not bad on resolution but it fails a bit on density of colour which is just down to the ink.
Anyway the above shows that this 1:8 Jag is going to be covered in decals :)

Sorry if this is all old hat to most of you who have probably been making your own decals for the last 50 years :)
Click to expand...
Nope, all new to me. The decals I tried to print on actual decal paper were useless garbage. I looked into a printer that prints white to make the opaque backing but it was out of Gail's comfort range for what would be what she calls a "toy". She has no vision at all.
 
Another question for car builders ?
I have been looking at metallic paints or opalesent paints...I tried a test with Tamiya metallic spray and straight away i see a problem because the metallic element is not scaled so the metallic flakes are 12x bigger than they should be on a 1/12 kit for example, this kills any chance of a finished "realistic looking" photo
Does anyone make a fine metallic paint or do you think that if you reduce the metal flake by x12 there is no metal flake anymore ?
.in which case a say Blue over a silver base would be better ?
 
Pearlescent paints might be better? It is something to test anyway. I think that the "candy" colors might be a better way to go honestly. A transparent enamel over a bright silver base. I am not sure what is avaiable acriss the pond. I have tried the Alclad II candy's and they make an amazing finish. I did an 1/6 Iron Man once, and wow, what a POP!
 
I bought a can of mica blue which has a very fine metallic but its a hyper critical surface that shows every mark
The E-type being so long has hood and wings of about a square foot, my chances of getting that to look anything is about nil :) even polishing it with ultra fine polish i cant get the swirl marks out from polishing....
 
Because of its size i wonder if i could use an automotive rattle can ? that might set a bit harder than the Tamiya paints and thus polish better, down side would be i would have to go for a plain gloss finish or have scale problems again with Metallic
 
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