Printing Decals Help

This is the place to get answers about painting, weathering and other aspects of finishing a model.

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haywire
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Printing Decals Help

Post by haywire »

So I have on order an ALPS printer. It seems like most of the decal posts have gotten deleted or something. So what I would like to know is:

1. What wet transfer papers have people used and prefered?

2. What was the other company that sells the white ink cartridge? (was it OKIDATA?)

3. How do I get it to print WHITE?

I am sure I will have more questions once it arrives, but I guess thats a good start. Thanks!

Also can we make this a sticky? The other thread is more towards getting decals to adhere.
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Kylwell
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Post by Kylwell »

It's actually a ribbon.

And it's the tricky part. Basically you have to run the paper through twice, once for white (or twice for white if you want really good coverage), then once for color (unless you want really dense blacks in which case you run it through yet again for an additional black bump).

Clear as mud?

Then there's the print driver issue.
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eeun
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Re: Printing Decals Help

Post by eeun »

1. I ordered paper from Kustom Rides. Works well with my Alps MD-2010, and is nice and thin. I've had good success using them without sealing the decals first.

2. I don't know of third-party manufacturers, but there are a lot of different places selling the white carts. Tango Papa comes to mind.

3. There's a brief tutorial here.
Basically, you need to create a silhouette in your art program of what you want printed white. It's a different way of thinking from conventional printers: the printer won't print the white areas on your screen, rather you need to tell the Alps printer to print this black silhouette using the white ink. An art program that allows you to select layers to print is useful here.
macfrank
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Re: Printing Decals Help

Post by macfrank »

haywire wrote: 1. What wet transfer papers have people used and prefered?
Tango Papa has a great decal paper - thin but strong. He also sells the ribbons and a white decal paper (in case you don't have an Alps printer).

Frank
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