Special custom decals -- who can print them for me?

[sbaxter]

I've been working for a while on accurizing a trio of Lightning McQueen (from Disney/Pixar's Cars films) toys, to make something I might call models out of them. They're three different toys in three different scales, roughly 1:18, 1:24, and 1:48ish.

Concurrently with the physical work, I've been correcting and redrawing the extensive decals for the car. Given that most of the decals are lighter colors than the red base coat, I need opacity.

Is there someone who could print solid-white decals for me to go beneath the full-color decals? The alternative, I suppose, would be for me to print ever-so-slightly undersized outlines of the designs I need, apply those, clear-coat them, then use them as a guide to carefully paint a white decal base coat myself. But that option sounds like a major pain.

The reason I ask about solid white decals, rather than simply the full-color artwork with an opaque backing, is that there are smooth gradients in the decals I'm drawing. To my knowledge, the printers that can print in white tend to have rather coarse screens when printing gradients and the like, whereas I have a pro-quality, eight-color inkjet that can produce beautiful gradients (and they're fairly water-resistant as well). In addition, there is a vivid lime green used as an accent color on the large side decals, and I think my inkjet is the best available option for coming close to matching that -- maybe not perfectly, but much better than any four-color process I've ever seen. But then again, I've been out of the loop on this sort of thing for quite a while, so if there is a good solution available that can handle both the opacity and the lack of visible halftone dots I'd prefer, by all means let me know.

I think I could produce all the graphics I require -- for all three cars -- on a single 8.5"x11" sheet, or possibly smaller. Certainly I can get all I need for at least two of the cars on a sheet that size.

What are my options?

Qapla'

SSB

[Mad-Modeler]

2 Options:

1.) Find someone with an ALPS Printer(those can print white, silver and gold).
1 set of white backgrounds and 1 set of colours to go on top of it.
2.) Print the decals on WHITE decal paper but those will need some fine trimming around the coloured areas before applying.

Alps printed decals don't need a top-coat(fixative) like ink-jet printed ones.
Most decals aren't actually printed but silk-screened like a T-shirt.

Only options that I am aware off apart from some very detailed painting.

HTH.

[Joseph Osborn]

FWIW, I print white backing decals with Alps all the time for some of my customers who use high-quality inkjet decals for the colors. Works very well.

Depending on the complexity of the decal outlines, another option is to print them with inkjet on white decal paper and then contour-cut the individual decals with a desktop cutter. The opacity of the inkjet decal film may or may not be sufficient to hide the underlying color.

[sbaxter]

FWIW, I print white backing decals with Alps all the time for some of my customers who use high-quality inkjet decals for the colors. Works very well.

Okay, I'll send you a PM later about pricing. I don't have the artwork completed quite yet, but it won't take too long.

Depending on the complexity of the decal outlines, another option is to print them with inkjet on white decal paper and then contour-cut the individual decals with a desktop cutter.

As the sides and hood of the car are covered in flame-style graphics, and much of what remains are smallish text-based logos, I think the idea of trying to accurately trim white decal film sounds like an express route to madness … or worse.

I presume it makes sense to set up the white decal backing so that the edges are offset inward by a point or so such that the white layer is slightly smaller. Seems to me that should help placement of the color graphic above. I'll be using Adobe Illustrator to create the artwork, which allows for such fine control.

Anyone know where I can find the best inkjet-compatible clear decal paper, preferably in 8.5x11 or close to it? Not sure of the current state of that market, as it has been more than six years since I last looked into it.

Qapla'

SSB

[Joseph Osborn]

You can either undersize the white underlying decal or slightly oversize the color decal for the top layer; either way you are creating a "trap" to ensure the white edge is not visible. Adjusting or adding a stroke to the graphic image makes this process very simple.

Papilio.com has some good inkjet decal paper in standard letter size. Pack of 10 sheets is $11.70 plus shipping.