Model Railroading > Printing on blank decal paper.

I have had problems printing on blank decal paper. The ink seems to never dry.I once printed out a couple sheets on a laser printer and it worked fine.

Can you only print out decals on a laser printer?

I think I am using walthers blank paper, does anyone else make blank paper?

I have had good results with running them off on a color copy machine.But for each 2 you run off on decal paper run 1 or 2 off in plain paper just to keep a build of toner off to keep the drum clean so it won't mess up other decal sheets

I recently tried some on VitaCal clear paper I bought thru Walthers. I ran them thru an Epson ink-jet and found that although they had no problem drying, there is noticeable smear/running between letters. Afterwards, I sprayed them with VitaCal sealer. Decalwise, they handled fine. I'm thinking of trying a different type of printer for future decals. Also, considering the cost per sheet of paper, I'm also thinking about preparing the basic product a bit more towards "camera-ready" quality.

Hi!

Having discovered the art of decal-making...

The coating on decal paper won't allow the ink to absorb into the paper, which is why they won't dry. After you print them on an inkjet printer, they have to be oversprayed with an acrylic topcoat to seal the decals (I've used 'Krylon Crystal Clear' with success). A couple of VERY LIGHT coats should do the trick. Once this topcoat dries, you can cut out and apply the decals.

The reason I've emphasized VERY LIGHT is 'cause I laid on the topcoat a little too much and although the decals turned out fine, they were a little thick - subject to curling when applied.

As for paper, I've used Bel Inc. paper without any problems in printing my decals. I have found that the printed decal sheet dries out after about a month, resulting in the decal coating separating from the paper when I cut the decals out. This has caused water to seep into the design, which is not good. So I'm going to try a couple of other manufacturers to see if this is a common problem.

As for laser printers, I believe they 'burn' the toner into the paper, creating the lettering/designs. Also, only the VERY expensive lasers print in colour.

According to the Walthers catalogue, Microscale and Vitachrome Graphics also sell decal paper. And the LifeLike website also advertises decal paper. Most if not all offer a starter kit of both clear and white sheets of their paper and their version of a topcoat sealing spray.

Hope this helps.

The Curator

How do I solve the problem of it not drying?

I was thinking, maybe cover the decal paper with dull coat first?

I suggest you visit SuperCal's web site for kits and information regarding home deacal making.

After spending a couple of years trying to get good results using an inkjet printer, I decided that for my purposes, inkjet printers are the wrong technology for decal making, if I wanted to get results approaching those of the better custom decal manufacturers.

Inkjet printers operate by placing droplets of water-based ink onto a paper which is supposed to soak up the ink to fix it into place. By having a pretty good idea of the characteristics of the paper most of us use, the manufacturers can work out the amount of ink that the printer should dispense for each dot and design their print heads and formulate the ink accordingly. This way, there is some control over the dot gain (the amount that the dot grows as the ink seeps into the paper) and there is some control over printing quality.

The major practical problems with using inkjet printers to print decals are two:

* The decal stock is a varnish layer that resists penetration by water, applied over a layer of adhesive that's designed to dissolve in water, applied to the paper carrier sheet. Since the ink can't penetrate the varnish, it can't really stick to it as it would plain paper. The ink puddles rather than sinks in.

* The inks used in inkjet printers are mostly water-soluble, which means that unless you can seal the printing very well with another layer of varnish or some other sealer, the ink stands a high chance of running when you soak the decal to remove the adhesive and float it off the backing paper.

The products that are out that let you use inkjet printers to make decals basically use a semi-permeable non-water-soluble layer over the varnish on the decal, giving the inkjet's ink something to saturate into. Once you've printed on the sheet, you then need to use a sealant. While this will keep the ink, the quality can vary widely, so while you may get acceptable results from one printer using a cartridge with one batch of ink, it may not work as well on someone else's.

In my own experimentation, tried applying a number of coatings over the decal paper before printing with an inkjet, and then sealing with Glosscote, or Dullcote. Microscale's decal-sealing fluid, while good for repairing cracked decals, was not very useful for sealing inkjet decals if you applied it with a brush (it tended to smear the ink). I never tried thinning it and airbrushing it, since I was getting pretty tired of the whole experiment by that time. At the very best, I got lettering that was fuzzier than I wanted, due to dot gain. Also, I could never get the colors to come out truly opaque. Black and colors nearing black came out very nearly opaque, but anything much lighter was a disaster on the Epsons and HPs I had available to me.

I finally bought an ALPS MD-1000 Micro-Dry printer (they were still available new in the US at the time) and have been quite happy with the results. Most of the difficulty I've had has been with coming up with the right color formulae to match specific lettering, and that's just because I haven't really developed an eye for color-mixing. The results I've gotten have always been crisp and sharp.

The basic reason that the ALPS and laser printers work with decal paper is that rather than trying to apply an ink which penetrates a surface that's not designed to be penetrated by liquids, they apply a layer of color and fuse it to the decal paper. With the laser printer it's powrdered toner. With the ALPs it's tiny bits of plastic fused from a ribbon.

I believe that an inkjet could successfully do something similar, but only if there were cartridges available which used a non water-based ink which would dry quickly and reliably on the top of the varnish layer. This would probably require redesigning the print head to use a thicker ink.

This is just what I've discovered on my own. I went into this with the idea that I wanted quality that at least approached that of some of the better decal manufacturers, or it wasn't worth my effort. I wasn't able to get inkjet printers to do what I wanted, but if your expectations are different, they might work for you.

As always, your mileage may vary.

-fm

Oddball Decals sells blank decal paper....double check his prices before ordering; http://members.tripod.com/mopac1/oddballs.htm