Model Railroading > Making your own decals

Does anyone know of a way to make you own decals for HO Scale using a bubble jet printer.? I have been out of the hobby for many years now (The railroad doesn't leave alot of time for the hobby) and I haven't kept up with the changing technology in model RR.!

Thanks for any help.
NS Throttle JCKY

Printing with bubble jet on Microscale clear sheets does not work well.
Create your decal,save it on a cumputer disc and find a photocopy shop that can print you artwork to a photocopier right from
your cumputer disc. I`ve got best results with a laser colourprinter.
Or print your artwork on your bubble jet on a normal paper and take it
to the copyshop for a photocopy on the "Trim film".

Yup and if you have a computer with a color printer it's just to easy! You can get the blank decal paper and print anything any way you like on it!! When you buy them custom decals for a bezellen bucks a sheet, thats how they make them.. Go out on the net to any search engine and type "decal paper" you will get over 100 places to get it!

Just be careful: I, for some reason that eludes me, tried decal paper in an inkjet printer....lots of ink everywhere and amazing how easily it just wiped off the paper. Sigh, live und learn!

I noted some decal paper for use with ink jet printers, plus a spray to seal in the ink so it will not be damaged by water when applying decals. I think it was in a Micromark ad. in Model Railroader.

They also have a website. I may try that for my AWRR decals.

For those of us that were lucky ehough to have gone to the N.M.R.A.
convention in San Jose California this summer. You might have noticed
a booth from a company called, Vita-Cal. Their web site is
http//www.vitachrome.com I picked up a kit they were offering at the
show. I'll re-type word for word what the kit say's you can do with
it.

1. Design Decals using any Graphic software or scan in your favorite
photogragh.
2. Print on Vita-Clear Decal Paper using our color ink jet printer.
3. Spray with Vita-Clear Transfer Coat.(No mention is made on how
long to wait until the next step but I'd wait awhile.)
4. Place into a cup of water for about 30 seconds. When the thin
decal film begins to slide, remove from water with the film
still on back paper.

Their's more but I'll spare you the details. I must admit I still
haven't got around to using the kit yet. But I did witness a demonstration at the show, and it does work.

i tried the micro-mark way for my cnj projects. first the yellow was washed out,so it thought,well the locos will look weathered.We sprayed their fixident on the sheet(2 times)let it dry for two days.When i went to use them the ink still washed off.What did i do wrong?

Model Railroader, a few months back, ran an article on generating decals on a computer, then printing them on an ALPS (brand) Printer.
I believe that is Dye-Sublimation or some such process.
The author had great success and even could make White Letter decals.

Jim Baker, Whittier, CA