Advice needed for making decals please?

[surfergirl]

Hi guys,

Can anyone give me some advice on how to make your own decals for Playmobil? I would like to make a variety of decals including signs and logos for vans and buildings etc.

Is it quite easy or quite advanced?....I'm a customising beginner you see so any advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Claire 

[Jrodmobil]

I'm glad you asked this, I too have been wondering about it as well.

Jarred

[Tiermann]

There are a few different ways to go. What I have usually done is to work up the design in a graphics program and then just print in color on a light weight paper. I cut that out and glue it down, sometimes coating with an acrylic coat afterwards. It's possible to print directly onto label paper as well then just peel and stick. There are clear labels available that can work as well. The weight on these can be a little heavy so you can see that the label is there in the clear parts. I know some people have had designs printed onto actual decal paper, very thing lightweight plastic that goes on using water. That takes a better quality printer I believe, I haven't had that done myself.

Here's a figure example where I made the seadragon heraldry, printed it out and pasted it onto the figure and accessories

[playmofire]

For some years I used a photocopy shop for decals.  I would provide the artwork done in Word or OpenOffice Writer and printed off on high gloss photographic paper at maximum print quality.  The shop would then copy the artwork onto clear or white waterslide decal paper.  It was inexpensive and worked well, but unfortunately the photocopy shop stopped offering the service for technical reasons.  Since then, I have intended to try getting decals printed on special paper for use by digital photocopiers, but have never got round to it.  I have the special paper, but I need to find a photocopy shop which will do the copying, and there are possible complications because some photocopiers run too hot and melt the special paper which then sticks round the rollers.

[Jrodmobil]

 Thanks for your input Tim, I think I'll give that a shot .. sometime. I feel I have sooo many projects and none are done yet.. but I will try it.

Jarred

[Emma.J]

  Hi I print out lots of signs etc myself. I've got a 6 colour Epson photo inkjet printer that works well. I've found the best quality white labels to use are Avery J8167. These give a high quality good colour print that's fast drying. I know they also do the clear labels as well but I've not tried these yet.

[playmofire]

I've also done signs using the system I mentioned earlier, but instead of having them photocopied onto waterslide paper just sticking the on with Pritt or some similar glue. 

When sticking labels on to a coloured surface, the white edge of the sticker where it has been cut from the sheet shows up, so I carefully and lightly go round the edge with a black felt tip pen to disguise it before sticking the sticker to the surface.

[surfergirl]

Thank you guys for all your tips....sounds like I may need to get some more computer skills first and then investigate the printing methods. I guess thicker paper is fine for shop signs and wallpapers etc but that decal paper is more suitable for use on figures. Hmmm, lots to think about!

I'll keep you posted on my progress

Cheers,
Claire 

[cowabounga]

Hi!
I have tried water-slide decal paper around three years ago. You don't want to use inkjet paper, because the decals need to be sprayed before immersing and they look awful then.
Laser water-slide decal paper is good, providing you have your own laser printer. In print shops they won't use a paper they don't provide most of the time, for the reasons Gordon mentioned.
Even though I convinced one guy to try the laser paper I'd bought, the result was disappointing. That was because the files I had were Photoshop files and he had to convert them to .jpg, with a mandatory change of colours.
Above all, water slide decals are clear (transparent), so you can only apply them upon plain white parts.
Hope this helps,
A.

[Félix]

Hi cowabunga,

This is kind of an old thread, but I'm curious. You're a master of knights customization, and I assumed you were using water-slide decals for these... but if you've been through this, and found something better, what do you use now?