Author Topic: Decals and crusaders  (Read 6043 times)

Offline Gyps

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Decals and crusaders
« on: November 05, 2012, 21:00:40 »
Last week was half term here in England, so I had some time to help my nephew with a customisation project he'd had in mind for a while.  He brought round some knights which he wanted to make into crusaders.  This was the first time we'd tried applying decals and removing print, so I thought I'd share it here, in case anyone else is new to it too!

He had ordered 7 horses and caparisons from set 3699 from Playmobil parts, and was lucky enough to spot a box of crusader knight specials (4670) on Ebay.

starter horse from 3699

No customising for the figures, but he wanted to change the horses to match.  After our cleaning cupboard investigations he used Co-op cream cleaner to remove the red print and lion decorations from the sides of the caparisons (luckily for me, he did this at home before he brought them round - it took a while of patient rubbing, apparently!)

Cleaned.

We used the cross from the crusader's shield, whipped out the background in Photoshop, and printed it out onto decal paper.  The decal paper was bought a while ago for customising some Warhammer banners, but I think it was around £4ish a sheet.  Luckily, all our crosses managed to fit onto just one :)  After a while of cutting (there seemed to be an endless amount of crosses for just 7 knights!) we were ready to soak and apply.  We left a slight border around each cross (for ease of handling once it was being positioned) but this is transparent once applied (not white as it looks while it's still attached to the backing paper)

The decals then need to soak for a short while in water, until they start to separate from the backing paper.

A saucer of water (which doesn't really show up well on the photo! It IS there,  honest!)

You do get a certain amount of 'slippage' when applying the designs, so it is a little more forgiving than stickers (I dread 'stickering' sets, in case I make a mess of them!).  Pat off excess water with a tissue and you're nearly there!


You can see that the edges (where we left our border) are still visible around the crosses at this stage, where the flash on the camera has caught them, so one final step.  We used a spray matt varnish (again plundering our Warhammer stocks) to seal the decals and put an even shine across the plastic.

On the final picture, you can't really see the decal edges at all


It was a fun first project, and has probably started the ball rolling for all sorts of customisations now!

I think the decals showed up so well because they were on a white background (lucky that!) - not sure how well they'll go on different colours.  When I get brave enough to try, I'll post up results  ;D

Offline playmofire

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2012, 21:13:56 »
Many thanks for this step-by-step guide.  The end result looks very good.  However, a couple of questions:

1.  Was the printer a laser one or an inkjet one?  If the latter, didn't you have to seal the printed sheet before soaking the crosses off it?

2.  What was the make of the transfer paper, please?

I suspect that on dark surfaces, the background colour would tend to show through lighter colours on the decal.
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Offline Gyps

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2012, 21:28:14 »
Hi Playmofire! 
The decal paper doesn't seem to have a make, but states that it is intended for laser printers (yep, I use a laser), which means that I don't have a problem with the print running if it gets wet.  I did a quick google to see what decal papers are available and came across this site:
http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/.Laser-Water-Slide-Decal-Paper_155.htm
It seems to be a much better price than the original stuff I have, so when my current stock runs out I might just give it a go :)

Sadly, I think you may be right about the background - I've been using acrylic paint (Vallejo and Games Workshop) and applying with brushes so far to customise my figures (trying to get some more medieval characters together for my village), but I'm seriously tempted to try decals now  ;)

Offline skypurr

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2012, 21:47:58 »
They look really great Gyps.  :clap:
Thanks for the clear instructions.
I notice on the site that you gave the link for that they also do water slide papers for inkjet printers too.  It says on that to use clear paper for light backgrounds and white paper for dark backgrounds.
I must have a go at this - I didn't realise that it could be done with an inkjet printer and I'm sure it could be of great use for some of the things I need to customise for my exhibititon projects.

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Offline Pynedor

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2012, 23:14:09 »
They look great, Gyps! Nice job. :)
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Offline Rasputin

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2012, 00:46:17 »
Wow they really turned out great. It was sad to see the beautiful original print rubbed off but then the results more than made up for it.

Great job and thanks for taking the time to do a tutorial
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Offline Tiermann

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2012, 02:04:11 »
Those look great, and thanks for the tutorial I'm sure it will come in handy

Offline Wolf Knight

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2012, 05:49:14 »
Thanks for the tutorial! It sure is a good way to make some custom playmobil!!!  :)

Offline Birdie

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2012, 08:35:28 »
Thanks for sharing this and taking photos of all the different steps!

It looks excellent  8-)

Offline tahra

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Re: Decals and crusaders
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2012, 08:40:27 »
Thanks for the tutorial! And with pics :)

The result is great, they look like they belonged there since EVER.