"Has anyone used decal paper with inkjets?" Topic

I have some decal paper and I was wondering if anyone had any tips or was willing to share their experience in making their own decals. I am planning on doing stuff that would be roughly 1/200 to 1/300 scale. So if you have any experiences with decal paper with an inkjet printer please share what success or problems you have had, thanks.

Make sure the ink is waterfast! Yes, I have had a lot of success with inkjet-printed decals. I have no pictures, that was in the Days Before The Camera, and I have long since sold the miniatures.

Make sure that you have decal paper that's made for ink jets. I mistakenly used some laser jet paper and it didn't work at all.

Otherwise it was straight forward and the results were good. Make sure you let them dry thoroughly before selling them with liquid decal film or the colours might run, particularly the red with my printer.

I used some I got from Micro Mark to make some decals for Ogre, and it worked fine. You have to use a sealant spray on them before using them. The ones I used on the minis worked fine, but the unused ones deteriorated after a year or so.

G'day, BB.

Firstly, it's worthwhile sacrificing some of the decal paper for testing. Print some test shots using different paper settings, to see how the printer and paper inter-react. I was happy with the way my old HP 5550 worked with the decal papers I was using, but I still haven't got the new 2-in-1 worked out (also HP), after two years. Testing, and taking notes, will save a lot of wastage later.

Most of the time you'll need to choose "Photo'" or "High Quality Glossy" (or your printer's equivalents) paper settings. However large areas of colour (eg 20mm sq) the ink (or some colours, such as blues) may not dry properly and the pigment will bead- similar to the same effect if you try to paint some acrylics over bare plastic. That means that you'll need to use a different setting, where the printer doesn't lay down as much ink. To get around this I'll often break the print job up into two, using different paper setting.

It's also worthwhile giving the paper a light wipe over with an alcohol wipe, to remove any contamination from handling. Leave it for a few minutes, so the alcohol completely evaporates, before printing.

Next- always do a test print, using grey scale settings on a piece of standard paper first, so that you can ensure the decals are the right size for the job. That way you can adjust dimensions to fit.

I'd strongly suggest you use a vector graphics program (I use Corel Draw) to do your artwork, as you can more easily manipulate the dimensions. For smaller decals as you describe, many bit mapping programs won't give you a useable scaled image. I've successfully printed 3mm square yellow portcullis on blue backgrounds for a mate's WotR figures. The artwork was scaled down from a 25mm sq original, yet hadn't lost any detail- nor did the the decal.

Lastly, put the new prints in a box and leave them overnight, before you put the decal fixative over the print. That way the inks will have well and truly dried and won't bleed into the fixative. If the ink isn't completely dry it can happen, whether you use the Testor's spray can or brush on Microscale's Liquid Decal Film.

Sorry for being so long winded. Have a play around and see what works best for you.

Cheers.

Dal.

I second Dal, especially the parts I didn't know before! I agree particularly in regards to using Testor's bonder on them. I've found it useful on some commercially-available decals as well.

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Dal, thank you very much for all the input. I actually have corel draw somewhere, it is not currently installed on my computer. Keep the suggestions and what has worked for you coming!

I'll just echo the "make sure it's the right paper" – if you use laser decal paper in an inkjet, it doesn't matter how many times you seal it, the design will just wipe off. Not as bad as using inkjet decal paper in a laser printer though – that'll melt straight onto the fuser module….

I have used decal paper for shields in my Dark Ages games and they work great. Just make sure they are very very well sealed before you try and apply them.

I have zero experience in Corel. I just find some appropriate graphics on the net, modify them, resize them and print.