Decal help needed!

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Decaling
1

Hi All.

I was given a 1/35 Horizon Madcat some time ago as a present, nice kit but the decals been yellowing and I don’t have much faith in them.

Given my setup at home I am thinking of scanning the Decals into the PC, touching up the edged and redoing the colours, after that i will print myself a new set as well as a new set for the other 1/60 Resin Madcat i got.

My setup is:
Flatbed scanner
ALPS MD5000 printer
Wave clear decal sheet for the Alps printer.

Now a few questions:
1.) At what resolution should I scan the decals.
2.) Should I better scan in B/W or Greytones or in colour.

Thanks, in advance for any help or tips given.

2

I’ve had great luck with Yellowed decals by just placing them in a sunny window for about a week.
fades the yellow right out.
The decals worked just fine after that.

3

Hmmm, might try that after scanning them in.
Still want to scan them in though as I want to make a 2nd set in 1/60scale.

4

Just a suggestion: Put them in the sun, as Iroc suggested. Then scan the decals so you have a copy, just in case.

Test one of the decals you won’t need to see if it breaks up when you soak it. If it does, then you can used the scanned set. If not, you should be good to go. If you are really worried the decals could fall apart, you can spray them with a decal topcoat (MicroMark sells a spray can that works well), but then the sheet becomes one big decal so you have to cut them out individually.

Chris

5

MMF - after your scanner completes the preview, crop the area to be scanned. Then, adjust the resolution to the highest pix/inch your scanner can handle, set the de-screen to “on,” and the unsharp mask to “off.”. The pix/inch will be determined by your scanner’s capacity for # of pixels on the longest side. My scanner (Epson Perfection 1650) will scan up to 30,000 pixels. A 1" square can be scanned at 30,000 pix/inch, a 10" square at 3,000 pix/inch. Using the highest resolution, turning off the unsharp mask & turning on the de-screen feature will yield the cleanest result. If your descreen feature has selections (UMAX scanners do), the “magazine” setting will probably work best.

6

Scan at one quarter the highest resolution your printer can print. For most printers, anything over that (for color and greyscale images, anyway) will not be processed by the printer driver. So don’t make your compter files larger than they need to be.

That’s been my approach for more than eight years doing graphic design and desktop publishing. The scans turn out looking great. [{:)]

Regards,

-Drew

7

I have to agree with Lufbery in printer limits. I was a graphic artist and printer for 13 years. I went to college and got a degree in Graphic Arts Management. The naked eye cannot see a difference of printing dots above 300 dots per inch (dpi). Epson did a study and came to the conclusion that a person cannot see differences above 220 dpi. Any printing set to a higher resolution just gives you bigger files with no quality difference. Some printers print higher; I have a color laser printer that prints 600 dpi but you can’t see the difference between the 300 dpi and the 600 dpi printer output. From a normal viewing distance 300 dpi printing is fine. Heck, fine art magazines photos use only 180 dpi screens for printing and no one complains about their dot per inch.

8

Hmmm, scanning at 1/4 of my printers DPI = 600DPI = big File.

Thanks, for the info guys.

9

MMF,

It’s been a while since I looked closely at inkjet printer technology, but I seem to recall that printer resolutions above a certain point (1,200 dpi maybe) are interpolated – that is, thier print-outs look like the equivalent of 2,400 dpi, but don’t actually have 2,400 dots per inch.

In any event, you most likely don’t need to print decals out at 2,400 dpi. Six hundred to 1,200 should be fine. In that case a scan at 150 to 300 dpi should have plenty of resolution.

Obviously, some experiementation is in order as the above suggestions are only guidelines.

Let us know how they turn out. [:)]

Regards,

-Drew

10

Drew.

Thanks.

FYI, I got an ALPS MD5000P Micro-Dry printer which can print at 2400x2400DPI.

I think the highest resolution ink-jet on the market over here at the moment can double that. [:0]

Thanks, for the help. I will let you know how it turns out.

If it turns out ok, I might make a few more decals sets for a few more Kits.

11

Dear Sir,
Here is something I wrote to help with printing with the ALPS printer series.

CUSTOM DECALS
PRINTING THEM WITH AN ALPS PRINTER
BY BARNEY KABLE

THE BASIS OF THIS ARTICLE IS TO GIVE A GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE BASIC STEPS TO PRINTING AND COLOR MANAGEMENT WITH AN ALPS MD SERIES PRINTER.
THE ALPS MD SERIES PRINTERS ARE NO LONGER BEING PRODUCED AND CAN ONLY BE FOUND USED OR AT AUCTION. THE BEST PLACE TO ACQUIRE ONE IS ON E-BAY. THERE ARE THREE MODELS OF PRINTERS THAT CAN BE USED TO MAKE DECALS (MD-5000, MD-1300, MD-1000). ALL THREE WILL PRINT WHITE INK AND THE 5000 AND 1300 WILL ALSO PRINT PHOTOGRAPHIC QUALITY IMAGES USING SPECIAL INK CARTRIDGES AND PAPER.
THERE ARE SEVERAL IMPORTANT ASPECTS THAT MUST BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT WHEN SETTING UP TO PRINT DECALS USING AN ALPS PRINTER:

  1. A DRAWING PROGRAM ( Mid to High Priced )
  2. AN IMAGE EDITING/PHOTO RETOUCHING/PAINT PROGRAM
  3. A SOURCE OF COLOR MANAGEMENT
  4. QUALITY DECAL FILM

A DRAWING PROGRAM IS NECESSARY FOR DESIGN AND LAYOUT OF GRAPHICS. THERE ARE SEVERAL PROGRAMS ON THE MARKET THAT WILL HANDLE THIS TASK (COREL DRAW, ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR, DENEBA CANVAS). MY FAVORITE IS DENEBA CANVAS (VERY USER FRIENDLY). NEXT IS AN IMAGE EMITTING PROGRAM THAT YOU USE TO LAYOUT A PAGE IN LAYERS, WHAT I LOOK FOR IS A PROGRAM IN WHICH YOU CAN COPY A FULL PAGE TO SEVERAL LAYERS AND SEPARATE EACH COLOR TO BE PRINTED ON A LAYER. ONE OF THE BEST PROGRAMS FOR THIS IS ADOBE PHOTOSHOP. YOU CAN LAYOUT MANY LAYERS OF GRAPHICS AND EDIT THEM WITH RELATIVE EASE. THIS HELPS A LOT WITH MANAGING COLORS TO BE PRINTED. I HAVE FOUND THAT FOR MILITARY SUBJECTS, COLOR ACCURACY IS VERY IMPORTANT AS MOST COLORS ARE VERY SPECIFIC TO MILITARY SUBJECTS FROM ANY PERIOD AND COUNTRY. A VALUABLE INVESTMENT IS THE FEDERAL STANDARD PAINT CHIP CHARTS (FED-STD 595B) AND SEVERAL BOOKS WITH PAINT CHIP CHARTS FOR BRITISH RAF AND GERMAN LUFTWAFFE. I HAVE TAKEN THESE AND SCANNED THEM TO GET THEIR RGB VALUE, AND THEN ANYTIME I NEED A SPECIFIC COLOR I CAN OPEN IT AND EDIT GRAPHICS WITH IT. THE LAST ITEM I MENTION IS GOOD QUALITY DECAL FILM. SEVERAL MAKES DO NOT REACT WELL TO SETTING, SOFTENING SOLUTIONS, AND SILVER, EVEN WHEN PLACED OVER A GLOSSY SURFACE. IF YOU PLAN TO PRINT A LOT OF DECALS CONTAINING WHITE INK, BUY CLEAR DECAL FILM ON LIGHT BLUE PAPER BACKGROUND, SO YOU CAN SEE YOUR PRINTED GRAPHICS EASIER.

I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE AN OVERVIEW OF THE FEATURES OF THE ALPS MD SERIES PRINTERS. THE THREE PRINTERS MENTIONED ABOVE CAN BE SETUP TO PRINT ON THICK STOCK PAPER AND BY TURNING ON THE SPOT COLOR FEATURE YOU CAN SPECIFY A SINGLE COLOR TO PRINT (WHITE, CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW OR BLACK). THIS IS VERY USEFUL FOR LAYING DOWN UNDERCOATS OF COLOR FOR OPAQUENESS. I HAVE FOUND THAT TO PRINT WHITE, I MAY HAVE TO RUN THE DECAL FILM THRU SEVERAL TIMES TO GET NICE OPAQUE GRAPHICS AND TO GET DARK SHADES OF BLUE. YOU MAY HAVE TO RUN A SPOT COLOR LAYER OF CYAN UNDER THE RGB VALUE RUN. REDS, YELLOWS, AND ORANGES ARE THE MOST DIFFICULT COLORS TO PRODUCE, AND YOU MAY HAVE TO RUN SEVERAL SPOT COLOR LAYERS OF MAGENTA AND YELLOW UNDER THE RGB VALUE COLOR.

THE NEXT FEATURE THAT IS VERY USEFUL IS THE OVERLAY BOX, THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO PRINT A COLOR LAYER AND THE PRINTER WILL KEEP THE PAPER IN THE PRINTER AND IN PROPER REGISTRY READY FOR THE NEXT LAYER TO BE PRINTED. THIS FEATURE SHOULD BE TURNED ON FOR ALL LAYERS PRINTED EXCEPT THE VERY LAST LAYER. USING THIS FEATURE, I HAVE YET TO PRINT A FULL PAGE OF DECALS OUT OF REGISTRY, EVEN WITH UPWARDS OF 14 LAYERS OR MORE.

ONE NOTE THAT MUST BE MADE IS WHEN SETTING UP THE LAYER OF GRAPHICS FOR WHITE INK, ONE MUST MAKE ALL THE AREA TO BE PRINTED WHITE SET IN BLACK IN THE IMAGE EDITING PROGRAM AND USE THE SPOT COLOR AND OVERLAY FEATURES TO PRINT THE LAYER THEN MOVE ON TO THE OTHER LAYERS TILL DONE. THE LAST THING TO DO IS TO OVERCOAT THE FULL PAGE WITH LIQUID DECAL FILM TO SEAL THE INKS IN. THIS WILL KEEP THE INKS FROM LIFTING OFF THE DECAL FILM WHEN PUT INTO WATER FOR PLACEMENT.

PLEASE TAKE THESE POINTS AS A BASIS TO START PRINTING CUSTOM DECALS AND TAKE THE TIME TO EXPERIMENT WITH THE DRAWING AND IMAGE EDITING PROGRAMS TO FIND WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU. FOR FURTHER READING, PLEASE REFER TO FINE SCALE MODELER, NOVEMBER 1999, VOL. 17, NUMBER 9 AND GO TO www.tangopapadecals.com., WHICH HAS SEVERAL ARTICLES ON THIS SUBJECT.

12

Before you go thru the expence of decal paper try using Liquid Decal film. I get mine thru
www.micromark.com
and I use it on all my old decals and have never had a problem with decal falling apart or breaking.

13

Ok, got the Decals of the 1/35 Horizon Madcat scanned in.

Also reduced and saved them for the 1/60 Scale Resin Kits (Madcat & Vulture)that came without Decals.

One slightly problem though, there are a few markings on the sheet that are white and of course the scanner didn’t pick them up. since the paper is also white.

What is the best way of scanning them in?

Should I stick them on a dark sheet of plastic and scan them in separate?

Will be doing the first test-print tonight, keeping fingers crossed it should work out ok.