Making own decals

I have not done this alot (only once). But as requested shermanfreak here I go.

I recently built a super cobra opting to use the latest grey scheme used by the Marine Corp. However the decals were black and I needed grey. After searching the internet I could not find what I wanted. However I did see materials to make them. So I though I would give it a try. I bought Decal Paper for Laser Printers and Copiers form Micro-Mark ( www.micromark.com ). I scaned the original decals into my computer then I changed the color and cleaned up the image in Adobe Photoshop Elements. Then I saved it to a floppy in several formats. I went to Office Max were I had them print the decals on to the sheet (I did not have my own Laser Printer). I am very happy with the results and will be doing it again seeing how hard it is to get Marine Corp decals. They also have paper for inkjets which requires a little more work than the laser paper. The paper comes clear or white (not to many printers print white).

I hope this helps expand your capabilities.

James Simmons
Lcpl, US Marine Corps

Thanks a lot James. This is something that I personally think more modellers are going to be doing at home in the future. With the improvements in home computers coming so far along it’s getting harder to ignore the important tool we all have at our fingertips that we could be using in our modelling.

No problem. I am just glad that some of the little knowledge I have could be of use to others.

James Simmons
Lcpl, US Marine Corps

Here are pics of the decals I made for my cobra.

http://rongeorge.com/modules/Gallery/album09/CWO2simmons_006

http://rongeorge.com/modules/Gallery/album09/CWO2simmons_007

James Simmons
Lcpl, US Marine Corps