Just wondering what sort of results you guys have gotten with silkscreened decals vs the conventional type found in most kits. Seems like these are mostly used in foreign (read:eastern European) manufacturer’s kits…any pitfalls I should know about? Do they react to decal setting solutions the same way? Are they even worth using, or should they be replaced immediately?
Thanks for any input, fellas! [tup]
I’m pretty sure I’ve used a few sheets of these. I think Cartograph of Italy uses a silkscreening process. The difference is in the process of applying the innks rather than anything else. IIRC, with silk screening, you get a finer color. Some kit decals, done with newspaper style printing, if you look at them closely, you can seem almost pixilation, rather than smooth, solid colors. They should work fine with normal setting solutions.
Edit: I just checked their website…Microscale is screen printed.
From the home page:
"Welcome to the world of Microscale Industries.
“If your [sic] looking for the best in screen printed decals, we have what you are looking for. Choose from a wide selection of modeling products that can give you that touch of realism in scale model form.”
Al - do you know what it is about the silk-screening process that makes the decals matte versus the usual glossy?
Probably just using matte inks. I know the process creates a thinner result and truer colors since each color is laid down independently onto the film. I think you can tell if the decal was silkscreened by finding an alignment mark, sort of a cross hair, in a corner. I don’t know what the process is for other types of decals is, though.
Are you familiar with the silkscreening porcess?
No, not at all…so I have no idea how it really differs from other decal types.
You’ll find that a vast majority of decals (including Cartograph) are silkscreened. It is also called screen printed. I do screening at work, but nothing like this. Everything that is done has to do with the inks. Alot of kit manufacturers decals are screen printed. It seems to be the most cost effective way to do this. Once a screen is set up for a color (10-15 minutes) you can do 200 sheets and hour. Each sheet is large and will be cut into 6 or 8 maybe more of the finished size.
As far a glossy to matt finished decals, it’s either the inks or a flat agent applied to them. I use one ink that goes on glossy, dries matt then cures to a semi-gloss finish.
The shop where i get my screen supplies from has made decals before. I can find out more if you want. Just let me know.
You set up as many sheets as you have colors. Let’s think about a 50’s era stars and bars USAF insignia.
The first screen, a very pourous material, would have the whole pattern, roundel and arms left untreated. Te rest would be coverd with a non-pourous substance. White ink would be pulled across this by a squeegee passing though the screen onto the decal sheet. (Actually, the fisrt would have been the decal film.)
The next screen is maybe for blue. The star in the center and the center of the arms would be filled in on the screen and the ink drawn across. You now have essentially a WWII star and bar insignia.
The last screen would be for red. The only “openings” are for the red bars on the arms.
When dcals are off register, someone didn’t line up the cross hair correctly and the ink is applied where it shouldn’t go.
I’m not a screen printer but my job had me work with a guy who taught this in a vocational workshop training program back inthe early 80’s.
Hmmm. I wish I had some samples here at work I could scan in - why is it that companies like ICM have decals that feeeeel completely different than others? Maybe this is the only difference that I’m reading into here. They’re very soft, and just look…different. Maybe they’re just using a less expensive process that makes them come out differently?
I’ll have to try to scan some in, see if the texture comes out in the scans.
Note to self - most decals don’t have texture, is this the difference I’m looking at? [%-)]
AJ is right Dupes. The first screen is for the decal film itself. The texture can come from heavily applied ink or as AJ eluded to, the milti-printing process. Now not all printers use the same techniques. While some will inevitably blank out all areas not being that color on the final image (stars and bars as example) the entire image may first be printed in white. The hole section that is blue will have a while backing for density. There will be a border of blue around the ourside that won’t have the white underneath just for alignment reasons.
The inks used will vary widely between manufacturers and even with the same manufacturer. The diffrence can also come from the type of screen used (mesh count and thread size) and the machine used to apply the ink. There are so many variables that it is impossible to list them all.
I wouldn’t call a registration mark like that a sure indication of silkscreening. Back when I did a lot of printing we used marks for aligning a silk screen, but we also did the same thing for a multi-pass litho printing job.
And newspapers often have similar marks- and they are printed on web presses.