Making Armor Decals

[Saxondog]

A few years back when I started building my first tank one problem was the decals. For Grossdeutschland their were two options,just two from a Division which fought through out Europe, and the Eastern front. Grossdeutschland having the highest kill ratio of any division.

But in attempting to understand the decals, and why certain units were available and others were not I decided to look into how to make my own. Testors had a kit,paper,bonding spray and a disk. The disk was all but useless.So I gave up. Then a few months back I tried again as the unit I needed for my Jagdpanther were not available.

I called the 1-800 number for Testors customer service,they in turn connected me to the company that made their software "Sure Thing decal Maker".They in turn e-mailed me their latest version. It was much better,any picture can be pasted into the decal paper window which has a scaled border and stretched,colored, enlarged, back ground coloring, transparent backing, just alot of options.

Testors has produced two kits,one called custom,the other called standard. The one marked custom #9198 is very limited. The Standard kit is the one with the custom options? Go figure they had it backwards.

Here are the right product numbers, and the phone number. 1-800-962-6654

Bonder spray#9200
clear decal sheet#9201
white decal sheets# 9202

If you call, ask if they have a software version that will allow you to make your own decals? They e-mailed me the new version for free and may do the same as they certainly want the paper, and spray to be purchased. After that any unit marker,unit emblem,tank number is possible. One very important thing to note,must be an INK JET printer. Any questions I will try to answer,I have had the software for a few weeks and have created many sets of decals much more unit specific.

cheers Saxondog

[oldfeller]

Hi Sax
Thanks for letting us know, a great help to the forum for any one who wants those decals that are hard to come by.
Gerwyn

[Yellowshaker]

So is it not possible to make decals using the standard inkjet printer and changing the scale in options menu?

[Saxondog]

Good Point,and using paint in windows works or several engineering CAD software programs. But you still need the paper,and the spray bonder. So the point of my post is this as follows if you have to use decal paper,and bonder(without which decals will separate)why not use their software if it's free? The border is scaled to the same size as the paper, which makes sizing very easy. It is designed to allow the import of pictures and converting these to decals by allowing sectional copy and paste.

I have spent a good bit of time designing decals for my Tanks,Grossdeutschland decals are really limited, and very often only focus on the Kursk era or right after when Grossdeutschland expanded to a Regiment size force.

So if this information helps to solve these issue then it has served my purpose,it works well for an less than skilled systems operator like myself. Yellowshaker raised a good point and I would ask him to be more specific about the method he suggest so other may benefit from this information. cheers Saxondog

[jrc]

So is it not possible to make decals using the standard inkjet printer and changing the scale in options menu?

Hi Yellowshaker
it's actually easy to make your own decals and print them on your inkjet. They're are two types of decal paper that can be bought A4 size. One is a two part system and the decal is printed in reverse and a protective coating put over it. The second is a one sheet system and the decals are printed straight on it and you seal it with light coats of clear varnish.
The base sheets can be bought clear or white.
Both methods give excellent results but your decal must be a good quality image to get the results but these can be found all over the internet.
Hope this helps.

Ross

[Saxondog]

This is the half letter size,5.5"x8.5" paper. slightly bigger than A4 The software screen has a border scale which matches this size. I would like to find a less expensive quality paper.This pack is 8.00us online and 9.99us in the local shop.

JRC would you have a link or brand name of the paper your referring to? I would like to purchase some paper for less money. An 4sheet pack of letter size paper is 9.99 as well. cheers Blake

5.5"x 8.5" paper

decal paper.jpg (12.45 KiB) Viewed 2086 times

[jrc]

hi Sax
there are a lot of suppliers on ebay, for example 20 sheets A4 waterslide at $13.65. So for less than 70 cents a sheet you can have your own decals. I've used them for a while and managed to collect a good number of images of Panzer Division markings which can be resized for any scale.
It's the same with flags, I use A4 sheets of silk and print straight onto that.
cheers
Ross

[Saxondog]

Thanks Ross, I will check it out. My concern with other brands was quality and waste. Ink is expensive and if I wasted it on sub-standard paper well you see my point. But the information you have posted gives me the confidence to try these other brands of paper.Did not realize printing on the silk screen material. Excellent advice,Thanks Blake

[jrc]

hi Sax
the fine silk is great for the flags, it folds easy and the design shows right through. I used to sell them on ebay but quit when ebay got stupid about it. Even with the design smudged they kept removing them.
Ross

[Andy in Cheltenham]

Rather than read all the post here (sorry) how do you get white when printers print anything but.