I am thinking about buying an Alps printer off E-bay. Which one should I get and is there anything I should know?
I just spent over 1 hour typing you a complete how to, and the whole thing burped on me. the gist: model # MD-1000, 5000 is overkill for decals how to: Alps Yahoo Group how much: $200 ebay $400 US Aust-N-Railshttp://www.aust-n-rail.plann.com.au/ for a new one how good: only option for white ink under $5K and works for Z Scale models.
I have been lurking on here for some time now and I finally decided to join this here forum. Anyway to the question at hand. To my knowledge Alps only made three printers that will print white the MD 1000, 3000, and 1300. But like I said I could be wrong. Anyway I have a MD-1000 and it works just fine, it has to be one of my best tools of the trade purchases I have made in a long time but I will say this it does have a learning curve. The decals are delicate and the ink is easily scratched off the decal film but it is absolutely water resistant and if you use Micro Set, Micro Sol or my favorite and the most reactive Walthers Solvaset it does not harm the decal at all. I do put a finish coat over the decal after printing to protect the decal but the ink can still be easily scratched off. The finish coat that I use is Microscales Micro Liquid Decal Film, I would also suggest when you get your ink to get the finishing cartridges, this puts a film over the ink after it has printed and further protects the decal. One note about the finishing cartridges they are only used when you print at high resolution in photo mode this makes for a very sharp image. I live in Fort Worth Texas and we have a commuter rail service here called the Trinity Rail Express I did some RDC recently and here is an image of one. Hope this helps
Welcome aboard Paul A good looking Budd car there! I have a brand new MD4000 I got at a very good price off ebay, which I don't think will print white, although I have heard that it could be fooled into doing so Have not printed anything with it yet, but will soon be needing some decals for my freelance road, so will be trying it out.
Welcome Paul. Am guessing that great looking RDC represents a freelance RR? If so, would be curious about what you've got going! Boxcab E50
What brand decal paper are you guys using? Do you have to print the whole sheet or can you run a small 2" x 3" piece if you wanted to?
Boxcab, The TRE is not a free lance RR at all. It is a commuter line between Dallas and Fort Worth. It runs from downtown to downtown with future plans to connect DFW airport. They run RDC's and Bombardier cars behind F59PH's. To learn more about them visit Trinity Railway Express .
So far I have only printed 2 sheets of decals, and I used the blue back Micro Mark decal paper. It is kind of thick, and their instructions even suggest cutting the decals out with a bevel angle, and rounding corners to help the decal dissapear. I could not find the Microscale Decal Film to overcoat/protect the decals I printed, but I did find some Model Master decal film. It was very thick, and almost did not flow through my airbrush, but a very small amount did flow through. It took 1/4 bottle to coat 1 8.5x11" sheet of decals. I'm going to order the Microscale brand next. I plan on ordering some Bel decal paper, and Papa Tango paper, and supercal paper to compare them all.
I have used the Micro Mark and SuperCal. You are right Robert the Micro Mark is thick and I do not like it much. The last batch I printed I used SuperCal which is better but not all that great either. The problem that I am having most is getting the decal to conform to the detail on the model the Solvaset just is not disolving the decal enough for it to work right so what I have been doing is pressing it with a tissue to get it to conform. I do have some MicroScale and some Walthers decal film that I am going to try and see if that works better. The paper size is a good question I had this one myself until this week and the answer is yes you can make small sheets and not have to run the whole 8.5x11 as to how small the sheet can be I don't know that yet I have only run a 8.5x5.5 sheet. Also if you do get one of these printers there is a trick to printing white in a logo with other colors, I will not go into that here but if anybody would like to know drop me an email. I know my post are long winded it's just when I actually know something I like to save other people the time and trouble of making the same mistakes I made. Paul
I have tried some of the decal papers mentioned, supposed to be suitable for ink jet printers, but all were far too thick. I have some clear and some white Microscale paper ready for when I get my artwork done. I will use the white to get white lettering on a colored logo.
