I think you mean the HP 2605. It doesn't print white, but it should be good for everything else. It prints black at 1200 x 1200, and color at 600 x 600.
So far only the Alps made printers are printing white ink. There is however white decal film, so using a color laser printer is possible. Here is an example of how you can use one: 1) Photograph a car with grafitti straight on side view. 2) Import into a good drawing program like Corel Draw and resize to the size of the model. 3) Print on white decal film with the laser printer. 4) Cut decal out exactly along the lines, and apply the whole carside at once. Now I have seen someone do this with a caboose before online, and I think it was a modern BN caboose, but it's an example of how you can do it. Another trick is to again use white decal film and then print an area around the white lettering with the color of the car you will be using. Cut as close to your lettering as possible, and touchup the decal application as needed with car body color paint to blend in around your white lettering. A 3rd possibility is a hybrid between white rub on transfers under decals. If you were to print a logo of say the Western Pacific feather, then cut it out from the decal paper at the lines, and use the decal paper as a mask against the model, and burnish the rub on transfer all white where you want the feather. Apply the feather decal on top of the burnished white underlay, and all the colors show up nice. Might even be able to mask and use white paint. Well, it's not all that easy, but as the Alps printers disappear, people will get more creative.
Yep, it's a mistype...2605. The online source that I saw said 1200x1200 dpi color? The 2600 is only 600x600. Another trick is to paint white under the the decal. This works for solid shapes (heralds) and graffiti but would be difficult with lettering.
Custom decals Hi Robert Do you know what the decal manufactures use? as they cant be using ALPS printers right? and what is the easiest way to get custom ones without doing them yourself.. Regards Tom
have a look here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~robdebie/models/decals.htm and you can get your custom jobs in UK here: http://www.precisionlabels.com/ and here: http://www.wessextransfers.com/ Chris
Hi Chris, Thanks for that interesting info, and for the UK links. I am thinking about doing a custom paint job on a Geep for a fictious RR I am planning, more of that story later.. :zip: Regards Tom
ALPS substitute! A guy by the name of Tom Baker, (aka. Tango Papa) is working on finding a US based company to continue where ALPS leaves off. Will he succeed? Only the Good Man upstairs knows for sure! Cross your fingers, cause when the ALPS printers stop printing and the ink is all gone, it's everyman for himself when it comes to decals! Better get them while you can! Hobo Tim
Yeah, March 1st is the end of ribbons, support, service, and supplies, so stock up now. What we need is a hoard of ribbons and a few backup printers on hand. Also of concern is the drivers are only supported up to windows XP, so who knows if newer Vista computers will be able to load the drivers. I am getting a spare MOBO/CPU to support Windows 2000 so I can use my Alps into the next 10 years and beyond, because it's been quite a few years since you could buy new Alps printers at the store, and nobody has stepped up to the plate with a white ink printer since then. Also, as far as Papa Tango goes, I bought some Kodak Spot Orange and Spot Green ribbons from them, and got good results by just changing the barcode sticker to a Spot White barcode for use in the Alps. I don't know if they got them or not but Papa Tango was looking into getting the RGB OKI Spot Color ribbons too.
I bought the 2605 last night to take advantage of Staples' $50 coupon. It's very sharp and will do a great job printing decals - much better than my previous work.
RailBox (orig and new) and CNW's 718xxx series ex-Rock boxcars; both schemes are suitable for the MT 50' modern box. And so far, the artwork is coming out looking pretty good. Laser printers work great for decals in the event that one doesn't have an ALPS. They are usually lower resolution than ink jets, but the colors don't bleed and you don't have to seal the artwork (which thickens the decal and makes it hard to hide the edges).
All - since a lot more z scale decals fit on a page, I do plan on printing up extras for the group. I found that If I pass the same decal page through the printer the decals become hard to work with, so I just replicate the design accross the page. In n, I had left overs, in z I will have a lot more. I don't know what a fair price is to ask - maybe a few bucks per car or something. My ex-Rock decals have weathering applied to them in Photoshop, so the modeler doesn't have to fade them on the model. Geil, as they say :shade:
