Kinda needing to print some decals. Green and yellow. Looking at the testors decal system; will yellow/gold colors and dark greens coexist on the same decal? Should I use the white decal paper to get better yellows? Not looking for "pro" just decent/good looking decals.....
For some decals not too bad a system but there are some drawbacks. Trying to do any yellow on a clear for letterboard on green cars is next to impossible as it barely shows. Now say you scan and reduce a picture of a can of baked beans to print on a clear decal and apply that to a white painted car most of the colors show up good. Problem with the colored decal paper is it usually doesn't match the RR paint background and any close trimming usually results in the decal bleeding out. So I use it only for a billboard type car where I can have enough margin of decal and sealer to keep that from happening. The best results I have are when I can access a good color laserjet printer but even then can have a bleed out issue at the edges.
Say I wanted to print out a large section of green, which contained gold letters and edged with gold stripes (or just the stripes). I'd expect to use the white backing to give opacity to the gold; will the green hold up ok? Using a good photo quality Epson printer and ink...
You can do the multiple colors on the white with no issue except....the edges where you trim. Even with several coats of sealer the cut edges will bleed out with the decal solvent unless you leave a white border on all sides.
As a quick postscript you probably would be better off with another decal system. I see nowhere where Tester's offers any other paper color other than clear and white. And there are other colors of decal paper out there which would give you more options. I know that there are yellow and red, green, and possibly blue out there by another manufacturer.
The system kind of sucks. I found that the sealing coat made the inkjet pigment run on two different types of printers (Canon and HP). I ended up using the decal paper to make color keyed shape decals be airbrushing it with the color needed then cutting out the proper size.
I have never had good luck with Testors. The decals always come out too " thick". Also, the decals fade after being in water. I have ALWAYS had better luck with Micro-scale decale sheets (I do not own stock in Micro-scale).
The answer to the 1st question is no and to the 2nd yes depending on the brandname of the Laserjet and the settings used in the computer print program. There are, in some print programs, custom color settings that allow one to adjust the intensity of the color, besides the colors offered in the color chart. And using a bold setting gives heavier colors. What I had forgotten was the wide range of colored decal paper offered by MicroScale and I notice some in RR colors. My experience way back was that although the paper was Pullman Green it did not match what came out of the bottle as applied to a car. Thus the decal strip tended to stand out. But now that my old grey cells are jogged I would definitely use MicroScales paper over Testors in that it is a superior thin film paper. Another thought that arced across the dim recesses of the old grey cells is something I have mulled before. Using a commercial printer like a Kinkos. With the larger size of MicroScales paper and a good program on a CD it should be possible to get some decent decals with a top quality machine that should compare to an Alps printer. Big issue to controlling bleed is to have enough border with sealant around the decal and adequate sealant on the decal.
I wouldn't say the system sucks, it just doesn't do what you want it to do. The PC based program that comes with it is well, limited, to put it nicely. The decal paper itself is fine. In fact if you have a MAC and some Illustrator software, you can do anything the big guys do. I have used the decal paper for customers that model short lines and have never disappointed someone. Also once the paper is printed, use light coats of the sealer. I do mean light! I usually apply 11 light coats allowing around 10 minutes of drying time between coats. For doing mass produced locos and equipment for BNSF, Conrail? No. Shortlines and signs and such, yeah it's fine.
Try Bel for paper. I believe they are in Florida. You need to try out a few different products. One may work better for your particular application than the others. I will tell you that a few years ago, I went on a summer long adventure to try to match color (not white) to the paint on the car. I failed miserably. Please remember, the larger the decal, the more it will look like a decal and not the surface of the car.
Agree with almost everything said, a little to add. I've used Micromark paper instead of the Testors. Really the only thing I use is the sealer spray. I use Word or Excel to make up the decal sets; Excel in particular lets you insert graphics in cells, resize them, and make a nice strip of repetive decals across a TOP EDGE of an 8 1/2 x 11 decal sheet. You don't need to print an entire sheet. I often only print an inch or so off the top, cut it off, and then run the rest of the sheet later. I use mostly HP inks, which do run. You need to make repetitve light coats of the sealer rather than one heavy one. Pile enough sealer on and it will run the ink itself. Let the sealer dry at least 24 hours before you submerge it in water. For 'white', I do a reverse decal; i.e. set the 'filler' color in the Excel spreadsheet cell to the closest I can find to the model, and insert text in bold white. Or, do a .JPG with a colored background, white text that prints clear. Apply it over a white painted area on the model. Works pretty good, actually. If you look at the M&ET decals I did for the GE 70-tonner, that's how that was done. http://www.randgust.com/GE70 ton on Bachmann 44-tonner chassis.jpg Did the same technique to get white lettering on the black Climax locomotive tanks. That's a JPG. For lighter colors, like yellows...same deal. Reverse decal with clear letters over a light painted background. I've had good luck with the dark letters. I also print sheet after sheet test on white paper and test sizing on the model before I commit to decal paper.
