Make a decal from a label?

Fellow modelers, I have an aging collector friend who would like to make a freight car decal from a label removed from a bottle. That is not something I can do. So I thought I'd ask you wizards if you know of anyone who can do this, to whom I can refer. -Mitch

 

I can't help you but there might possibly be copyright infringement here.

 

Normally I would agree. We're looking at a one-off freight car.

 

Hi Mitch!

I can't really help,either, other than in a general way in that the image would just need to be reduced to the right size and copied onto decal film? but it's great to see you here! Remember our Treble-O-Lectric communications years ago and I bought an F7 from you, etc. I still run it.

Doug

 

Doug, so good to hear from you again. I've been tinkering with British N these past years. The short wheelbase wagons are such fun. Meanwhile, I've done dry transfer decals like those that CloverHouse produced, but creating one wet transfer decal is not among my skills. Looking for one of us that can do that for aging friend Tom.

 

Hi Mitch, My first question is, does the image you'd like to turn into a decal contain any lettering or images that are white? If yes, you'll have to deal with someone who creates decals professionally. Most home printers only contain cyan, magenta, yellow and key. For us non graphic artist types, that's Red, Yellow, Blue and Black. Alps was a popular line of printers that do have the ability to print white, but even a rebuilt Alps printer is $800, a little much for a one time project.

If the image or text does not contain white and you have a printer / scanner. Scan the image and save it as a .jpg file, don't save it as a document. Then using a program like Photoshop or IrfanView, resize the image to the proper scale. Once resized, print the image on water slide paper for your ink jet printer.

 

Our printers have had a zoom function that you can use to modify the scale when you copy. Which is good, because just copying at 100% the copies are slightly off scale from the original. If scale is critical, draw a line X inches long on the original and measure it on the copy to ensure accuracy.

 

If the model is a dark color, I wouldn't expect the yellow to be very visible either, if at all. Possibly many other colors too.

 

You can buy decal paper in both clear and white. Since you are wanting to make a label, there are probably hard edges that you can cut on so having white shouldn't be a problem (if there is any white). As already stated: Scan into a computer, save as jpg, resize to whatever you need, print on a color LASER printer (the ink in ink jets are water based and will wash away with water), done!