The Little World

This is the new decal printing company that I have started to use now that every other specialist firm has decided to pack it in. I can look at Scalemates all day and see what once was printed, but as far as being able to actually get the sheets…? I might as well be asking for the moon.

The business of custom decals with an old inkjet or laser printer are pretty straightforward. You draw up a design…or copy it from the internet…and scale it to the size you need. Then you load either clear or white decal paper into the printer and away you go. The clear sheets need a little care as they will not produce a usable yellow or red without extra printing. The pigment of the ink needs a white backing to show the full saturation.

They can do a useful black…and as many large military and civilian letter codes are in black, you can put on your registry lettering fairly well. Don’t expect airframe codes in 1:72 to be all that crisp, but they are better than nothing.

The real problem arises when you need a coloured or white letter that will go over a metal or solid colour. Inkjet and laser do not print white – to do that you need to have an ALPS printer, and they are quite costly.

The work-round is to use the white paper but make the background colour the same as the paint that it will overlay. This is tough to do if you are doing a camouflage pattern that changes under the letters, but surprisingly easy with solid colours. You’ve got to do a little preliminary work, but you can make your own charts.

Start out with the paint that you’ll spray. Under coat a test plate of plastic with whatever you’ll be using. Then do your colour coats until you get a usable big patch. Then it’s into the computer and the printer.

Don’t expect to jag it first off. Look at the paint sample and then try to get a colour match from your * calibrated * screen and go on to throw a colour test onto some semi-gloss paper. Compare the two out in the sunshine and make whatever corrections you think are necessary. Continue the series unto you have what looks to be a colour match on the paper to what’s on the plastic. Note the RGB formula for this shade and attach this to the paint bottle – you’ll want to do this again some time and you might as well have it to hand.

Then design your white letters – or your yellow or bright red ones – over the base colour and print the finished decal out on the white paper. If you’ve taken care the undercoat of the decal will blend right into the paint job. If anyone complains about it, poke them in one eye with your thumb.

No-one ever complains more than twice…