Homemade decal help

[teegeefla]

So I am having to make my own inkjet decals (primarily contingency sponsors) for my 1/43 builds and I have encountered a frustrating problem. With many of these decals there are white sections so i am forced to print on white decal paper. To try and make the decals blend in with the bodywork, I am printing the body color surrounding the contingency artwork. After printing, I seal the decal with gloss/clear to survive dipping the decal in the water. Only problem is that when I trim around the body color around the sponsor logo I get a small but discernible white edge at the cutline. It's either the gloss/clear or the white paper and its very annoying, especially when the bodywork is a dark color. Setting solutions do not make it go away. These decal are so small, usually less than 1/8 of an inch, so cutting perfectly is impossible.

So any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

[racermagic]

Not trying to talk you into something else, but if you wanted too, Gary from Circle track decals is absolutely AMAZING to work with. Gary is a member of the board and does a tremendous job. I'm working with him now on a project and Gary is tremendous to work with. Super guy.

Just thought it might save you some aggravation.
Perhaps he or Michael will add something to help you.

[quattro]

Bin there.

Second the shout for using Gary at GWS. Quality service.

Whenever you work with any form of paper or film and chop anything out you will always get the finest white edge.

Worked in an art studio for years and every bit of concept work or visual that was chopped out

needed the edge carefully run over with a flat marker in a colour that matched the illustration's edge.

If you want to carry on all I can suggest is that once you have your decal in position and fixed on your model,

you run a thinned out version of your background colour along the edge with a very fine brush.

If it is thin enough it should just spread along your cut line and almost create a smoothing between the decal and the model.

It should be enough to lose the white edge and should be barely noticeable if at all once you laquer to finish.

Just have a practise run with some off cut decal film on the colour you are working on using something other than your model.

If I knew my project needed this process (before discovering GWS and Indycals)

I tended to try and use Tamiya spray colours and have the matching pot of XF on hand

for a spot on match for the tickling up of any issues like these...

I have even used this technique for filling in the smallest joins on models

and is similar to sealing a masking tape edge before spraying to avoid the paint getting under your tape.

Another cool tip I read about on this forum.

Hope this helps.

[schix5150]

I have also done some decals with ink jet. Some of my tips...
1. Don’t do too heavy a coat of clear on the decal paper after printing. It can create an edge that you won’t notice till the clear dries.
2. If you can do layers similar to how Fred Cady did his decals, it can help with the white edge cause you can make the white decal just a bit smaller.
3. Do the “flowing paint technique” earlier mentioned before you clear coat. I’ve done this technique as well. If you do it before you clear, most times the brush strokes disappear and can even get better with color sanding. Doing it after the clear coat and you will notice it every time. I typically use Testor’s wet look lacquer. Don’t do big coats but gradually build them up.

Hope this helps,
Mike

[harveythedog2]

This happens to me as well. I take a small paint brush and touch up the white decal paper area that may pop up. If the decal is too far gone after applying, I bite the bullet and do another one. After years of using an InkJet printer, I finally switch to laser and this helped this issue a lot. Mike above gave some great tips as well. (schix5150)