ALPS DECAL TESTS
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MarkThey look very good - really crisp. What paper are you using? I've recently discovered Sunnyscopa, which I'm quite pleased with.
MarkThanks Jim, I'll have to give them a go. Though with my 600x600 dpi resolution laser, I don't expect to do the paper the same justice you have. 🙂
JimThanks! Good luck. And I just realized I messed it up. I thought something seemed a bit off...
The instruments are 1/144 but the rest was still 1/72. I had to redo them.
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I have been using an ALPS md5000 for nearly 20 years for making my 1/24 scale diecast police replica decals but never any for aircraft or military miniatures. So I thought I would start experimenting.
These are sized for my 1/144 Sabre.
I think the instrument panels turned out fairly well considering how tiny they are.
But, I can see my print head is already giving me trouble - that thin pin line that runs through the roundels.
For anyone that has never use an ALPS, it lets you print white which is needed when laying coloured decals over a dark surface and of course for making white insignias.
If the model is white already its not a problem but with anything else you need to print a white undercoat because the finished decal is transluscent.
There's a couple of ways I approach doing the decals and the results vary.
On this sheet the top run is just white.
The middle ones are white, then colour printed over top. (The printer lets you do overlay so the decal paper stays inside after you do your first run.)
The bottom rows are colour only, which I would apply after applying the white only declas.
They each give a bit of a different result and i think it can even be seen on the middle roundels that the pixels are visible on the maple leaf because those are printed over top of the white undercoat.
Also, left to its own colour matching the printer recreate the colours with various passes of each of the red, blue, yellow and black cartridges.
This can also cause issues with the way it is layering those indivdual passes. The printer is basically trying to blend each pass so the pixelation starts to show up.
But with using one colour only, like the white one, it is nice and solid every time.
So with anything that is a solid blue or red I am going to try to do that in layers, so the blue roundels with the only the blue ink cartridge then the reds with only the red cartridge.
Then with anything that is left with different colours or tones I would let the printer do its own thing.
Hopefully that will at least let my reds and blues be completely solid.
Clear as mud, I know!
The nice thing about the end results is that they are very very thin compared to most regular decals.
There is a clear finish cartridge that also is applied which makes them glossy but I think with a model that is getting clear coats etc there would be no point so that would help even more with making them as thin as possible.
Anyone else have an ALPS that has run into the banding issue?