OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decals?

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OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decals?

Postby Ansett A330 » Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:52 am

In the market for a new Printer and was wondering what opinions there were as too which is the best for printing Decals?
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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby F-27pax » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:25 am

I recently bought a HP LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw which wasn't much more expensive than a similar inkjet printer and prints much better decals. But only if you buy laser decal sheet, the results using injet decal was rubbish. Still doesn't print white. Does anyone know of a printer that does.
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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby Cap'n Wannabe » Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:48 pm

F-27pax wrote:I recently bought a HP LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw which wasn't much more expensive than a similar inkjet printer and prints much better decals. But only if you buy laser decal sheet, the results using injet decal was rubbish. Still doesn't print white. Does anyone know of a printer that does.


ALPS printers can print white..
http://www.alps-printer.com/

Other than that, you can spend around $25k...
Pretending to do it TAC style with the big boys since 1987
Also, we don't need no steenkin' VLATs!
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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby RayS » Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:18 pm

Cap'n Wannabe wrote:
F-27pax wrote:I recently bought a HP LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw which wasn't much more expensive than a similar inkjet printer and prints much better decals. But only if you buy laser decal sheet, the results using injet decal was rubbish. Still doesn't print white. Does anyone know of a printer that does.


ALPS printers can print white..
http://www.alps-printer.com/

Other than that, you can spend around $25k...


....but they have not been made since 2010, HP offer a Laser printer that will print white but it will set you back about $1K
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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby VH-WAL » Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:42 pm

trouble with the laser printer that prints white is that it wont print pure black.. you get an approximate black using the other colour toners..essentially the white toner takes the place of the black
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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby F-27pax » Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:49 am

Interesting! What type of printer is it? I must take my modelling too seriously if I'm even contemplating this.
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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby VH-WAL » Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:52 am

OKI Laser printer
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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby VH-WAL » Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:27 am

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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby F-27pax » Thu Jan 10, 2019 3:26 pm

Well, I don't take my modelling THAT seriously!
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Re: OK so which Printer is the Bees Knees for printing Decal

Postby DDGboy » Mon Jan 21, 2019 1:08 pm

Sorry for the small size (cut out of a larger pic) but this pic is of a Dr Decal & Mr Hyde A4 white backing laser decal sheet, after running through my Fuji Xerox Docuprint CP225W colour laser printer. This allows me to produce decals featuring white or that will go over dark background colours, as standard clear laser decals are as transparent as all get out!

https://ibb.co/5FZRKYh

I surround difficult-to-trim shapes with the intended underlying colour, ie Gloss Sea Blue for an early A-1 Skyraider, so that I only have to cut out a simple square. Even roundels are difficult to trim with no white showing! I'm only onto my 4th set of these, as opposed to my 52nd clear sheet, as I don't need as many of them usually.

Done via RGB colours so fraught with danger, ie the paint I actually use may NOT match what my printer interprets the RGB as when printing (and RGB figures found online will often vary markedly between each other and how the colour actually looks!), and they are MUCH harder to print and seal than standard clear decal sheets. On this one you can see "ghosting" bottom right, where images have smeared and repeated down the sheet. This was my 4th attempt at printing this sheet, done first thing in the morning with a cold printer, the previous 4 were even worse! Bottom right (below 1/48 816 Sqn FAA S2E Tracker tiger faces, with Gloss Gull Grey backing) are Dull Red codes for a Stirling IV ("MA-Y/LK236" of 161 Sqn - http://www.grahamhague.com/pottonstirling2.shtml) with Night backing, total fail! Conversley the image top left is a 1/400 flight deck for Heller's Duguay-Trouin (D611) and I couldn't be happier! But unlike my clear stuff I am yet to actually use any of these, so more problems may emerge, ie white edges showing after trimming etc.

So not the be all and end all, far from it, but even my 4 ruined sheets were FAR less than $6k! ;0
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