DIY waterslide decals.

[mb86]

Anyone have any experience of making their own waterslide decals? I want to have a go myself but unsure if a couple of things. Plenty of videos on YouTube to show how to do it but my computer knowledge is poor to say the least. 

Aparently they will print from an all in one inkjet printer that will print photo quality on photo paper. Now there are hundreds of different printers available, will a sub £100 one do the job, I don't want to spend loads as I will only occasionally use it for decals so the cheaper the better. I know these won't print white or metallic but I can work around that. 

What design/ photo editing software will I need? There are free to download ones available, which is my kind of price . Can the decals be accurately scaled in the program prior to printing or is it a case of trial and error?

 

[Stabliofarmer]

I use a HP 5545 printer for my decals, was about £50 and does the job perfectly.

I use a combination of Microsoft Publisher and Paint.net for drawing the decals. Paint.net for drawing more complex designs with lits of varying colour. Publisher for more basic bits and then I use publisher to size it all up. To get the sizing and shapes I normally start with tracing paper and get an outline of the area the decals going. Then on the same piece of paper I add a scale, basically a straight line with 5cm marked out on it. Then I scan the template into the computer using the scanner on the printer. I then open it in publisher and it is possible to resize the photo so that the 5cm scale is 5cm and then proceed to draw over the template in both programmes. I always test print on normal paper too to check they're the right size before wasting decal paper.

Next time I make a set I will take some photos and screenshots to explain it better.

[R0BERT]

i have used a normal HP 70ish quid jobby for doing decals. I usually just found a decent photo off the internet, imported to paint (free) cut it out via paint, then transferred to word which you can resize to near enough exact size in resize image. 

Have used Waterslide, which is good but almost need to be putting onto a white tractor as the likes of blue or green does bleed through a little. and also weather it was my application or the laquring they didn't always work out.

  What i found was the best for me was sticky back photo paper that you can print on and you have ready made stickers, perfect for the bonnet decades, but not always as tasty looking for small badges e.g. the force ii lettering on a ford