White decals/Alps printer options?

[mademan]

Im looking to have a few custom decals printed.... that have some white writing in the center, Ive contacted Keith Marks 5 or 6 times over the past 2 months and have heard nothing back. Does anyone have an alternate source for decals that uses an ALPS printer?

[John Pol]

Ask Mike coleman on facebook or fireball works he does custom decals they both have alps printer

[Greg Wann]

http://www.pulsarprofx.com/decalpro/

 

You could purchase one of these kits.  There are a lot of steps.  You can create your own artwork too and even make temporary tattoos.  You can apply the image to decal paper and create your own waterslide decals.  You can make white, gold  and silver images among other colors.  They also sell a kit where you could create your own photo etch parts too  The kits are reasonable and if you don't like it they will give you your money back.

[horsepower]

Those look interesting, but it talks about a particular laminating machine, doesn't it make the cost higher if you have to purchase that machine?

[Greg Wann]

true, it does cost more when you buy a laminating machine.  It is a must have item though.I would suggest you call or email them.  It seems that some laminators work better than others as some laser printers perform better than others do. 

[peteski]

If you can provide vector-based artwork then you have won more than half the battle. There are many decal producers listed on http://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm (scroll down to the list of custom decal companies).  Fireball Modelworks is one of the ones listed there.

[mademan]

if I was better at editing and creating my own files, I have looked into buying an ALPS, there are a few  good deals to be had on ebay right now.

[peteski]

Many of the decal companies listed on that website will create artwork for your decals (but since that takes time, the price will be much higher).

 

As far as good deals on Alps printers on eBay - beware!  Many have damaged heads which makes them pretty much useless.  Then, even if they are good, many will get damaged in shipping by being improperly packaged (and by rough handling).

Edited September 19, 2016 by peteski

[Tom Geiger]

Does it make sense to buy an Alps?   Probably not if you are like me and only need a few decals a year.  Much of what I do I can improvise on my ink jet printer. When I've needed white or silver,  I've added a white or undercoat decal under the main one.  For me it doesn't make sense to own  an expensive obsolete piece of equipment for minimal use.   

[peteski]

I would not recommend buying Alps printer for a casual user. Not only these printers are long discontinued with very limited support, they are finicky and often a pain do deal with.  This opinion is from a personal experience (I'm a seasoned Alps owner). 

To me it would make more sense to get a vector-based drawing program, learn to use it, and then have your artwork printed by one of the custom decal producers who use Alps printers.  That way you leave the hard stuff to them.  If you have print-ready or almost-print-ready artwork, that will save you the cost of artwork design and you'll only pay for printing.

There are free vector-graphic programs (such as Inkscape) or you can pick up older versions of Corel Draw on eBay for less than $50. Either is more than adequate for designing decal artwork.

It also makes sense to combine artwork for several project into single decal artwork to save even more money.