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Posted

to make a long story short ,I ordered 12 decal sheets from Keith Mark and more then half were garbage , asked him to reprint them and he did.

they look much better ,Thank you Keith Marks Two Thumbs up to you.

Posted

Good to hear.

What was wrong with those garbage decals?  Were they not printer cleanly, or did they get damaged in shipping?

Yes not printed cleanly !

Posted

Does Keith use the Alps printer to print decals?  If he does, the ink is very fragile. Maybe they did get damaged during shipping?  If that's not the case then I'm surprised he didn't see the defects when packing them for shipping.  But the bottom line is that he took care of the problem.

Posted (edited)

Alps printers are junk, and rarely produce a clean scratch free print. The color is washed out and yes they can flake and be damaged very easily. If I am printing large color areas I always do them as a lay over with the color printed on a photo quality Inkjet printer. End result for the customer is yes a little more work, but the end result is well worth it. So all of you who expect the latest new kit quality decals from the aftermarket using Alps printers, please lower your expectations. I always try to send out the best that I am able to do within the limitations of the equipment and materials I am working with. If it is not good enough for me to use it on my builds, I won't sell it to anyone else.

My two cents

Alan

 

Edited by Alan
Posted

Keith Marks is a stand up guy..Very honest and trustworthy..Customer service is priority with him..Besides his business savy, he is a good modeler too and also a good BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH..

Posted (edited)

I think the Alps printer head was to close to the decal paper . and scratch the decals .

LOL - Alps head is actually pressing very hard against the ribbon which then presses against the paper. If the head was not touching then nothing would be printed. Alps MicroDry printer is not an ink jet printer - it is a thermal transfer printer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_transfer_printing

If there were thin horizontal lines in the graphics than could indicate that the print head went bad or something in the head path scratch the waxy ink off.

Edited by peteski
Posted

Alps printers are junk, and rarely produce a clean scratch free print. The color is washed out and yes they can flake and be damaged very easily. If I am printing large color areas I always do them as a lay over with the color printed on a photo quality Inkjet printer. End result for the customer is yes a little more work, but the end result is well worth it. So all of you who expect the latest new kit quality decals from the aftermarket using Alps printers, please lower your expectations. I always try to send out the best that I am able to do within the limitations of the equipment and materials I am working with. If it is not good enough for me to use it on my builds, I won't sell it to anyone else.

My two cents

Alan

 

Sounds like you are familiar with Alps printing. As an Alps MicroDry printer owner/user (for over 15 years), for decals and other projects, I have to disagree with your statements. While Ink jet decals have their place, Alps-printed decals are hard to beat. And the colors are solid and fade-proof.  They do have some limitations and quirks but those can be usually solved. Yes there can be slight banding, but that can usually be taken care of by the LF adjustment. They are fragile (since the ink can be scratched off) but generally that is also not a problem. Being waterproof is the big benefit of Alps-printed decals. And of course the main benefit is that they can put down a layer of white ink under color graphics. And the capability for printing metallic colors is nice too.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

I have had Keith do decals for years, especially liked when he shrunk down his 69 Torino decals to 1:43 and made gold side stripes to replace the awful ones in the Hertz 66 Mustang

69Torino1.jpg

66ShelbyGT350-1.jpg

 

 

Edited by stevehansen

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