inkjet printed cloth interior...test on 1955 Mercedes Benz 300SL Gull Wing

[VanGoGo]

Im not really up on technology, but an artsy friend of mine told me about using an inkjet printer to print on cloth?! I found the pattern I wanted online, in photoshop I scaled it down and pieced together the size i needed, she glued the cloth to a sheet of paper and ran it thru her printer...came out nice! I used spray adhesive and glued it to the seats, and think it turned out pretty cool. Not sure if this is old technology you've been doing for years... but new to me, thought I would share. I included a 'before' shot and a picture of the 'guinea pig'

[Gluebomber]

That looks great, Vince!  I may give it a try on my ink jet printer.

Good Idea!

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

Whoa that looks good. Do you know what type of fabric was used? 

[VanGoGo]

17 hours ago, Perspect Scale Modelworks said:

Whoa that looks good. Do you know what type of fabric was used? 

my friend who did the actual printing says she uses natural fibers, and usually the thinnest material she can find, she uses a glue stick to attach a paper backing, but she said there are companies that make cloth suitable for printing which probably turn out better than hers (with a peel-off backing already attached)...but we dont have a craft or hobby store in this area so she improvises.

[Ragtop Man]

Well damn! What cloth did you use? 

Not sure how this scales down (v. 1/12) but for some of the more elaborate interiors of the 50s and 60s  (and did someone say 1/8 Camaro with "Conteur" seating and the repeating pattern?) this is a game changer.

Absolutely cool and worthy of a mag article or how to!

[Dragline]

Looks fantastic! 

[Cosmic D]

Absolutely calls for a tutorial - like you I'm not so tech savvy but I have a printer, photo editing  and ready to try this out since I have a Minicraft Mercedes in the pipeline.  How did you remove the paper backing after the printing?

[iamsuperdan]

Wow! I am VERY intrigued by this. Printing on cloth in my normal printer?! 

What kind of sorcery is this?

 

now I have to investigate.

 

 

[VanGoGo]

1 hour ago, Cosmic D said:

Absolutely calls for a tutorial - like you I'm not so tech savvy but I have a printer, photo editing  and ready to try this out since I have a Minicraft Mercedes in the pipeline.  How did you remove the paper backing after the printing?

I believe she just used those 'glue sticks' (kinda like a chapstick type tube of roll-on glue?) the paper peeled of easily

[VanGoGo]

3 hours ago, Ragtop Man said:

Well damn! What cloth did you use? 

Not sure how this scales down (v. 1/12) but for some of the more elaborate interiors of the 50s and 60s  (and did someone say 1/8 Camaro with "Conteur" seating and the repeating pattern?) this is a game changer.

Absolutely cool and worthy of a mag article or how to!

The cloth used started out white, seems like cotton, thin, kind of reminds me of a pillowcase material. I pretty much eye-balled the scale, I looked at pics of Benz' interiors and counted how many rows of plaid there were on a seat. I figured a 6"square would be enough material, shrank down a photo of a sample I found online (red black tartan plaid) and pieced a bunch together in Photoshop to fill the 6" square. Do a search online for "printable fabric for inkjet printers" and Im sure the ready made cloth would be easier to work with...maybe even turn out nicer? I did a quick search on 'Camaro contour fabric' and it looks like its easy to find sample pics that would work.

[Perspect Scale Modelworks]

What scale is the Mercedes?