South Island Wargaming, New Zealand.

Hey all

I have just finished experimenting with and finally using a sheet of do it yourself waterslide decal transfer paper.

Before I start I bought a single A4 sheet of lazertran ink jet style paper from The Drawing Room on Manchester street for $7.95. Thats right. 8 bucks! So its not the cheapest thing in the world but if you play wargames I am sure you are used to things costing real cash money.

here is a link to lazertran http://www.lazertran.com/

I used the sheet to make a series of decals for my IG tanks and also for their shoulder pads etc. I used MS Paint and MS Word plus a downloaded font called CGF Locust Resistance ( http://www.dafont.com/cgf-locust-resistance.font )

I found a couple of pics online and messed with them on Paint to create a symbol for my Penal Legion IG force and then used the font to write Penitent VII. Then I made a few different sizes of everything.

I printed them all out and measured them up against my tanks so I could decide what size I wanted then copied and pasted them as many times as possible on word and printed it onto the transfer paper.

I was worried that the ink might pool or smudge on the paper but I didnt even need to wait for it to dry. It was great. If anything the pics were clearer on the transfer sheet than they were on standard paper.

The transfers worked as well as GW ones. just cut out, put in a saucer of water for about a minute then remove with tweezers or a paint brush and place on the model. The paper has a Matt finish which I rpeferred to the glossy GW ones.

The one big problem is that I cant print in white! this means all my transfers were in black. Thats fine for my commissar led army but might not work for everyone. I have painted the areas under the transfers white before sticking them on so the white areas that printed out transparent (obviously) come up as white. I suspect that if you wanted to print out bright colours (red, yellow green etc) you would need a white undercoat. Black worked fantasticly.

A final note. I tested the transfer by cutting a corner of the sheet and placing it in water etc just to check it was in fact transparent as it looked white while still attached to the paper. I stuck the transfer onto a bit of junk mail. just a glossy style leaflet that appeared through the post. The transfer seemed fine but by the next morning it had curled and peeled off. The transfers on the tanks are absolutly fine but just some thing to keep an eye on. I may use the valejo matt varnish on them just in case.

I will post pics later

Hold the phone

I am having a bit of an opaquing (is that even a word?) issue with the transparent areas

oooooo its a doozey!

OK so the transparent areas go opaque. Bugger! I knew it was too good to be true. I didnt realise as my symbol is a rectangle and I just cut it to shape. But I put some numbers on it and just cut them out as squares and the edges went all opaquey (hmm.....not a word). I am not a happy bunny...

How detailed are the transfer designs? Can you overpaint the transparent areas that have gone opaque with a fine brush?

Yeah I managed to do that. Just a bit of a shame really. I was hoping this might be something I could do with more intricate stuff.

I did the same with Bretonnian transfers which are the only ones I've tried using and I agree it did seem counter productive to the idea of transfers being time savers.

Don't know what it would do re the clear part turning opaque, but my brother has either a spray or brush-on coating specifically for transfers that removes the shine from them. I can find out what its called if you like.

Pics


This is the Chimera the symbol is a skull partially in shadow over the top of the scales of justice. the Penitent VII decal are in the font I downloaded. I used Paint to invert the colores so the words are in white on a black background.


The Bassie


Leman Russ the numbers that went opaque are on the left (technically a letter and a number I know). I had to paint over the edges with the base colour.


My sentinel. The PVII symbol is what I hope to use on the troopers also. I have it in three sizes. this is the largest.


The sheet after use.

That would be great Dave if you could. Valejo have something that thins them out a bit I am told. I have no experience of it but I have heard good things. Might try to get hold of it.

I am going to have to thin the transfers after all as I have wasted two of them trying to fix them to my banner. Might have to bite the bullet and spend some more money. Or attempt to paint it!

The stuff for coating decals is called Micro Set. If you're putting the decal over uneven areas (eg over a series of raised ridges on the armour) there is another product called Micro Sol - it causes the decal to soften and mold down perfectly over the contours. My brother who'se used the stuff on his WWII tanks and aircraft says its good, but the decals go soft so you have to be careful not to tear them.

Says you can get it from Acorn Models.

Thanks a lot. I will head over there later

Are the decals maybe going opaque because they're not conforming to the surface texture on the models? If so, you might be able to mitigate the problem by first painting the application area with a couple of coats of Johnson's Klear, or a gloss varnish and applying the decals to that. (Make sure to feather the edges of the varnished area, so that it's not an obvious hard-edged raised area).

I've used MicroSol, and it works well, but it works better for conforming decals to things like hatches and panel lines than fine pebbled surface texture.

hmm nice idea

I think I am OK with the opaquing on the sides of the tanks as the black stays black and I am tryinbg to get the rest of it white anyway. I can manage without letters and numbers and I can always use the GW ones for this anyway. But I am having issues with my banner. My banner bearer is the forgeworld renegade banner bearer. (here http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/rencomm.htm ) I have painstakingly sanded and scraped the chaos symbol of the banner and undercoated it black with 2 cotes of white over the top. The transfer doesnt like the bend in the banner near the pole. The banner is flapping and it curls through 45 degrees (ish) at that point. It just lifts up.

But you are right I think the opaquing is because it isnt a perfectly flat surface.