A CUSTOM DECAL PRINTING SERVICE IS AVAILABLE FROM SPARETIME HOBBIES THROUGH THIS WEBSITE.
THE FOLLOWING LAYS OUT THE BASICS OF HAVING CUSTOM DECALS MADE.
Decals are printed on either clear or white water slide decal sheets with an ALPS printer. ALPS printers produce colour by separately printing Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black on the page with a wax based ink. The great thing about this printer is that it will print white on a clear background. In order to produce an opaque (non-transparent) decal, white is printed under the colour portions of your decal. To produce an opaque white, two passes of white are made. Because the printer makes all colours with the 4 basic colours above, small dot patterns will be visible in most colours other than the 4 basic ones. These dot patterns are not noticeable at distances greater than about 1 foot. The printer will also, from time to time, leave an unprinted band less than the width of a hair across portions of the decal. When this occurs, I can usually reprint the affected portion with no line, though not always.
Rob de Bie has an excellant tutorial on making decals at:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~robdebie/models/decals.htm
The least expensive way to have decals printed is to prepare your own art work. The best format to make the decal in is Corel Draw 9 (or lower). In this format it is best to produce a layer of all the printable area in black, a layer with all the colour in the proper colour, and a layer with the areas of special colours ( R, G, B, White, Gold or Silver, in black. You can also produce your work in Adobe Illustrator, as an EPS file, or for text, in Word. High resolution (600dpi) bitmaps can also be printed, but the white background will come out as a square behind the bitmap, and leaves no room to manipulate the colours, or to add special colours (at least, not easily!)
Please call or e-mail pete"AT"sparetimehobbies.com for any other concerns or inquiries about setting up your art work.
The maximum size of an individual decal is 7 1/2 x 10 inches (8 1/2 x 11 page with border).
The minimum price is $15.00 (all prices Canadian, plus applicable taxes)for a half page of basic colour text (with provided font, if required) or provided art work, and includes a white undercoat and decal film overcoat.
EXPECT ALL CUSTOM DECAL ORDERS TO TAKE AT LEAST 6 WEEKS
PRICES:
Basic text, simple artwork or bitmap, basic colours up to 6 print passes (each base colour requires it's own printing pass).
1/2 sheet........................................................$15.00 + tax
Full sheet........................................................$20.00 + tax
More complicated text, set-up (colour separation, multiple layer printing, etc) of existing graphics, simple original graphics.
1/2 sheet........................................................$20.00
Full sheet........................................................$25.00
For more complex decals, or for decals from scratch, or large runs please call or email a description for a quote.
Excessive white (more than approx. 25% of the sheet)
1/2 sheet.........................................................$2.50 per colour
Full sheet........................................................$5.00 per colour
Gold, silver, OKI red, green or blue:
1/2 sheet.........................................................$2.50 per colour
Full sheet........................................................$5.00 per colour
3 sheet+ discount (identical sheets) .....$2.50 per sheet
Basic shipping via Canada Post is free for Canadian orders, $1.00 for US orders and $2.00 for international orders.
All prices are in Canadian Dollars, are subject to change, and will be confirmed at time of order.