Graffiti Decals and Custom-Work

[peteski]

Microscale decals are printed using silk-screening. So if the artwork is 5-color then there might be 5 layers of ink (assuming that there is some overlap between them all, but that is unlikely).

Color Sharpie markers use transparent inks so they'll  be useless on anything but white cars.

[nkalanaga]

Peteski:  I didn't know that.  We used them at work on colored paper, but that was pastel printed notices and such, not smooth painted freight cars.  Not having any use for graffiti in my era, about all I've used are the black and red colors.

[VonRyan]

haha well, giving nearly 99% of fresh from the factory rolling stock I see on the Allentown to Harrisburg NS line is tagged up, I'd say no...


Cody,
I've used a lot of various graffiti decals so far and all have not met my standards.


Here are the issues I have with whats available:

• Decal paper is too thick
• Screen printed,  so dots and color transitions look bad under macro photography
• No white printing – Issue with small run photo printers
• Not unique (although to me custom work is not required just more variety would be nice)

 
I like putting them on, and I will paint over them to blend out the terrible color transitions. So what I would most want would be small runs of pre-printed high resolution decals with white colors included. That I would pay dearly for.


Mike

I don't know about the printed decals. My printer just keeps going from bad to worse... and its not even 4 months old. Though all other decals can be done.

-Cody F.

[VonRyan]

Graffiti is just part of the scene today and I'd love to see more of it (on models, not real stuff!)

My only inputs would be:

- Needs to be on very think decal film and carefully printed to avoid thickness problems which I see on
  even the Microscale graffiti sheets.

- I'd love to see more of the "scribble" stuff where some idiot just goes nuts with a can of paint on the lower
  side of a car. You see a lot of it that is not even artistic, just garbage but I've not seen much of that offered
  except in small pieces by MS.

- Lou

The "scribble" stuff can be done. It'll most likely be on decal film that my LHS sells, but if there is a specific film you like, i might look into it.

-Cody F.

[VonRyan]

I ordered very thin paper from decalpaper.com - you have to ask for it.  This paper is a little tough to work with, so I would always print out multiple samples on the same page.

But back to the original question.  If you can produce quality graf decals, you shouldn't have a problem selling them.  However, you need a way to advertise them via good quality photos.  Factor these costs into your business plan.

Good luck.  Keep us updated on your progress.

I might have to look into them.
If my mother gets a new camera that doesn't need a solar flare of light then quality photos will be possible... if not just so-so quality.

-Cody F.

[DKS]

Microscale decals are printed using silk-screening.

Really? I could have sworn I'd read they used offset presses.

[peteski]

Really? I could have sworn I'd read they used offset presses.

The cross-hairs they use on their decals for aligning printed color layers indicate to me the silk-screening process.  I suppose that they are also capable of offset printing full color images but the railroad decals I have been using don't look like they are offset-printed.

I just contacted Microscale asking what methods the use. Hopefully I'll have a definitive answer in couple of days.

[DKS]

The cross-hairs they use on their decals for aligning printed color layers indicate to me the silk-screening process.

Single-color presses (such as an ABDick duplicator) would require the same alignment marks.

[Chris333]

I don't know what Microscale uses, but I used cross hairs for offset printing just last night.

[GaryHinshaw]

Deja vu...   

I'd love more choice in graffiti decals, but, as per Dave Schneider's advice, I'd like to see before I buy.  One complaint I have about Microscale's scribbles is that they lack the partial transparency that most spray-painted scribbles have.  I'm not sure how easy this is to replicate with decals though.

-gfh

[tom mann]

I always thought that scribbles could be done believably with a fine pigma micra pen:

[GaryHinshaw]

Nice.  Do you have an example in white/off-white?  Is this the brand you mean:

http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Pen-Archival?

-gfh

[tom mann]

Nice.  Do you have an example in white/off-white?  Is this the brand you mean:

http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Pen-Archival?

-gfh

Yep, that's the one.  They have a super fine tip version.

A white example is in the works. I recently found white fine tip markers at AC Moore.

[Smike]

Nice.  Do you have an example in white/off-white?  Is this the brand you mean:

http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Pen-Archival?

-gfh

Excellent! I'm going to pick up a few of those and give it a try. I've used others with so so results. Mostly due to the thickness of the pen tip, and the lack of 'flow' of the ink.

[VonRyan]

I always thought that scribbles could be done believably with a fine pigma micra pen:

Looks like you have the style down-pat. Now all you need to do is come up with a tag name for yourself... 

-Cody F.