Westlake Publishing Forums

With regard to creating your own decals, I have had some experience with that.

First, you will need to create your art work/graphics.  I have access to Adobe Photoshop for what I do but most any graphics program should work so long as you can send it to your printer.  You can also prepare your graphics the old fashioned way by cutting, pasting, drawing and using any variety of art media then, photocopying it down to an appropriate size.  I have also found graphics, clip-art and images on the internet that match my needs.  At any rate, find or make the graphic image you want, set it to the size you need and prepare it for printing.

Be aware that decal paper comes as either white or clear.  If your graphics includes white in the design, you will need white decal paper. Neither ink jet or laser printers are capable of printing white.  I purchase my decal paper sheet from Micro-Mark located in New Jersey, USA.  Shop online: www.micromark.com.

Next, set your printer to print on high gloss material.  There will be instructions with the decal paper which will assist you as well.  Once printed, handle the sheet with care being careful not to touch the printed images.  After a few minutes of dry time, spray the decal surface with a clear coat of some kind.  Ink jet ink will wash away if not protected when you place the decal piece in water for application.

Hope this helps.

Stuart

You could quit your job as a modeler and become a plumber! Your work is most professional. -- Russ

Noble Job Volker!  Absolute Top Drawer!

Exceptional work Volker. Very nice all the way around.

Stuart

Awesome, Volker. The tiles, the bit of corrosion on the plumbing, the wear on the bath stove!
I don't know what the hot & cold labels ought to look like, but but could you use tiny alphabet decals for individual letters?

Quote from: finescalerr on April 11, 2025, 12:52:36 PMIt is clever, beautiful, and perfect. In other words, most satisfactory. Next (since you mentioned it) model some beautiful girls in thong bikinis, each eager to cater to our every whim. -- Russ

Russ, you're in need of more hotties? Wait for it.

Quote from: Ray Dunakin on April 19, 2025, 10:01:26 PMExcellent work!

Ray, thank you.


And now to the hotties: I was pretty satisfied with the printed parts of the tiled stove, but coloring them like glazed tiles seemed a real task to me, especially because the prototype shows a shimmering colour gradient at each tile.




I started with a layer of black primer and then airbrushed a base colour mixed from red, yellow, white and ocre colour shades, resulting in a somewhat indefinable pig-pink ochre. I had the additional parts printed separately: The insert for the warming area and the frame for the furnace and ash pan were added to the openings after coloring was complete.




To achieve the colour gradients and the gloss of glazed tiles I used Vallejo 26.230 water texture acrylic, mixed with a bit ochre and yellow for the basic tone, and another mixture with more opaque red and brown tones to create the color gradient. While waiting to be put on Vallejo's payroll I applied that tile by tile with a brush. Finally I added a layer of very thin greyish water color to reduce the gloss a bit and to highlight the joints. That's going to be the visible side within the room...




... and that's the back side, where a piece of stovepipe will be added to the wall.




The bath stove is also nearly finished. Again the printed parts came out quite well.




The piping was made from brass tubes and rods; only the fittings themselves are printed. To give the whole thing a bit more stability, I had to drill out the shower pipe holder. With little foresight, I had provided the printed part with tenons instead of a hole, but with the help of a small tube attached, the tenons could be converted into a hole. The whitish dust is a remnant from drilling, it's not part of the print.




The building only had a few years or even months left of use – I imagine the furnishings were correspondingly run-down. That's just a test mount on double sided adhesive paper, there are some more pipes to come.






The taps should actually have "hot" / "cold" labels on them, but I've avoided decals so far because it's too expensive for me to order them from service providers for such small quantities. Does anyone here have experience with self-printed decals (inkjet) and would like to share their experience?




By the way: I'm still waiting for that payroll thingie, but meanwhile my publisher decided to halve my book's price. So whenever price was an obstacle (instead of language, lack of thong bikini girls, poor modeling or bad quality) - here we go: "Vollendete Baukunst".

Cheers,
Volker

Quote from: Ray Dunakin on April 19, 2025, 10:20:46 PMGreat stuff! I especially like that antique cash register. I've tried to find something similar in 1/24th scale but no luck so far.

Thanks Ray, it is even better in 1:48 than the HO one. I might have to give it a try a 1:24

Everything is most satisfactory including the barrel you consider imperfect. Your printed parts are perfect. -- Russ

Instead of using the 16 gallon oil drum on the exterior of the garage (as I originally thought), I decided to place it as a trash receptacle on the interior of the garage.  I have painted, aged and streaked it considerably to make it appear well used.  It will sit next to the shelf unit and just behind the tire as seen in the photo.  On the outside of the garage I will be placing a second 16 gallon oil drum with a funnel to serve as an old oil collection container.  Rather than fabricate the second drum in copper I created a 3D version and printed it with my resin printer.




This was my first attempt at using the hair spray method of chipping paint.  I need to refine my process as the chipping is a little abrupt, not very subtle.

Lawton, the lower utility pole arm in the photo was molded in clear styrene. The green insulators on it were coated with a thin layer of opaque green Gouache that was mixed into clear gloss acrylic varnish. (Click photo to enlarge). They look translucent "Coke bottle green".