Panel decals - typeface, capitalization, hyphenation

[MarkW]

Are those of you using water slide covering with clear or leaving it exposed?
I wounder how it reacts with the clear. Since I am painting my plane with base/clear I had planned on doing the same with the panel.

[humptybump]

Mark, I'm finishing a multi-part article on my panel update and have a section on the paint and labels. I clear coat over the water slide. The short answer it it works well with some caveats. I'll link the article to a VAF post in about a week.

[fl-mike]

Originally Posted by rzbill

Arial Rounded MT Bold in Autocad. Used 0.125 height for all major notations like titles and 0.100 for minor notations (like off/on).

Sent files to Stein and purchased 2 sheets of waterslide decals.

I did similar, but used 10pt (0.139") font and custom rub-down lettering. Used Visio to do the layout. Multiple copies of the legends on the sheet in case I messed up (which I did). Nest things like on the old model decal sheets to maximize use of the sheet. I was also able to revise one switch later by carefully scraping off the old legend. Works great.
Been a while, but might have been these guys:
http://www.cliffdigital.com/services...ng-and-pricing

[Rupester]

How did that work? All my inkjet printer ink is BIGtime soluble in water ... it would disappear on a decal sheet in h20. ??

[ColoRv]

Originally Posted by MarkW

Are those of you using water slide covering with clear or leaving it exposed?
I wounder how it reacts with the clear. Since I am painting my plane with base/clear I had planned on doing the same with the panel.

I can show you some pictures of my bike that I built last year. Most of the graphics are waterslide with the exception of the white on the carbon fiber, that's paint using a paint mask.
After applying the white and blue and then the waterslides, I clear coated over all of it including the bare carbon with House of Kolors clear.
With the exceptions of the white and blue paint..everything else is waterslide printed on a color laser at the office. I couldn't be happier with it and it looks at least as good as any bike costing 5 times as much that I've seen.
What I learned from that fun little project is that someone else is painting my plane! I can do it and it's not even all that difficult..but **** its a lot of tedious work to do well.

Long and the short of it is waterslide really is amazing stuff. You cant see any edges or anything through the clear. I was skeptical, but not any more. I used THIS STUFF

[flyboy1963]

Nice road bike...you should get a hobby though!

man, those are some TINY pedals...what size are your shoes.....ONE!

somehow I don't think you oughta leave that parked unattended outside 7-11!

ah, to keep this decal related, I was amazed how good the Brother imprintable label maker worked. quite a bit of flexibility in letter size and spacing, black on clear film actually looks ok...on a beige panel. Probly not so good on a darker colour.

[humptybump]

Originally Posted by Rupester

inkjet printer ink is soluble in water ... it would disappear in water

I had the same problem with laser printed decals.

The trick is to print out your decals, then spray a light clear coat on the decals and let it dry before you attempt the water bath.

[Gash]

If you are not close to a Hobby Lobby, or you fear that your man card might be revoked for going there (it's not all plastic flowers and doll parts) then ebay is a good source for waterslide paper too: try this link.

[SteinAir]

This is exactly why we charge more than a few dollars for a sheet of waterslide decals...while the inkjet and laser ones can be somtimes made to work, the ink is occasionally is not of good quality (UV, water, etc..) and moreso with inkjet than with laser - the laser usually does a far superior job if you're doing it yourself. Most of the shops like ours use a dye sublimation printer for decals. It's also one of he only ways you can actually print in white, foils, or other light colors. As noted, if you do use the laser or inkjet type printer, make sure to use some sort of clear or bonding agent over the labels before applying them to a panel. The pic below is a Lancair panel we just shipped out today (sorry for the fuzzy iPad pic)...but this one has all sorts of neat decals all over it. Properly applied and clearcoated, the edges literally just dissapear. You can and will have the same result with your own decals if you are careful!

Cheers,
Stein

[humptybump]

I considered dry transfer but when I looked at $100 or more for the necessary equipment, it didn't make scense for my one panel. If I were in production, it would be well worth it.