Where can i buy blank decal sheets to put in a printer?

Micro- Mark sells them http://www.micromart.com

Ok I think i can shed a little light on this for you. Just keep in mind that this is just some knowledge I have and I havn't found a need to do this myself yet.

First off you need to know a couple of things.

#1

there are two kinds of decal paper that is made. One is for InkJet Printers and One is for laser printers and copiers. Know what kind you need as they are not interchangeable.

#2

Each kind of paper comes in Clear and White. the reason being is there is only like 1 or 2 models of printers out there than can print the color white. so if your decal is going to have white in it you have to use the white paper and cut out the edges very carfully.

#3

If your going to use the InkJet decal paper in an InkJet printer. You must have what is called a "fixative spray" to spay on the decal after printing to keep the ink from smearing or washing off.

ok.. now as to where to get them..

My local Hobbytown USA's carry them but not many at any one time. I have seen kits for Decal printing sold at hobby and craft stores.. but not to many times and it was alway a bit pricy.

I'd check out the local hobby stores first as then you will not be paying extra for shipping an item to you.

You can prob find many online retailers who carry this stuff.. I'll just throw up a link or two here for you.. This is in no way an endocement. just showing whats out there.

Micro Mark sells decal paper.. at

Micro-Marks Web site

their decal paper is priced at 5 sheets of clear or 5 sheets of white at around $5.95

and the fixative spray is $3.95

They also sell what they call their Try-it pack. which is 1 white and 1 clear sheet and a small can of fixive for 6.99.

Inkjet Try it pack url for micromark

Laser try it pack from micromark at $4.95

the bad part of ordering from micro-mark is you'll have to pay a bit of shipping minimum is about 6.25. and anyways I just posted those links to give you an idea whats out there..

ok great. How well does it work? Tanks for the replies

I've been using MicroMark's products with great success over the years. I have an Epson Color Stylus 740 that I print on - and MicroMark's was the only product that gave me consistently good results. I do mostly my own decal work - as exhibited on the models I build. Their products are good stuff to use, in my experience.

Gunnie

I use to do all of my decals on my own using an ALPS printer. I also have a small decal business that pays back the hobby (http://awd.interfree.it) If white is not involved also a laser printer (color if you need colors or just black if it's enough) can be used, and if you don't have one you can go at Kinko's with your drawings on a floppy/cd and they'll print them for you. In this case the best decal paper I've found over the years can be obtained from Tango Papa Decals ( http://www.tangopapadecals.com/.
If you want to do them using an Inkjet printer the results are not good as in the previous way specially for four main reasons:
- the inkjet inks are water soluble, so you have to seal the printed decals (once throughly dried) using acrylic clear varnish
- the inkjet inks (apart from the last generation ones from HP or Epson for instance) tend to fade with the time (starting in a year or so) if exposed to the light
- the inkjet printers are not able anyway to print white, but if you need this can be overcome using white decal paper, unless you have not complicated shapes to be cut out
-sometimes it happens that the water is able to find its way through the paper ruining all your work, even after the decal application.
Micro-mark paper ( http://www.micromark.com) for laser/alps printers is not bad. Other sources for ink-jet decal paper are:
http://www.thedecalpaperstore.com (they have a type of paper that due not need sealing but I never tried it)
http://www.mcgpaper.com/decals.html (needs sealing)
[url=https://www.decalfactory.com[/url]
Lots of other people is marketing peper from Beldecals ( http://www.beldecals.com). In my experience their product is not the best at all as they claim. They were extremely quick in delivery but over 50% of the decal sheets I bought were unusable and I never got a reply to my complaint. Anyway it's up to you...
Last but not least to achieve the best result you have to create your art at least at a resolution of 300 dpi, and, if possible with a vector graphic package (Coreldraw, Adobe Illustrator, ecc) instead than with raster products (MS Paint, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, ecc.)
Hope this can help
Ciao

Wow - I've never had any of these problems at all...

Gunnie

Unfortunately I did. I've tried a couple of brands of ink-jet decal paper but I'm not happy at all with it. This does not means that someone else can be more than happy with it. Until I can rely on my ALPS and OKI I will stick to that and to the laser decal paper...
Ciao and happy decaling!!!

I've done my own decals for several models now, and I have used Microscale decal paper on an HP 932 injet printer. I use the setting for overhead transparencys, and have had no problem with the ink fading, smearing, washing off or running; no fixative used or needed.

Dave

Tanks, I am thinking of building a police car model and using the door emblem from the local dept. Yeah, I know it's not a tank. I hope you guys can forgive me. #:-)