I am having trouble with making water slide decals with my inkjet printer,,,,

But I did notice that Archer decals has generic numbers and letters as dry transfers. Since the area that I want to put these in is very tight in would be very difficult to line it up correctly.

So was thinking of putting the dry transfer on the wet medium decal paper, sealing it with micro set (or not), and then lifting the decal off the water slide decal paper with water and applying....

Does anyone know if that would work?

Yes, Archer has a method for that madness; they make a water slide paper which enables one to convert their dry transfers into decals. Here’s a video: ’Working with dry transfers – Part 3’ HTH.

Cheers!🍺
—mike

The Archer blank water side material is the only thing that has ever worked for me.

Not trying to criticize Archer but over the last fifteen+ years I have NEVER successfully applied one of their dry transfers. I always end up "rubbing them down" on the blank water slide decal material (which works like a charm!) and then I apply these "decals" to the model. Which again, works perfectly!

Perhaps I can help-- I've taught several decal making tutorials for a couple of local modeling groups. These are the basic steps for printing decals on inkjet printers:

1) Firstly, obtain quality clear or white decal paper. Testors is sub-quality, and I prefer full 8 1/2" X 11" paper from Walthers. Testors will work, but is more expensive, and the decal film tends to be thicker.

2) Decal film is glossy, and slippery by its nature. This prevents most inkjet inks from adhering evenly to the surface. Therefore, the most important step in making decals is to dull down the glossy surface. there are two ways to do this. the first is to spray an even coat of "Flattening agent" like Dullcoat. DO NOT use acrylic, alcohol, or water based flat finishes, as these can sometimes penetrate the decal surface and bond with the paper. My favorite mixture is 70% Testors Dullcoat decanted form the spray can, with 30% Testors airbrush thinner--this provides a smooth, flat finish on the decal paper.

3) You can use a generic font program found in MS Word, or a simple graphic program such as PowerPoint to create different fonts and designs. You can even adapt photos with some of the newer photo editing programs, and you can sometimes use a camera phone and email yourself a design to use in a desktop computer for more extensive editing.

4) Print a test shot of your decal on plain bond paper before using expensive decal paper. If you have small decals to print, cut the appropriate amount of decal paper from the larger sheet and tape it onto standard sized bond paper--this may take a little experimentation to determine the correct positioning, I prefer to use a complete sheet of decal paper, then I save the un-printed portion for later use.

5) Print your decal, and if you are not happy with the depth of tone or color, let it dry for an hour, and then run it through the printer again until you obtain the color tone and depth you need.

6) Let the printed decal dry overnight, or at least 12 hours, then use Microscale Decal Film Solution to overcoat your decal. I prefer to airbrush this step with full strength Microscale Decal Film--no thinning, at about 12-18 PSI. You can also Dullcoat, or use Testors spray decal solution--but go easy as these will make the decal stiffer, will sometimes attack the ink, or make the decal difficult to remove from the paper backing. I can't really recommend these, but they will give you a passable result-- the best option is to use the Microscale Decal Film. The Microscale stuff can also be brushed on, but you will need a wide, high quality soft Sable brush for this, and you tend to use more of it. Applied too heavily, and it too can cause the inkjet ink to run.

NOTE #1: The most important step in all of this is to Flatcoat the decal paper to give inkjet ink something to "bite" as it's applied to the decal paper. I've made decals as tiny as .05mm, but this will depend on your printer and associated font programs. another hint-- you can't print "white", and some yellows are difficult colors to print. However, with quality decal paper, you can easily airbrush the color you need, and with a flat coating you can sometimes print over those colors. Just be aware that every layer increases the thickness of the decal. With care and planning, you can use decal solutions like Solvaset and careful trimming to get your decal film to disappear.

NOTE#2: So you want white, silver or another colored lettering? For this you will need a PowerPoint program. You simply make a rectangle of the appropriate color, transpose your print font over it (in white font), and print out the decal. The lettering will be transparent, and you can use a small painted decal beneath it (in the color of your choice) or you can paint a base color directly on the object and apply the decal over it. The base colors will then show through the decal. By using a silver base decal or painted surface, you can make the lettering really "pop".

Hope this helps.
VR, Russ

Thanks Russ....

Re: Step 6 - Applying a coat of Microscale Decal Film with an Airbrush with no thinner....
I have read that the Decal film liquid tends to gum up the airbrush. Have you found this to happen?

I was just planning to brush it over the decals, and let dry, the apply as a water slide decal.

I've never had a problem with the Microscale Decal Film clogging the airbrush-- once I spray it on, I immediately run a little lacquer thinner through my airbrush (I use three--a Peak C-5, a Paasche Millennium and a Badger IL).
I suppose if you set it down and let it dry for an hour, you might have an issue, but that would go for any paint too. I've found brush painting or too heavy an application with an airbrush may also ruin the inkjet ink--so use light coats for covering. Brush painting is difficult to control for really tiny lettering too, but it can be done.
Here's a link to an article on Verlinden's 1/16 scale B-17 gunner's position I did for an article on Large Scale Planes earlier this year. All the placards, decals, lettering, etc. were done with the method above. The oxygen bottle has lettering that can't be read with the naked eye, but its there:
https://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=3273

VR, Russ

All good advice above. You can also "flatten" the decal film by lightly sanding it with fine wet/dry paper. Use dry of course. This is also a good way to reduce the thickness of the film.

All of the Archer dry transfer decals I have ever purchased came with water slide medium so I just assumed I was supposed to dry transfer them to the paper and then apply like regular decals. That has always seemed to work well so long as I was thorough with the dry transfer (i.e.: didn't miss any spots when I rubbed the transfer onto the medium).

I am not a big fan of inkjet printed decals because the medium is so thick compared to real decals that no matter what they always look like stickers.

I don't find this to be the case when using Walthers or Stevens Decal paper (take a look at the article I included above). Done correctly, they can be as thin and small as commercially printed decals. However, it depends on the quality of your printer, and the quality of your paper-- this is why I don't use Testor's decal paper or their "fixing" spray. I print my decals on a standard HP 8600 series inkjet printer, and believe me, I've made several hundred custom made decals over the past several years. the B-17 fuselage section above has over 300 custom printed decals, including the entire interior sheathing ("Alclad-Alcoa" aluminum markings, and all the crew gear markings--there are virtually no commercial decals used at all). But I do exclusively use Solvaset decal solution which effectively reduces the decal material to almost nothing, leaving just the ink and paint.
VR, Russ

I agree with Robert here. But I'm inherently lazy, so it's just quicker and easier to flat-coat the paper. However, when I do sand (I will sometimes sand if I want extremely thin decals, but more often don't need to go to that extent). I don't use sandpaper though, I use 0000 grain steel wool-- but if you use sandpaper or steel wool, make sure you use a tack cloth to thoroughly wipe down your decal paper afterwards, since minute particles of grit or steel wool can damage your printer at worst, or cause blemishes on the decal at best.
VR, Russ

Russ,
Nice work on that waist gunner. I'll have to give some of those other brands of decal film a try. To be perfectly honest, I have never encountered anything other than the Testors film.

Mark,
Testors decal paper is overly thick and behaves like a thick, tough film, and I’ve never had any success with it either. It also comes in 5 half sheets of 4”x5” for about $12 (at my local Hobby Lobby). Stevens sells 4 full sheets of 8 1/2” x 11 for about $10, and the decal film is thin and soluable, just like the film Cartograph or Microscale makes. You can also buy it in white, but I prefer clear which I can paint any color I need (this does make it thicker, but if you are careful, you can apply thin coats of paint, and can layer your decals for various effects— I’ve even painted whole sheets with Alclad, which can be used for obtaining custom metal finishes). You can buy Stevens direct from Stevens International (my LHS carries it though). Walthers also carries it, (or something very similar). And I think Micro-Mark carries something quite similar, but I’ve never tried their brand (I’d check to make sure it’s not Testors brand “repackaged” though— I think Model Expo carries Testors, but again, I’d avoid it. You can also sometimes buy decal paper at good art supply stores, but I’d check it first if you can, as it might be inferior quality like Testors is.
VR, Russ

Thanks, Russ. Got any tips for making all-white markings? Some time ago I was trying to modify a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force LAV to represent one in use with the Air Self-Defense force and I was never able to come up with a workable representation of the winged sakura featured on JASDF vehicles. You can see in this photo on Wikipedia what I'm referring to.

Hmmm...that one is definitely a non-standard font or design found in PowerPoint or MS word. I think you could take the photo and transfer it into a print or PowerPoint program, making the design appear clear on a patch of appropriate colored background--you can manipulate colors in PP to come very close to most Tamiya colors. Then I'd either paint a white rectangle on the vehicle or use white decal paper (Stevens makes decal paper in white-- or you could paint clear paper). I't be easier to cut white decal paper for a background than painting directly on the model I'd think.
VR, Russ

Thanks, Russ. I thought about using a green background on white paper and printing as a "negative." If I can locate some decent decal paper I may just give it another shot. The font's are no problem since I have Japanese IME already on my computer, and I have actually reproduced everything in Powerpoint so I guess it all comes down to the paper.

Mark,
Last night, I was able to take the image you provided, enlarge it, copy it into PP, and manipulate it into a PP image. Once there, I could shrink it into the appropriate size, and could manipulate the background color to "approximate" the color to match Tamiya JSDF green color. I didn't try and print it out, but I think it would work ok. It basically gave me a template that I could trim down into the appropriate shape. You might need to "blend" in the edges after applying the decal. I've found with using white decal paper is the amount of ink required to cover the white can become a problem, and the edges of the white decal paper will also show after cutting. I've only found white useful for making pure white "objects"-- a few letters carefully cut or for circles and squares. It's almost impossible to cut font letters from white stock (although my daughter has cut white decal paper into letters using her "Cricut" programmable cutter-- but the lettering is too large for model purposes in most cases. I prefer to use the "show through" technique with an overlay. Worst case, you can use the overlay as a pattern for hand painting or airbrushing, cutting out the decal material in the center, applying the decal, letting it dry and then airbrushing the design. Then using tape to remove the decal, which will leave your design. I've used that technique in difficult placement areas.
VR, Russ

Thanks, Russ! Good food for thought there!

The problem I am having is that the decal I want is yellow being put on a olive green background. No matter if I use a laserjet or inkjet, the yellow decal just fades into the background where you can't even see it.

I could print it on white decal paper, but the would have to cut the letters out extremely fine to get rid of the white. This would be very hard in the size that I need when getting to letter and numbers like "B, 6, 8, S.

Yep--- this is the problem when dealing with yellow on OD or dark green backgrounds. Depending on your printer, you can try to run the decal paper through the he printer several tiimes to darken the yellow, but it will still not be bright enough for some applications. Your first solution of applying the Archer dry transfers to clear decal paper is probably best for fine lettering-- again, I'd find quality decal paper for that, then use Microscale Decal film over the transfer to seal it in. You can also try to find some of the model railroad fonts from Microscale in yellow-- Microscale makes a lot of number and letter sets in various fonts for RR enthusiasts. Here's another trick to applying either the Archer transfers or letters and numbers from any decal-- count out the number of letters/numbers, and divide by two. Start with the letter in the middle and work out from both sides while applying. This will help with alignment and spacing. If you are applying the Archer transfers to decal paper, use a pencil to make a light line to use for horizontal alignment, and again, start from the center and work out. Good luck. By the way-- the yellow on the B-17 above is Stevens decal paper painted yellow with Testors Model Master Flat Insignia Yellow, and cut to shape. The small kill swastikas and the backgrounds for the parachute and armor plate date marks are done the same way-- there are eight strips of yellow decal material in each kill mark, but these are a little larger than the lettering found on most 1/35 vehicles.
VR, Russ