Cricut or Custom decals...

[space truckin]

Hey guys

Like I'm sure everyone else here I have a few ideas for scale projects...including rally and SCTs.

Been looking for RC sticker or decal sheets but havent found anything thats got me 100% pulled in. (Ex looking at Red Bull Rally car or Monster Energy etc)

Looked at some F1 sheets for sale on ebay / etsy. But nothing that is a great fit.

Tldr Questions:
is there a good source for RC quality decals?
1/10 scale

Anyone try this Cricut thing? Is it worth it?

I dont want another hobby just the decals
This is a lesson i learned from 3d printing.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tunedfrog]

Hiya @space truckin , have you considered designing your own and printing them on water slide paper if you have a printer?
I haven't tried it on RCs but I have on some guitars I built.

 

[space truckin]

Hiya @space truckin , have you considered designing your own and printing them on water slide paper if you have a printer?
I haven't tried it on RCs but I have on some guitars I built.

I havent thought about waterslides

I only have a jetink printer
Not sure how that will work.
Certainly there is paper.for it

 

[WickedFog]

I havent thought about waterslides

I only have a jetink printer
Not sure how that will work.
Certainly there is paper.for it

Inkjets will do waterslides. You just have to get the correct paper, and setup your images correctly.

 

[Tunedfrog]

I havent thought about waterslides

I only have a jetink printer
Not sure how that will work.
Certainly there is paper. For it

I'm not sure how they would hold up but it may be worth a try.

 

[WickedFog]

I'm not sure how they would hold up but it may be worth a try.

I only ever tried them in HO scale on a laser printer, and I didn't know what I was doing and those came out ok. But if I remember correctly, the old timer train gurus told me you have to clearcoat the decals on the sheet, and was best that way for laser too. Then you have to use a decal solvent to glue them on. Let me look into it. Its been 12 years now...

 

[space truckin]

Hell yeah gonna try this.

Anyone try gloss coating them? For added protection?

 

[Tunedfrog]

There again, I have used UV clear coat with UV lights to cure it on different projects.

 

[WickedFog]

Ok. My bad. Yes, you have to clear them to protect them. If it were me, I would use a UV protecting clear. If you have an airbrush, Createx 4050 is awesome I hear. After printing (shiny side is what you print on), give the decals 3 light coats, letting them dry in between coats.

 

[space truckin]

This is great news! Thanks guys it opens a TON of possibilities.

 

[WickedFog]

This is great news! Thanks guys it opens a TON of possibilities.

Good luck! Do you have Adobe Illustrator? If you create SVG files, they may print at a better quality. @Doom! could likely answer that, and I would like to know myself, what is the best way to preserve the quality lf prints at small scales. @Doom! makes the best decals!

 

[Doom!]

Thin overlaminate is what we use on stickers. if your stickers are small and you have a steady hand you can get away with packing tape.

For waterslide decals I use clear acrylic spray.

 

[WickedFog]

Thin overlaminate is what we use on stickers. if your stickers are small and you have a steady hand you can get away with packing tape.

For waterslide decals I use clear acrylic spray.

I was more curious what kind of file you print. If I remember I did PNG's, and the finer text kinda blurred on the smaller decals. Back then, I only had Photoshop, and later when I got Illustrator was thinking maybe that would produce better prints with SVG files. And since then, I have had a couple things printed and they asked for SVG.

 

[WickedFog]

Thin overlaminate is what we use on stickers. if your stickers are small and you have a steady hand you can get away with packing tape.

For waterslide decals I use clear acrylic spray.

And I am 90% certain that is the spray I used back then, and it did great

 

[Doom!]

Most of the time I use a vector file (I prefer Corel Draw, but Adobe Illustrator is the most common). If you are having it printed for you save it as a pdf file to print. A PNG works also just make sure your original image is at least 300 DPI or PPI and to size. If you are printing direct to your own printer you can just print directly from your native files.

 

[space truckin]

Yes to Illustrator and vector files.
Ordering supplies today

 

[WickedFog]

Most of the time I use a vector file (I prefer Corel Draw, but Adobe Illustrator is the most common). If you are having it printed for you save it as a pdf file to print. A PNG works also just make sure your original image is at least 300 DPI or PPI and to size. If you are printing direct to your own printer you can just print directly from your native files.

I messed with Corel a couple times and I couldn't get into it. Mostly because I have spent so much time playing in PS and Illustrator. It was in Illustrator though that I finally learned the pen tool and got good with it. This was one of my first drawings with the pen tool. Well, tracing if you will. I just penned around the various shades and adjusted the colors to match.

 

[Doom!]

I've been using Coreldraw since version 3, I've been using it for about 30 years now. I feel the same about Illustrator, I feel awkward because I am so familiar with CorelDraw. Another solid Graphics software is Affinity, easily competitive at about a third of the price.

 

[WickedFog]

Yes to Illustrator and vector files.
Ordering supplies today

You might check local printing services in your area. Ultimately, you want someone who can print with white ink. Not just print on white vinyl. I've not had much luck in my area, but they are out there.

If you want some nice decals, https://mciracing.ca/ makes really good decals, and will do custom sheets that you design, for around $12/sheet I think it is. He also has tons of pre-made designs and reproduction sheets from vintage RC's and such. The Tamiya fanboys in the UK brag on his decals, and Tamiya decal sheets are very nice. So to please those guys, they have to be good. But MCI is in Canada, so the whole tariff thing may cause some issues. But he does talk about that on the site and his FB page, so I am sure he knows by now how his shipments to the US are doing.

 

[space truckin]

A bit of memory lane but yeah started out with Printshop on they old apple IIe
And then Macromedia Freehand.

@WickedFog thanks a ton for the link!
Immediately saw 3 sheets on the SCT section I've been looking for. The Toyota is spot on and was already thinking of working around the white printer ink issues. I wont need to this way.

I'm gonna give the water decals a go first and then revert to this site if my results are poor.

Thanks a ton!

Ill post pics when I have something to show either way.
May take a while as shipping here is super slow.