Tutorial How to: DIY decals

[naf]

I tried this out last night, works great! I bricklinked a few sets that have long since retired, and decided I could live without the decals since they are selling for $20 a sheet. This method actually looks better than the official decals since those are on the white paper backing, while these are on clear tape. They look great on the model.

Thanks for showing us this tip!

[mkeller234]

Great post. I think I remember doing something similar with magazines to create slides for slide projectors. This was way a long time ago.

This looks like a very viable and easy to manage solution. Does it matter how "old" the print is? As in, does it work better when the printing is fresh-fresh (within minutes) or older - hours or days? Just wondering as I also used to do the transfers of old photo-copiers using lacquer thinner - these had to be relatively new to transfer effectively (This was paper to paper transfer for art school).

In my experience it hasn't mattered if the laser print was old or "fresh". I know that I've had success past 24 hours, don't believe I've tried longer than that.

I tried this out last night, works great! I bricklinked a few sets that have long since retired, and decided I could live without the decals since they are selling for $20 a sheet. This method actually looks better than the official decals since those are on the white paper backing, while these are on clear tape. They look great on the model.

Thanks for showing us this tip!

Awesome! Glad I could help out. Any chance we could get some pictures of your finished product?

I'm going to do the decals for cabin cruiser next, but I may add my own personal touch.

Edited January 28, 2014 by mkeller234

[SandMirror38]

Do these work with minifigs???

I'm in progress of making the minions from Despicable me and hit a wall when it came to the personality/decals of them, the main ones I'm concerned about are the mouth -mainly black,white and dark red- as it's going on yellow and the tunic going accros light blue and yellow -decal is white black and blue- I'm just concerned that I'll do all the work for these and then the white'll come off or something of that ilk

[neonic]

Looks very good.

Reminds me to those stickers of modelling kits I had years ago from tanks and planes. Always messing with water

I want to 'rebuild' my truck and now I see this, some decals would be nice too.

[mkeller234]

Do these work with minifigs???

I'm in progress of making the minions from Despicable me and hit a wall when it came to the personality/decals of them, the main ones I'm concerned about are the mouth -mainly black,white and dark red- as it's going on yellow and the tunic going accros light blue and yellow -decal is white black and blue- I'm just concerned that I'll do all the work for these and then the white'll come off or something of that ilk

Yeah, they will work with anything that you can stick them on. They are basically just a clear sticker. It won't look like printed ink though. If you are using colored bricks, you may need to paint white on the bottom to keep the colors bright.

[Debricker]

wow I never knew how to make my own decals, but now I do. Thanks for sharing this.

[Artanis I]

What an amazement to me, how well it turns out for how cheap it is! Question: how long do you leave it to soak? I tried a few times last night. First few efforts had scratchy results.

I got better results using hot water (from the tap), leaving it in there for a few minutes, and rubbing the paper away rather than scratching. I found it difficult to remove the paper without scratching, but if you leave an extra tab that isn't printed on, you can scratch that paper away and easily rub away the rest of the paper. Then cut off the extra tape.

This photo was taken the morning after:

I just need to cut straight, fix the "white" in the original image (disappointingly printed off-white ) and not get ink on my thumb.

[mkeller234]

Looks really good!

As far as removing the paper goes: I always use the pad of my thumb to remove the paper pulp. I don't scratch or use my fingernails to do that. I've noticed sometimes that the clear areas can sometimes look murky. I think that has to do with removing as much paper pulp as possible, to get clear results. I also wonder if some tape brands may be clearer that others. You can always see a bit of yellow color in packaging tape. I wonder if transparant Scotch tape would yeild clearer results?

[Artanis I]

Well I've fixed my images and I'm going to have another crack at it over the weekend. Hopefully I have enough white torsos. That photo includes my 5th, 4th & 3rd attempts. Green guy got ruined by a pink thumb print...

[mkeller234]

If you goof up, you can peel this stickers back up and start over. I'd imagine if any ink got left on the figure that you could remove it with a bit of rubbing alcohol.

[mkeller234]

I forgot to answer how long it takes to soak. I'd say it takes me roughly a minute or two to get the paper saturated enough. Really, what you are looking for is to be able to rub the paper pulp away with the pad of your thumb with relative ease.

[mkeller234]

I made the decals for 4011 Cabin Cruiser this morning. I think I spent a total of 30 minutes, including creating the vector art. If anyone wants this file, let me know and you can have it for free.

DSC04405 by mkeller234, on Flickr

DSC04404 by mkeller234, on Flickr

DSC04407 by mkeller234, on Flickr

[Rinzler]

Trying it now with a custom Sinestro

[Artanis I]

Must be the tape I'm using, I need to soak longer than that to get the paper to come off easily. Here is round 2. I have left the others as they are for the time being, to see how long the tape stays on, but intend to redo them.

The ink just got on the back of the tape, not the Lego.

[mkeller234]

Yeah, I suppose it could always be the tape. I'm pretty sure the tape I am using is cheap stuff. I like all of the different colors of figures, I don't think I have ever seen them like that before.

[Colossus]

Wow! I really like those new spacesuit designs! Excellent work!

[SandMirror38]

another question.

If I was to print these, leave them for a couple of hrs then do all the tape and stuff etc. Would they still work?

Or would the ink not be wet enough?

[Artanis I]

I can't remember if I did batch 2 on Friday or Sunday night, but I printed the sheets on Friday afternoon.

At the least it was 2 hours.

[mkeller234]

another question.

If I was to print these, leave them for a couple of hrs then do all the tape and stuff etc. Would they still work?

Or would the ink not be wet enough?

Laser printer toner is really dry to the touch, so I don't think that time is a factor at all.

[Artanis I]

another question.

If I was to print these, leave them for a couple of hrs then do all the tape and stuff etc. Would they still work?

Or would the ink not be wet enough?

Just to update, I did some more yesterday. Some were printed 9 days earlier, they weren't too bad but not as clear as ones I'd printed just a couple of hours before.

Anyway, I'm getting closer to the goal:

[mkeller234]

Cool! I love all of the colors.

[iamwhoiam]

Thank you mkeller234! I tried this out on my coffee shop MOC and it is easy, and very effective!

[mkeller234]

Awesome! Glad to hear that this tutorial has been beneficial.

[Prince Manic]

I'll try this if things get messy via water slide decals I'm sure I can use my custom Ecto-1a license plate to and convert it into a decal. should be simple enough if I'm gonna make it happen on a 1x2 white plate.

[Robianco]

I've never used the tape before but when I purchase waterside decals I also picked up a clear acrylic spray. Once the decals are printed I sprayed one or two coats of the spray to seal the design so the water doesn't make it run.

Cut the decals and apply them to the brick / torso / head etc as desired. Once it's dried I normally give one or two coats of the acrylic to seal it then it's pretty well protected. As it's a spray there's no real thickness to the acrylic so it's not obvious.