Deck Decals

[Bill P]

Hello Everyone,

Wondering if anyone has experience in making decals. I'm doing up an old wide board and desperately want to get the deck decal right. A replacement decal is not available. I have therefore worked up some reasonable artwork, which looks beaut when printed onto white paper, but when printed onto clear waterslide decal paper it goes invisible when put on the dark wood canoe deck panel.

Ive tried running the decal paper through the printer firstly to put a baseband colour on it but its not much better. I cant "thicken" the colour on the art to make it work. I think I either 1. need to find some white decal or transfer paper (and trim the detailed decal super close to edges) or 2. paint a white blob footprint under the target zone on the deck.

Relaunch is soon. Any ideas accepted.

Bill P

 

[Michael Grace]

Hi Bill,

That waterslide decal material comes in two types- clear and white. If you print on the white material, your decal will show up great on the dark wood of the canoe. This works particularly well when the decal is full color (i.e., no clear areas... these will of course be white when using the white material).

Michael

 

[Bill P]

Thanks Mike,

I think I knew you were right.

I'll see if i can find some white decal paper around here. Should that be water slide or peel off?

I was hoping to avoid the edge trimming.

regards

Bill P.

 

[Michael Grace]

The water slide would be appropriate, and I personally think it looks much better (thinner). There's no way to avoid edge trimming... the old decals came in so many shapes and sizes. Just go slow and easy. If you have access to a dissecting (low power) microscope or some other good magnifier, you can do a very nice job with an Exacto knife or scalpel.

Michael