Custom shield decals?

[Fremitus Borealis]

Just curious if anyone knows of a service for printing off shield transfers? I know Jeff Jonas has a fairly detailed how-to guide on his website, but....I haven't owned a printer for years, and I'm not really inclined to buy one when this would be literally the one thing I'd use it for I'd much rather just slide someone the money for their time and materials.

[wmyers]

I see no one has given any ideas. 

Decal paper can be bought from hobby shops to print on - you know this part.  My suggestion is to enquire from a print shop to print onto the paper needed or start asking friends and family who has a colour printer.

Another would be to check who is selling colour printers on local second hand sites and look at the reviews for high resolution and quality and buy a cheap second hand one (that you can see print before buying to ensure it’s still working properly- they would be selling it for a reason!).

[Red Orc]

I've been wondering something similar... maybe, a problem in eliciting responses is that you've posted this on the 'Age of Myths' board. 'Fantasy' people use shield decals,'Future Wars' people use vehicle and mini decals, I would guess most of the boards here have some people who use transfers rather than painting designs, and probably a few of them at any one time are considering custom decals. I am currently thinking about options for shoulder-markings for a custom Space Marine chapter, but I rarely visit the 'Age of Myths' board because I don't game in this period - I just happened on this thread by chance.

Pro: I do have a printer.
Con: No idea how much the paper costs. Not sure how to control sizing either. My understanding is on these home-produced decals, white is a problem.

Honestly I don't yet know whether I'm going down the custom decal route, but it's a possibility. If I do, I'll be interested in collaborating so we can hopefully both keep our costs down. Of course that may depend on where you are too - I'm in the UK, so if you are too, maybe we can sort out a plan.

[OSHIROmodels]

Citadel Six?

http://www.citadelsix.co.uk/

[Unlucky General]

Perhaps someone more local to you who has a printer and the basic know-how might help?

[Jjonas]

Here in the USA CostCo has print services. Just bring your USB and some decal print paper (which will cost you 20$ or so) and they can probably fix you up.

Other places that can do this are Print service shops at Staples, BestBuy, UPS stores. T-shirt print places might also have laser printers you might negotiate a price.

The key thing is to "gang" up as many images on one sheet, leave plenty of bleed around the edges.  I print mine at 300 dpi which is usually good enough for eyeballs.

The biggest problem is lining up the scale of your graphics- so they end up the correct size on paper from the digital images. I usually do a number of draft B&W test prints to make sure I am printing at scale, before wasting the fancy decal paper.

But as stated here is a link to the process:

http://www.ancientbattles.com/HeroesOfGreece/AncientBattles_Homebrew_Transfers.html

[WillieB]

Actually you don't even need a dedicated printer.
Print out your decals on regular paper and take it to the nearest copy shop with a good laser colour copier. Bring your LASER decal sheets with you and they'll gladly print them out for you.
I would suggest doing a few test prints on regular paper first and preferably in colour once you got the size correct. Laser printers tone colours down a bit.

[Pinno]

I create my own shield designs in Photoshop and print them with laser printer on selfadhesive matt paper.

[tallyho]

Someone in your family or a friend has a printer surely.

Just print them onto transfer paper on it!

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I've been wondering something similar... maybe, a problem in eliciting responses is that you've posted this on the 'Age of Myths' board. 'Fantasy' people use shield decals,'Future Wars' people use vehicle and mini decals, I would guess most of the boards here have some people who use transfers rather than painting designs, and probably a few of them at any one time are considering custom decals. I am currently thinking about options for shoulder-markings for a custom Space Marine chapter, but I rarely visit the 'Age of Myths' board because I don't game in this period - I just happened on this thread by chance.

Pro: I do have a printer.
Con: No idea how much the paper costs. Not sure how to control sizing either. My understanding is on these home-produced decals, white is a problem.

Honestly I don't yet know whether I'm going down the custom decal route, but it's a possibility. If I do, I'll be interested in collaborating so we can hopefully both keep our costs down. Of course that may depend on where you are too - I'm in the UK, so if you are too, maybe we can sort out a plan.

Yeah I just posted the thread here because this is the only board I visit, and I'd remembered a few ancient wargamers mentioning doing this before.

As far as joining forces, alas, I live across the pond in the Rebel Colonies, so I'm afraid it would be cost-prohibitive.

Here in the USA CostCo has print services. Just bring your USB and some decal print paper (which will cost you 20$ or so) and they can probably fix you up.

Other places that can do this are Print service shops at Staples, BestBuy, UPS stores. T-shirt print places might also have laser printers you might negotiate a price.

The key thing is to "gang" up as many images on one sheet, leave plenty of bleed around the edges.  I print mine at 300 dpi which is usually good enough for eyeballs.

The biggest problem is lining up the scale of your graphics- so they end up the correct size on paper from the digital images. I usually do a number of draft B&W test prints to make sure I am printing at scale, before wasting the fancy decal paper.

But as stated here is a link to the process:

http://www.ancientbattles.com/HeroesOfGreece/AncientBattles_Homebrew_Transfers.html

Yeah Jeff, it was your website that gave me the idea in the first place! 

Thanks for the tip on some places to try. I still haven't completely ruled out picking up a printer to try it myself, but I'd just much rather spend that $100+ on more minis    Then again, considering the potential cost of paying a shop to print them off... I wonder if the cost wouldn't even out pretty quickly....

As far as scaling the images, I admit that's what I'm most apprehensive about. I don't have photoshop, but I also doubt "winging it" is a good idea. Hmm...

[wmyers]

When I worked at a print shop, we charged $1 for a colour laser print. 

Call around and see. 

I have to thank you for this thread as I was looking at making an order for a bunch of decals then started to see how the prices were adding up and was thinking of putting it off for the future. 

Then reading this thread it makes me realize how much better (cost effective, convenience) it would be to just print my own decals.

I've lots of Romans, Celts and Germans.  Not to mention Carthaginians and Greeks.  Either I can give Steve at LBMS a holiday in Spain or I can calculate the cost of what it would have been buying from them and try to put that away for my family to have a holiday.

[wmyers]

Here in the USA CostCo has print services. Just bring your USB and some decal print paper (which will cost you 20$ or so) and they can probably fix you up.

Other places that can do this are Print service shops at Staples, BestBuy, UPS stores. T-shirt print places might also have laser printers you might negotiate a price.

The key thing is to "gang" up as many images on one sheet, leave plenty of bleed around the edges.  I print mine at 300 dpi which is usually good enough for eyeballs.

The biggest problem is lining up the scale of your graphics- so they end up the correct size on paper from the digital images. I usually do a number of draft B&W test prints to make sure I am printing at scale, before wasting the fancy decal paper.

But as stated here is a link to the process:

http://www.ancientbattles.com/HeroesOfGreece/AncientBattles_Homebrew_Transfers.html

Thank you for sharing! 

I do have a question about the white.  Are all the decals you show on figures with white (ie the bull's head with white outline below) one a white painted shield?  Did you just print a red around the bull and the white was an unfilled (clear) area?

[Fremitus Borealis]

Ha yeah, as it turns out, I found a deal on a printer this morning and decided to just pull the trigger, good the reasons you mention. Now I've just gotta figure out how in Zeus's name to make a template like Jeff masterfully presents on his site. I've been playing around with this Photoshop esque free program, but I'm struggling enough with just this past that I might scrap it and just try good old MS Paint 

[Jjonas]

The decals as printed (below), colors are imbedded in. It doesn't have to be that way, but I often make color variants to "fill out" the sheets

The ones which are not black on bronze are painted white first. Some edge cleaning and over painting was done once finished. For example chips and damage are painted on because it seems a waste to have that embedded in the design. I think it is better to have them be clean (in case later on I will reuse them) than to dirty them up.

One thing I left off my page is I use a PIXMA MX920/MX922 printer.
So far it has outlasted other more expensive brands that seem to fall apart after a year or so. Photo quality is very good. Ink usage good, Ink cost not cheap but better than competitors. Wifi and Bluetooth setup easy peezy. So far very reliable (which will end of course now that I've jinxed it).

But I have found it very useful for my decal projects. (Another will be posted soonish for Agrianians).

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/details/printers/inkjet-multifunction/mx-series-inkjet/mx922

[wmyers]

I found this online.  It gives essentially the same information as Jeff does, just differently.  It might help if you’re not sure about the process.

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2007/07/tutorial-custom-decal-sheets-2.html