Painting signage

[ManicMan]

I'm not good at hand painting such details but I got a building that needs to have pretty good writing on it.. block letters really. I did try to print using some inkjet waterslide decal paper (I've yet to figure out how that stuff works. water decals on a ink jet printer?...) but the stuff I got, the transparent stuff goes white unless you use something but I can't remember what that is. So a bit screwed there ^_^;

any tips? currently I'm kinda stuck. Best I can think is to use my cutter to make a stencil out of card.. but I've not always had great luck with that method..

 

[EricF]

I didn't quite follow about the "goes white" ... are you sure the decal paper isn't actually white?

In my experience (laser printers) there are two types of DIY decal printing paper: White and Clear. So the clear being well a clear background, like professional decals and the white being like normal paper (ie white background). The latter is useful since only very specialist printers can print white, but harder to work with because trimming the decal to avoid leaving any white border is hard. So most people use the clear and underpaint any areas that need to be white (ie so the white shows through the clear sections). I've not personally used any white stuff so I don't know quite how it looks. The clear stuff is normally backed onto some other paper (like professional decals).

Printing on an inkjet shouldn't be an issue - the ink itself generally isn't water based otherwise it'd take too long to dry, normally it'll be some other solvent so will be water fast once dry.

I did the decals for my Imperial Fists onto transparent laser decal paper (this stuff) successfully. I'd probably preserve with the decals if I were you, but perhaps double check the paper type to make sure it is actually clear stuff you are printing on.

 

[ManicMan]

the water slide decal paper is clear but the clear stuff turns white a little while after applying water.. I can't remember why but I think it was stated.. it's been.. erm.. a while since I brought this stuff and things are probably a bit better these days. unless I got white paper which is clear until water is added, then shows the white.. pass on that.. ^_^

 

[EricF]

How wonderfully eccentric of the paper Whilst not the cheapest stuff in the world, I'd probably pick up a few sheets of someone else's paper that was explicitly stated as being clear through and through and go with that!

 

[ManicMan]

just ordered 5 clear sheets to see how things go.. the main thing I wanna do right now is Black text to go on a red Background, so no colour problem. Been driving me made to figure out the main design of a bigger 'sign'... stupid me decided to base the building kinda on one in a book.. so no visual image and not really any description of what the place looks like.. silly me..

 

[twisted moon]

previously i've just printed on ordinary paper on my monochrome printer, and then painted it if i wanted more.