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Monday 22 February 2016

Number plate decals

It has been many decades since I last had anything to do with water slide transfers. They bring back memories of Airfix kits.


The world has changed and now I can print out my own decals on to laser printer water slide paper. I was very impressed by how easy it was to use, both printing and applying to the model.

The transfers are stronger than I remember and slide off more easily. I used a cotton bud to wet the surface and tweezers to lift the cut decals in to and out of the water bath. I found that my fingers were the only way to get the transfer from the paper to the model.


I was able to make minor adjustments to the position with the wet cotton bud and the dry end to dab away the excess water.

I used white transfer paper. I would have preferred transparent but normal laser printers cannot print white and the colour balance is adjusted for printing on a white background.


Despite using a sharp knife the white edge is visible. That's a bit disappointing but was only significant when I was printing a largely black shape. Partly because of that and partly because I did not think I could cut a straight enough edge, I decided not to apply the window frame transfers I have designed.


The number plates worked very well which were the most important.

Despite it working well, because of the white edge, I'm not sure there is any advantage over using normal paper.


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