TOPIC:

Hi

Can anyone recommend a repro decal supplier who can supply me with good quality original sand scorcher decals?

Regards

tamiya wrote:

Hi

Can anyone recommend a repro decal supplier who can supply me with good quality original sand scorcher decals?

Regards

No - there isn't one

The last one was rccarstickers.com , but they succumbed a few months ago.

Don't be tempted by the "decals" sold on ebay, they are of shocking quality

if you are willing to wait a little bit (maybe a couple of weeks, plus postage time), I'll make you some and just pay for postage. I've got fairly decent scans of some of the sand scorcher decals, which would be enough for me to setup a print and cut onto outdoor vinyl. I've attached the two scans I have, and could a selection of them for you.

Yogi Bear that would be fantastic if you could as i really didnt want to use the re release ones they just dont look as good.

Regards

I've been using waterslide inkjet printable decal sheets in recent times & the quality has been far better than the sticky backed vinyl I used to use. They tend to look better because they're much thinner. Once dry & sealed they're waterproof, but not very scratch resistant, so they do benefit from being laquered over. If you have a look in my gallery at "Holiday Scorcher" (Scorcher body on a holiday buggy chassis) & "Custom F2", the decals on those are waterslide

eddrick wrote:

I've been using waterslide inkjet printable decal sheets in recent times & the quality has been far better than the sticky backed vinyl I used to use. They tend to look better because they're much thinner. Once dry & sealed they're waterproof, but not very scratch resistant, so they do benefit from being laquered over. If you have a look in my gallery at "Holiday Scorcher" (Scorcher body on a holiday buggy chassis) & "Custom F2", the decals on those are waterslide

Hi Eddrick,
water release are definitely thinner, and a small inkjet should print to a higher quality than a large format printer. I still tend to go for the vinyl decals though, as the water release decals need sealing and I can stretch vinyl a lot more around corners and curves. But then again it is easier for me as I can vinyl print myself.

But where I can, I use computer cut lettering, as its still pretty thin (if you use a cast vinyl) and its the hardest wearing. Attached are some pics of a pantera race car that I made decals for. I don't think the quality of the digital print is too bad overall. The motul stickers I computer cut, but there is a limit to how small you can go. I used vinyl cut lettering when restoring my Renault Mk 22., but the goodyear text up close isn't the best.

Look good!
It's funny you say you can bend the vinyl more easily, as lack of flexibility was the main reason I started using waterslide instead! I was probably looking in the wrong places, but I also found it difficult to find the sticky-back sheets that were acceptably thin enough.
Generating decals rather than trying to use old scans is a far better idea if you can do it. Although there are decal scans all over the net, very few are of a decent enough quality to use without lots of re-touching & none seem to be labelled with the original sheet size, making your repros impossible to get exactly the right size unless you have the originals to measure. Sharpness of the printed images has always been more related to this than actual print quality from my old inkjet printer

eddrick wrote:

Look good!
It's funny you say you can bend the vinyl more easily, as lack of flexibility was the main reason I started using waterslide instead!

thanks, agreed, they can be a pain to install, but if you use application tape, it makes it a lot easier. Its just a thin paper with a low-tack adhesive, you could even use masking tape. Its what we use to transfer vinyl lettering etc. The other way is to wet lay the sticker (much like the water release decals, except I use a little bit of washing detergent to make the water a little 'slippery')

eddrick wrote:

I was probably looking in the wrong places, but I also found it difficult to find the sticky-back sheets that were acceptably thin enough.

you would need to go to a signage supplier and they may not sell to you anyway. But the range of vinyls you can get these days is amazing. You could also try scrap booking places, as a lot of the materials used in scrap booking are the same.
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eddrick wrote:

Generating decals rather than trying to use old scans is a far better idea if you can do it. Although there are decal scans all over the net, very few are of a decent enough quality to use without lots of re-touching & none seem to be labelled with the original sheet size, making your repros impossible to get exactly the right size unless you have the originals to measure. Sharpness of the printed images has always been more related to this than actual print quality from my old inkjet printer

Yeah, for the pantera and my wild one, the logos I used were from free logo sites, I just download the vector version and print them off, easy!. I've also bought from ebay a dvd with decal scans, manuals etc. Some are not too bad, like the one I posted earlier for the sand scorcher and you could get away it. However many are too pixelated to use, but most are enough to be able to trace and remake. Which is what I intend to do for tamiya nut's sand scorcher decals, and then I can print them when I have a left over spot on my machine. I intend to do a sand scorcher myself one day, having just bought a re-re buggy champ, I have the bug more than ever now.