TOPIC:

I get it, i often wondered while painting bodies for other people what it's really worth, how do you put a price on my imagination, so i ended up asking nothing so i don't do that anymore.
I have a lot of parts, and i really mean a lot, specially vintage, i worked in the biggest RC store in Holland for many years and sometimes bought the partsstock if certain models went out of production.
When franchised toystores stopped selling Tamiya somewhere in the 90's i did the same, crossed the country looking for left over stock and kits.
Through my own forum i helped people now and then, stopped that also cause as soon as i helped them to get their 3 speed or a model from the first 25 complete next stop was ebay.
I could have done that and made more money if that was the purpose.

So in a nutshell i understand, really i do, it's just that i don't have a decent printer and i'm stressed for time, otherwise i would never ask, to be completly honest i can't remember ever asking for anything related to the hobby without paying for it, in most cases i make it myself.

Maybe in time you get to know me better and realise i'm not a cutting corners type of person, maybe somewhere along the line i can help you with something, maybe it helps if you know i'm 50 years old and this is a lifetime hobby for me.

So no worries, maybe a decent printer is the perfect christmasgift for me and i hope you don't think any lesser of me.

Cheers Rick

I don't know if this is the right topic, but here goes anyway: Do you (JR), or anyone else have any experience with printing decals with a laser printer?
If so, what were the results like?
What materials did you use?
I have heard the results will be waterproof (or at least water-resistant) - is this correct?

I have a good quality colour laser printer that I would like to use to make some decals (having got sick of seemingly having to buy new ink for my inkjet every time I switched it on )

Martin wrote:

I don't know if this is the right topic, but here goes anyway: Do you (JR), or anyone else have any experience with printing decals with a laser printer?
If so, what were the results like?
What materials did you use?
I have heard the results will be waterproof (or at least water-resistant) - is this correct?

I have a good quality colour laser printer that I would like to use to make some decals (having got sick of seemingly having to buy new ink for my inkjet every time I switched it on )

I've never used one at home, but TBH I'm sick of doing tech support on my mum & dad's (6-colour Epson inkjet) printer - they barely use it now & it's forever drying out. Next time I get a call about it I'm not even going to try & fix it or swap cartridges - I'm buying a cheap monchrome laser instead - specifically a Samsung tiddler - cost about 40, a spare cartridge less than 30, TBH I'm hoping not to have to do any maintenance, just replace the whole thing in 5+ years

The reason I mention it is that I have looked into it this - but TBH I was a bit put off a colour laser due to the cost + the need for a set of four toner cartridges came to more like 360, I didn't look too much deeper because that might be 1/10th the cost of a colour laser the last time I looked, it's still a bit rich for me - crap inkjets are still going to be my choice for now

I did look at media though - apparently you need specific waterslide transfer (not the thermal stuff for T-shirts) & self adhesive vinyls for laser printing, but both types in clear & white are easily available ... theoretically it's water resistant straight out of the printer, though I'd be a little concerned about how well it's bonded ...

If you've already got access to the printer, then I'd buy a small pack of you media of choice & do some tests & comparisons (lacquered vs raw).

I like laser printers - I now have 3 (plus one in storage). However I am not made of money
One is a mono HP Laserjet 4050N that I use for draft printing and invoices etc. I was given this by a friend. He rescued it from his office when they were literally throwing it out. When I got it it was saying "Toner low" and I used it for about 2 years before the printing started to fade and I gave in and bought a cheap copy toner cartridge from ebay for £20. I have now been using this second cartridge for about 5 years and it's still about 75% full! The printing is a bit smudgy but I reckon 20 years potential use for £20 is a bargain!
The second is a "Samsung tiddler" mono that I bought for my wife while she was doing her OU degree/teacher training and printing lots of essays. I think I only ever bought 1 or 2 cartridges for that. Again cheap ebay copies worked perfectly fine. I can recommend this printer.
The third is my HP Laserjet 4700DN colour which I bought from ebay for about £50. It is a full function office colour laser printer with duplexer and network capability (which means everyone in the house can use it). It came with all cartridges about 75% full and they have hardly moved in the last 12 months despite the kids and wife using it far more than I do.
The only downside is that it is rather large - it is approx a cube 500mm on each side and weighs about 50kg I got into quite a lot of trouble when I brought that home, especially as it does not fit in my office and now lives in the (ex-)dining room (now xBox room).
The marital disharmony was not helped when picking up the printer I was also persuaded to buy a 46inch display monitor at the same time. This was about £40 as it has no tuner or speakers, so is no good as a TV, but works great on the xBox

So, yes laser printer cartridges are expensive (although non-OEM copies work fine and reduce the price very considerably) but they go on printing for ever. If you have the space (or an ex-dining room and a long-suffering wife) I can recommend an old office laser printer.

Edit: The main reason I hate inkjets:

The page it is taken from is worth a read too. As are the rest of The Oatmeal comics.

Martin wrote:

...

Edit: The main reason I hate inkjets:

The page it is taken from is worth a read too. As are the rest of The Oatmeal comics.

That's a big part of the reason I haven't used HP printers in 10 years - the last ("compatible") Epson inks I bought cost 56p (88 US c) each

Rick wrote:

I get it, i often wondered while painting bodies for other people what it's really worth, how do you put a price on my imagination, so i ended up asking nothing so i don't do that anymore.
I have a lot of parts, and i really mean a lot, specially vintage, i worked in the biggest RC store in Holland for many years and sometimes bought the partsstock if certain models went out of production.
When franchised toystores stopped selling Tamiya somewhere in the 90's i did the same, crossed the country looking for left over stock and kits.
Through my own forum i helped people now and then, stopped that also cause as soon as i helped them to get their 3 speed or a model from the first 25 complete next stop was ebay.
I could have done that and made more money if that was the purpose.

So in a nutshell i understand, really i do, it's just that i don't have a decent printer and i'm stressed for time, otherwise i would never ask, to be completly honest i can't remember ever asking for anything related to the hobby without paying for it, in most cases i make it myself.

Maybe in time you get to know me better and realise i'm not a cutting corners type of person, maybe somewhere along the line i can help you with something, maybe it helps if you know i'm 50 years old and this is a lifetime hobby for me.

So no worries, maybe a decent printer is the perfect christmasgift for me and i hope you don't think any lesser of me.

Cheers Rick

No problem, and I have sympathy ... but that doesn't really change my mind.

Although the quality has dropped markedly over the years, I think I'd still recommend an Epson 4-colour "All in one" printer/scanner for this sort of use ... "compatible" inks are not as good as the genuine ones, bit they cost about 1/10 the amount.

I've been meaning to make some scale bungees since I finished the RIB & so on that make up the load in the trailer of my RV build - today I finally got to it as I also needed some for my skip truck (3 buig builds later?).

I started with some coloured plastic coated standard (30mm ish) paperclips - bare ones give smaller/neater hooks, but unless they're purely for decoration I'd go with the coated ones. Also needed is some round elastic - I went for (nominal) 1.5mm diameter.





Straighten some out (they don't have to be perfect):





Wind 4-5 times around a suitable former (2mm drill bit in this case):







Bend one end to hook shape:






I'm missing a photo here, the hook end should be trimmed to an appropriate length, the other end right next to the coils.



Slip the elastic through the hook, tie knot & trim back:






Reduce the diameter of the lowermost coil & pull the knot into the "wide" end:







Repeat:

These look excellent JR nicely done

I'm not feeling like working on my Laplander project ATM, so thought I'd indulge in some light relief in the form of some more office/garage oriented scale stuff. I've started with some chairs - basically these are very much like the seats I made for the Bedford TM, but with fake gas struts & 5-pointed bases shaped from two layers of 3mm styrene:

What?? No working gas struts??

The screws work fine as wheels!