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Craftycomputerpaper.co.uk


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I was meaning to explore this subject a while ago.

The brand name I remembered was 'Craftycomputerpaper.co.uk', but I don't seem able to find it on the WWW.

 

If this company has vanished, does anybody know of a reliable equivalent?

 

There seem to be a number of options, but I'm not sure if any of them would allow me to produce white (or perhaps just 'off-white') lettering.

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There seem to be a number of options, but I'm not sure if any of them would allow me to produce white (or perhaps just 'off-white') lettering.

 

 

You'll need to find someone with an Alps or Oki printer if you want white rub-down white 'Letraset'-style transfers. Try Blackham Transfers,

 

http://www.blackhamtransfers.com/

 

but there are other posts out there on this. Seems their service can be a bit tardy, but they are a one-man band. There are companies who do white but by the time you've totted up their charges it seems very uneconomical for us modellers.

 

The link already given is the 'sort of current incarnation of what was Crafty Computer Paper', which sold art and craft products from an address I seem to recall in Dorset. Or maybe they were just agents or resellers. I bought something of every type of transfer paper they did, but all leave you with some form of carrier film.

 

I used to use a process called imageNTransfer which did produce 'proper' rub-down lettering and logos around 30 years ago. There are businesses though offering this type online, but aimed at the commercial market.

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Alps / Oki printers cannot produce rub-down transfers - only waterslide ones.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

Thanks John. But this does raise another question then!

 

If I were to use waterslide or self-adhesive 'Crafty'-type paper, and I've used the latter for logos on some SM32 rolling stock which was well trimmed round the edges and then sealed on with Testor's Dullcote, could I refill an old inkjet cartridge with white ink after flushing and do white ones? 

 

Reckon you're the man to advise says me, who has used your lovely RoadRailer ones (shameless plug).

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Thanks John. But this does raise another question then!

 

If I were to use waterslide or self-adhesive 'Crafty'-type paper, and I've used the latter for logos on some SM32 rolling stock which was well trimmed round the edges and then sealed on with Testor's Dullcote, could I refill an old inkjet cartridge with white ink after flushing and do white ones? 

 

Reckon you're the man to advise says me, who has used your lovely RoadRailer ones (shameless plug).

 

First find your white inkjet ink.

 

Received wisdom at the Alps and Alpsdecal groups is that Alps technology was the ONLY way to do white printing in the domestic environment / price range.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

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The way I used to do white with crafty paper was to use their white background paper rather than clear, and leave a suitable colour border around the logo/lettering to match the paintwork it was being applied to. Trimmed close enough and given a spray over with dullcoat, the paint and print colours would blend very well.

 

The OCL container below was done with this method:

 

post-9147-0-11742200-1517752011_thumb.jpg

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I have recently tried “Experts-Choice” A4 decal paper. Produced in both clear and white / inkjet and laser printers. They are available in single sheets, but i’ve also found them occasionally sold in packs of three sheets.

 

This is my first experiment which highlights some of the limitations (of my modelling and the paper) - however I believe with the following improvements the results will be quite acceptable to the eye (but probably not a HD picture)

 

1) the white background is a separate decal and applied first, on the Esso logo I printed a very fine line as a guide where to cut it.

2) a clear decal is placed over the white decal with the Esso writing and the thick blue line (this hides the original thin guide line.

3) mistakes I made on this first example i) I should have trimmed the second clear decal more closely ii) I did not leave the decal in the softening solution (decalfix / Microsol) long enough / apply sufficient solution to the decal whilst applying so it didn’t get “sucked” into the rivets iii) I didn’t pre-gloss varnish the area where I intended to apply the decals iv) I printed the ESSO writing on both the white and the clear sheets so aligning them wasn’t perfect. Just printing once gave me the depth of colour so i’ll leave the white decal blank.

 

Despite the above “human” errors, I am very satisfied. Although Satan’s Goldfish’s suggestion of applying a body coloured border to blend the decal to the background is certainly worth a try, there’s always something to learn here, and usually more than one way to get the result you’re after. Thanks for starting this thread.

 

post-9148-0-60843300-1517905076_thumb.jpeg

Edited by londonbus
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  • 5 months later...

There is a company called Little Ghost that are based in Germany and offer white toner cartridges for Laser printers and can supply waterslide decal paper with a blue background.

I've recently invested in a cartridge, paper and a suitable printer, but haven't gotten round to trying it yet (decal printing).

The company offer white toner cartridges for a very wide range of printers, so as I required a new printer anyway, the best option was to match one of the cheeper cartridges to a printer that I could purchase in the U.K. - I purchase one of the HP Laserjet range for around £140 and then the white toner cartridge was around the same - this sounds expensive, but unlike Ink Jet printers, the cartridges should last indefinitely when not in use and the print capacity of the white toner cartridge will last me a lifetime (as long as there is no toner deterioration).

Little Ghost do offer complete bundles (Printer / Cartridges and paper), but the prices of the printers seemed elevated and the shipping costs would be higher for a printer from Germany. The service was excellent though - the cartridge arrived within a few of days.

https://www.ghost-white-toner.com/model-builders/?lang=en

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  • 1 month later...

There is a company called Little Ghost that are based in Germany and offer white toner cartridges for Laser printers and can supply waterslide decal paper with a blue background.

I've recently invested in a cartridge, paper and a suitable printer, but haven't gotten round to trying it yet (decal printing).

The company offer white toner cartridges for a very wide range of printers, so as I required a new printer anyway, the best option was to match one of the cheeper cartridges to a printer that I could purchase in the U.K. - I purchase one of the HP Laserjet range for around £140 and then the white toner cartridge was around the same - this sounds expensive, but unlike Ink Jet printers, the cartridges should last indefinitely when not in use and the print capacity of the white toner cartridge will last me a lifetime (as long as there is no toner deterioration).

Little Ghost do offer complete bundles (Printer / Cartridges and paper), but the prices of the printers seemed elevated and the shipping costs would be higher for a printer from Germany. The service was excellent though - the cartridge arrived within a few of days.

https://www.ghost-white-toner.com/model-builders/?lang=en

Hello Albion 47509! What a great find, i’ve Checked out the website and there is a dealer literally 6 miles from where I live near Frankfurt. I have plenty of renumbering and other decal work to do so may take a good look at this option, expensive though it is, if the quality of the white is good enough it will probably make sense. Thanks. T
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Rob Pulham showed me some white lettering at the Gauge 0 Guild show in Telford. He used his Silhouette CNC cutter to cut white decal paper to the shapes required. It looked very effective on the box van on display.

Cheers

Ian in Blackpool

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  • 4 months later...

post-28565-0-15203000-1546887498_thumb.jpgpost-28565-0-34314900-1546887510_thumb.jpgpost-28565-0-29166700-1546887522_thumb.jpgpost-28565-0-06810800-1546887539_thumb.jpgpost-28565-0-17427800-1546887588_thumb.jpg

 

Here are some examples of transfers created using my Ghost white toner cartridge - please remember I'm working in N - the tanks are Revolution Trains Class B 35t. I still need to add couplings to some ends.

The print quality is certainly good enough - It could possibly be improved with experimentation, but for a first attempt, I'm more than pleased with the results.

The number on the left hand end of the sole-bar in the extreme close-up (IMGP4151) compares reasonably well with the other printed lettering on the sole-bar.

Correction - the company is just called Ghost - www.ghost-white-toner.com

Edited by Albion47509
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That is an excellent result.

 

May I ask, did you buy a bundle pack from Ghost or did you source the printer and toner/paper separately? They seem to do do the toner cartridges for a large number of printers, some of which are no longer available so any pointers as to what I should be looking for? 

 

Thanks

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Thanks for your kind comments,

I was fortunate in that I was looking to replace an old ink jet printer at the time, so matched a reasonably priced HP LaserJet Pro M452nw to a toner cartridge type that was available from Ghost. I found the printers seemed to be at elevated prices direct from them, so purchased that from an online retailer in the UK (Printerland or Printerbase I think). 

I then purchased the white toner cartridge and 5 A4 sheets of decal foil (as they call it) from Ghost.

For me it was a case of picking out the best combination as the toner cartridges vary considerably in price.

 

The printer cost me about £140, and the toner cartridge around £240, so with postage the whole lot cost me around £400 - this seems a lot, but my old inkjet was costing me around £100 a year in ink that was mainly evaporating rather than actually ending up on any paper.

 

One word of warning - Ghost do charge a very high flat shipping rate, so I would advise buying more decal foil with an initial purchase, as now I've seen how good the decal sheets are I've just ordered another 10 which came to £25, but with an eye-watering £28 shipping on top.

 

Cheers,

Tony.

Edited by Albion47509
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I have found the service they offer is superb, but when I questioned the shipping costs on 10 bits of A4 decal foil their response was that we (in the UK) are on an island and they are shipping from Germany! - It's expensive. However - I buy Vinyl records frequently from Europe and never pay more than ten Euro's - Still - if it works, it's worth it.

 

In theory, the toner cartridge and my remaining 14 A4 sheets should last me a lifetime as long as there is no deterioration of either toner or decal sheet - unfortunately, only time will tell - trouble is we have no way of knowing if they will go down the route of Crafty Computer Paper and just vanish! - so is it one of those cases of get sorted while we can?

 

Cheers,

Tony.

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I have found the service they offer is superb, but when I questioned the shipping costs on 10 bits of A4 decal foil their response was that we (in the UK) are on an island and they are shipping from Germany! - It's expensive. However - I buy Vinyl records frequently from Europe and never pay more than ten Euro's - Still - if it works, it's worth it.

 

In theory, the toner cartridge and my remaining 14 A4 sheets should last me a lifetime as long as there is no deterioration of either toner or decal sheet - unfortunately, only time will tell - trouble is we have no way of knowing if they will go down the route of Crafty Computer Paper and just vanish! - so is it one of those cases of get sorted while we can?

 

Cheers,

Tony.

I quite fancy having a go at this, I already have a laser printer and they list a toner for it. What paper do you use? The blue backed foil? When I tried printing custom transfers on crafty paper I found it to be quite thick, but looking at your photos I can not see any noticeable backing which is impressive for 2mm models.

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Yes, it is the blue backed transfer paper Ghost call Decal Foil - It's shown as 7 microns.

 

I found the same with Crafty Computer papers transfer sheet - the carrier film was thick by comparison, and left an easily visible edge. It was O.K. for some applications, but not really much good on an open flat surface.

 

This from Ghost is very thin - I'd say about the same as some that I have had from Railtec (before they went to blob printing) / Modelmaster / CCT etc. - you can just make out the edge on the  'Waste Oil....Botanic Gardens' lettering on the extreme close-up, but it isn't noticeable. I applied the transfers over a good gloss coat, and then over sprayed them with Humbrol Matt Coat mixed with 50% thinners.

 

Because the carrier is so thin I did have some issues with the transfers folding on themselves etc whilst trying to slide them off the backing paper - so it's a good idea to print plenty of spares.

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  • 5 months later...

The website appears to be back online but much changed. More a blog style format that links off to Gecko paper on amazon:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078R9JVVJ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ama1721-21&camp=1634&creative=6738&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B078R9JVVJ&linkId=f4e4026227356944668fc0eeb73c463f

 

This seems to come in clear and white versions as per the old crafty computer paper.

 

Guy

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On 16/06/2019 at 09:54, rdr said:

looking at this from another perspective, you could get an sla 3d printer and make a flexible stamp to print it on directly.

 

Great idea but fraught with problems, not least getting even colour coverage. I'd love to see a good working prototype of this process...

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