405th Dry Transfers for your armor

[Art Andrews]

Holy cow. I have never looked up pricing for having professional dry transfers made (as opposed to the lower quality type you can make at home) but they are EXPENSIVE!!! A number of people had asked about us offering dry transfers for their armor and we would love to accommodate them, but just to break even we would be looking at roughly $10 for a single 2.5" wide graphic of the 405th logo. Does anyone here know anything about dry transfer or have any good contacts for making custom dry transfers?

 

[mawrTRON]

When you say dry transfers do you mean self adhesive vinyl?
I work in a company which produces all this type of stuff in extremely high quality.
I can do vinyl cut lettering, print and cut self adhesive stickers, one way vision (see my visor). I could also do a range of finishes on them. I.e Saturn, matte, gloss.

If I was to get a large amount produced I could supply a 'graphics package' to the 405th. Would any one be interested?

P.S

We print direct on to ANYTHING. Wood, flags, glass, PVC foam board, perspex, canvas you name it. So let me know if you want a flags or any thing done.
http://www.coloursonic.co.uk

 

[JUSTINIAN 117]

I had actually never heard of dry transfer before now. I looked it up though. It seems like an expensive process though. I would think that simple vinyl graphics would also work. I run a sign business and can do full color printed and cut vinyl graphics.

 

[mawrTRON]

I had actually never heard of dry transfer before now. I looked it up though. It seems like an expensive process though. I would think that simple vinyl graphics would also work. I run a sign business and can do full color printed and cut vinyl graphics.

Yup yup yup. Good to see theres some other signage guys in the 405th.
I have been in the industry for a long time and I have never seen it either.
And yeah those images at that high a standard would easily be achieved with any modern latex or solvent based printer. There are plenty of high grip vinyls that will stick to anything too like LGWW100 or 3M wall wrap.
Throw a nice laminate on it too and your done.

 

[Zaff]

Now how would those vinyl/laminate decals react to a clear coat? If, say, we wanted to more permanently adhere/seal the decal to the armor by applying it before laying on a few coats of clear paint, any chance of it having a bad reaction? Melting, peeling, etc.? I understand that most likely that will depend on what sort of clear is being used (i.e. acrylic, urethane, etc.).

 

[Chernobyl]

I'd prefer hand-painting any logos on my armour as opposed to transfers. I'm not sure that paint would adhere well to vinyl or acrylic if one wanted to clear-coat over it, and even so - I'm of the mind that if you want something done, do it with a personal touch.

Providing stencils for air-brushing might be a thing we could do, in lieu of providing direct transfers.

 

[JUSTINIAN 117]

I have done a clear coat over vinyl before, and didn't run into any issues. Stencils would be good for painting, but would be considerably more than stickers.

 

[Art Andrews]

I had actually never heard of dry transfer before now. I looked it up though. It seems like an expensive process though. I would think that simple vinyl graphics would also work. I run a sign business and can do full color printed and cut vinyl graphics.

I know about dry transfers primarily because of Star Wars. Many of the original props and models had dry transfers applied to them for detailing. The advantage of dry transfers (over waterslides, their main competitor in the decal world) is that dry transfers don't have a carrier. Water slide decals sit on a thin clear carrier that can show up as a halo around the graphic and they don't tend to weather well. With dry transfers there is no carrier so it is in some ways more similar to cut-vinyl graphics. The other upside for us (considered a downside by most) is that dry transfers weather really nicely. That is something that neither waterslides or vinyl does and one of the big reasons I'd prefer to use them. The downside, as you pointed out, is that dry transfers, no matter how you cut it are very expensive.

 

[Art Andrews]

I'd prefer hand-painting any logos on my armour as opposed to transfers. I'm not sure that paint would adhere well to vinyl or acrylic if one wanted to clear-coat over it, and even so - I'm of the mind that if you want something done, do it with a personal touch.

Providing stencils for air-brushing might be a thing we could do, in lieu of providing direct transfers.

We are looking into that and don't mind people using stencils, but in going through the games, the graphics on the armor doesn't look like stencils. Granted, by the 26th century they better have something better than any of our options today, but the logos we see on the armor seems very crisp and sharp, more like a sticker or transfer than a painted stencil.

 

[WandererTJ]

We are looking into that and don't mind people using stencils, but in going through the games, the graphics on the armor doesn't look like stencils. Granted, by the 26th century they better have something better than any of our options today, but the logos we see on the armor seems very crisp and sharp, more like a sticker or transfer than a painted stencil.

They look like bitmaps to me
View attachment Reach Bitmaps.zip

 

[mawrTRON]

Now how would those vinyl/laminate decals react to a clear coat? If, say, we wanted to more permanently adhere/seal the decal to the armor by applying it before laying on a few coats of clear paint, any chance of it having a bad reaction? Melting, peeling, etc.? I understand that most likely that will depend on what sort of clear is being used (i.e. acrylic, urethane, etc.).

The vinyl/laminate is pretty robust. I have never seen a reaction with any clear coat.
We printed about 70 metres of digitally printed mozaic tiles which were urethaned over the top to create a border on a shiny 'marble' floor and that worked just fine.
Also as for stickiness there are vinyls that can stick to horribly textured surfaces like concrete and brick, so there is definitely a vinyl for the job.

I will be printing my decals in the next few weeks I can share some pics when I have done them so you all can see how well they turned out.