I needed a company that could do one-off sheets, not have 1000 confusing rules about colors I can use, and not charge a fortune (ie - no silk screen), so that limited down my choices quite a bit.
Many decal companies exist:
-Highball Graphics (Kodak/ALPS, 1-off, one price per sheet)
-Kadee (ALPS/Silkscreen/confusing rules/warranties)
-Tichy (UV-cured resin Printer, 1-off, one price per sheet)
-Railgraphics (silk screen, high minimum, high cost, confusing rules)
-Microscale (silk screen, high minimum, high cost)
-and a host of others you can find on Google (mostly ALPS, with varying degrees of rules and costs)
That brought me to Tichy and to Highball, where Highball uses
Here's a quick comparison of setting up the artwork due to different printer technologies:
1. Tichy's margins of unprintable area are .1" all around. HBG's is .25" all around. Tehnically you can print more with Tichy.
2. Tichy (and now HBG) want all CMYK colors in the same layer with color desired.
3. Tichy uses Micromark decal paper while HBG uses Microscale paper, which just introduces a different method of decal prep work when using the decals (different water dunking procedures, solvasets, etc.). Tichy should supply the directions to their customers. They are not on micromark's website.
After having received their final products to me, I researched more on the various types of printers, spoke to a few other professionals in the biz, and came to a few conclusions...
1. I am glad we have businesses in the hobby that provide us this service at all. Also, the resolution of both technologies is great, though dependent on good artwork.
2. ALPS/Kodak/etc. type printers are able to handle the abundance of work in most colors other than yellows, oranges, grays, and perhaps other shades of various colors. ALPS is great for at minimum white, black, red, and greens. However, even the spot yellow and oranges, which were not overly close in shade to what I needed, had significant edge bleeding and are unusable. Just a limitation of the technology. I have no experience with metallic gold or silvers.
3. UV-resin based printers have amazing capacity to match any shade of color, but the thickness of the resin keeps these decals from being a contender for those with higher fidelity standards or who model smaller scales. In O, these may be tolerable to some, despite the braille-like finish. I have yet to test how well these decals with thick lettering material conform to carbody objects like rivets. I have read elsewhere that folks may be concerned that lettering could flake off from handling, but I'm not so sure that's a real concern. These also won't fade or yellow from what Tichy told me on the phone.
4. Outside expensive silk-screening, it is possible to still get really good decals of any color, but you have to find a professional graphics company that is willing to work with a hobbyist like you for small change, making it highly unlikely that this is really a logical solution. These guys have printers that cost in the $50,000 range, and can print some sort of "silkscreen ink" with amazing resolution and Pantone color accuracy while having a thickness that is barely more than what ALPS decals have.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with Tichy's decals, but the thickness makes them unusable to me, though without any other apparent options, I might have to concede to using the yellow portions because they don't have color bleed and are exact color matches. I will seek out a professional place first, though I doubt I will be able to bring them enough money to make it worth it to them. I also had headbanding issues on my HBG decals and Jim replaced them no questions-asked. He bought a new OKI printer to get rid of these issues. Yay for modelers. I plan to use his for everything but the yellows.
Below are some photos that some may find of use. Click on them for higher resolution.
Decals from Tichy.
Extremely stiff Cardboard envelope and decals protected with layers of tissue paper.
Decals From Highball.
Envelope not as stiff, but decals protected in a sealed bag.
Doesn't matter how many times it says to not bend the envelope, post office doesn't listen. Luckily the decals were not overly creased inside.
Color comparison of the yellows.
Tichy exact match on left. HBG Spot colors on right.
Spot Color bleeding
Note the edges have pink bleeding through. Just a limitation of the technology from what I gather. No good.
This is what Headbanding issues look like.
Its more evident in the black ink, as there are vertical bands of ink missing from the decal. The rest of the page has bands dug into the ink, but not all the way through to the decal paper, which is noticeable at various angles.
The rest of the photos below are just my attempt to show you the thickness of the ink on Tichy's decals. You can see the shadows cast by the ink. Run your hand across these and its similar to braille. Not the end of the world if you can't find or afford another way to get the exact color matching you need.
