Waterslide Decals vs Vinyl Stickers

[mooproxy]

Can anyone give me a rundown of the pros and cons of each in terms of making custom minifigures? Do transparent vinyl stickers work fairly well on lighter surfaces, and how dark a surface can you apply them to before it starts becoming difficult to see the design?

[Cody Startale]

I am not sure what vinyl stickers specifically are, but I can at least share my experience working with both transparent stickers and waterslide decals.

First of all, I consider waterslide decals to be superior. The way they are applied seems more permanent to me, and they blend more naturally with the brick. The downside is that they are way more tedious to produce than simple stickers; with waterslides, I will print them, let them dry, put clear coat on them, let them dry again, make them wet and apply them to the surface, dry again, another clear coating, and then finally dry for the last time. This process takes several hours, even if you speed things up by doing the drying with the help of heaters.

Stickers, on the other hand, are quick and easy to make. I print them out, let them dry for like three minutes, cut them out and then directly apply them. The downside to this is that this will never seem as naturally as the decals, because the stickers are pretty thick. They add a visible layer to the brick, where the waterslide decals only add the thickness of the coating and the paint, which is definitly thinner. I have gathered some comparison pictures for you:

To the left, there is a waterslide decal on both torso and face (unfortunately, the torso decal print is pretty rubbed off because this was tricky to apply. It was my very first decal, too). On the right, there's a TMNT Rocksteady sticker that I've designed applied to the torso. Note how you can clearly see the borders of the sticker in the flash of the camera? That's the downside of those stickers. Also, because I don't additionally coat them, they are easier to remove from the brick than the decals.

So what I've decided to do is: whenever I create new decal designs, I use the sticker method in order to test out the design first. You know, the size, the colors, just checking how it will look when physically applied to a minifig. That way, I can catch things I won't be able to notice on the computer and have a reliable preview of what the finished decal will look like. Sticker paper is cheaper than the waterslide decal paper I am using, so it's the obvious option to test out new designs before printing them on valuable decal paper.

About surface color: light surfaces like in the above pictures work pretty well and the colors stay kinda true to what you see in your design. The darker the surface, though, the less your decal will work on it, using transparent paper at least. Here's a test I made, applying a decal to a reddish-brown torso:

Sorry for the bad picture quality – I didn't make them myself. On the left, some brown, red and black colors are applied to a tan torso and work all very well. But then head decal is another matter. See the eyes on the brown head? They are actually supposed to be green, and on the right eye there is a pink scar which is barely visible. On the right, a torso design was applied to the brown surface, and you see the black outlines fairly well, but you barely see the supposed-to-be-yellow skin at the top where the shirt is open. So, the colors barely worked on this, too. So I strongly recommend trying to work on light surfaces. If I have to apply something to a dark surface again, I will make sure to use a white decal paper and not a transparent one. I would have to get the color palette right to match the physical brick color, but at least it would enable me to do any color I like.

I hope this was somewhat helpful to you!

[mooproxy]

I am not sure what vinyl stickers specifically are, but I can at least share my experience working with both transparent stickers and waterslide decals.

First of all, I consider waterslide decals to be superior. The way they are applied seems more permanent to me, and they blend more naturally with the brick. The downside is that they are way more tedious to produce than simple stickers; with waterslides, I will print them, let them dry, put clear coat on them, let them dry again, make them wet and apply them to the surface, dry again, another clear coating, and then finally dry for the last time. This process takes several hours, even if you speed things up by doing the drying with the help of heaters.

Thanks. I'm not too bothered about needing to go through a tedious process for application (though I'm currently receiving a lot of advice about the best way to do it - I have people suggesting micro-sol setting solution to "dissolve" the decal and leave the print behind. My main question about stickers comes from another figure maker who has only ever used stickers, so I was wondering which is the way to go. The user is showcasing them here if you want to check it out: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=139453

For the time being I might adopt a similar process as you in testing with stickers but properly printing with decals, however I'd like to improve my figures and try to prevent them from looking like decals if that's possible. Here is a bigger (if still a little low quality) picture of the Jay Garrick figure I made and use as my forum avatar:

Sorry about the low quality - I only have a phone camera and it's not too good at smaller objects. But you can tell from the torso (both the dodgy cutting job I did around the belt and the background colour mismatch) that it's clearly a decal applied to a figure, however the pictures you provided, as well as a lot of the custom figures I see don't have quite so prominent a decal "boundary" and it's harder to tell it from printing. Could you give me any advice about improving the quality of mine?

[mattb483]

I have to agree with Cody. Decals are a better way to go. Plus its whatever your happy with. I used stickers long ago and will pry never use them again. This past year I just started using decals and they give off that true real minifigure look. I saw you said using micro-sol solution for decals. I have tryed that solution and was'nt happy with the results, the decal was folding in the corner spots, after handling the figure alot. However a guy at my local hobby shop suggested Mr.Marks softener, this stuff is awesome! It will almost melt the decal into the plastic. Decals are way more superior in my eyes, stickers will look fake and will have that white background around the edges of the sticker. Hope that put a little more insight for you.

[mooproxy]

I have to agree with Cody. Decals are a better way to go. Plus its whatever your happy with. I used stickers long ago and will pry never use them again. This past year I just started using decals and they give off that true real minifigure look. I saw you said using micro-sol solution for decals. I have tryed that solution and was'nt happy with the results, the decal was folding in the corner spots, after handling the figure alot. However a guy at my local hobby shop suggested Mr.Marks softener, this stuff is awesome! It will almost melt the decal into the plastic. Decals are way more superior in my eyes, stickers will look fake and will have that white background around the edges of the sticker. Hope that put a little more insight for you.

Thanks, that's helpful. I decided I'd give a few approaches a try seeing as I have a few blank torsos lying around. I've ordered in some sticker paper as well as micro set/micro sol seeing as they're inexpensive. I might even manage to get a proper side-by-side going on.