Good source for stickers?

[mechanist]

Anyone know of a good place to get sponsor style stickers for ZZs?
I've seen lots of pictures of ZZs with all sorts of neat custom looking sticker jobs on these boards.

Buy em? Where?
Make em? How?

Anyone?
Thanks

[latency]

Up to now, I have only used the dry transfer decals you can buy at a hobby shop for Model Trains. Just ask them where they are, they will know what you are talking about.

The ones I most recently bought were for a Garage/Gas station so had lots of "automotive" decals. Kinda cool, bout $4 a sheet.

After I put the dry transfers on, I used 3 thin coats of high gloss.

[latency]

"You can print your own decals using your inkjet printer on clear label sheets. You can then cut them out and stick on your body.

Avery makes clear inkjet label sheets that work. Look for their #8665 which is a full 8.5x11 uncut sheet. You should be able to get these in the US from any office supply store like Office Depot or Staples.

If you are using a laser printer make sure you get labels made for laser printers. The inkjet labels could melt in a laser printer fuser and destroy the printer."

Got that from one of my favorite Mini-z sites. Good idea, and one I will be doing for sure!! Then you can dup any true decal you want, and make it any size you need!

[GryphicRacing]

I really like the water transfer decals used for models also found at hobby shops.

Cons:

1. They are fragile. It does take a little care to apply these. Some have said too much, but I think they are actually easier than dry transfers.

2. Expense? From $5 - $8 per sheet, these can be a little pricey, especially if you have to have specific logos. I bought a few sheets of decals intended for much larger scale models to have some specific decals that I wanted.

3. They can come off if not sealed with a top coat of gloss. There is a thin layer of glue that is intended to keep these on, but when positioning them, it is easy to wash all the 'glue' away.

Pros:

1. Availablilty. Just about every model / hobby store will have sheets of automotive decals (intended for larger NASCAR models and RC cars). And they are going to have most of the name brand manufacturers for autombiles / automotive products that you would see in real life.

2. Flexibility. Because you slide these on wet, you can move them around a bit if you don't like how they are positioned. You can even remove them relatively easily even after they have dried by rewetting (assuming you haven't sealed them in gloss coat.)

3. Looks. I think these look better than anything else.



Brand logos are dead-on accurate and the decal itself is very very thin. No heavy, paper-based sticker is going to look this good. Dry transfers are a close second IMHO, but as Latency noted, he could only find them for railroad sets, and had to improvise a bit.