Testor 1/35
Testors Custom Decal System

I needed to make some custom decals for a project I have been working on. I was going to use my HP Deskjet D2345 Inkjet printer. I bought it at the local Wal-Mart for under 50 dollars. It is by no means the top of the line printer but seams to work just fine for decals. If you like another very good alternate is a series of printers made by Epson that use the DuraBrite Inks. They are water proof and work very well on decal film.

When I went to Hobby Lobby for the decal paper I found a neat little kit by Testors. They called it a Custom Decal System (#9198). Right up my ally. The price was $8.99. In contrast a set of Testors Decal Paper (#9201 for clear and #9202 for white) which was $9.99 for 6 individual 5.5” X 8.5” sheets, it seemed like a bargain.

With the kit you get a sheet of white decal paper and one sheet of clear decal paper, a can of Decal Bonder and a nice little CD-Rom with a program on it for making your own decals. The program is called “Sure Thing Decal Maker”. It is a kind of fancy version of MS Paint or a simple version of Corel Draw. It comes with seven pre loaded sets of art. A few star and bars, some classic shark teeth for a P-40 Warhawk and the bumble bee with the large red lightening bolt seen on Skyraider models all over the place and a few other token clip art are ready for you. I can’t really tell what scale they are without printing them out. There are some flame jobs and license plates you can do for the car guys too!

So I wanted to import my clip art that I made in Microsoft Word. Don’t sell Word short. It is a very good little decal maker program if you know a few tricks to getting it to do what you want. Anyway, when I tried to import my clipart, I got a message that if I wanted to use all the functions of Sure Thing Decal Maker, I should buy a fully functioning copy at http://www.decalgear.com for $9.95!

What the???? All I have to do is go to another website to buy what is actually supposed to be in the box to begin with? I looked back at the box written in English and French and I could not find anywhere where it said the CD-Rom was a limited version or you needed to upgrade to get full functions from the program. That I think is a bit shady on the part of Testors. Decalgear website does have a few neat things on it and is worth checking out but how I got there just isn’t right.

The Decal Bonder (#9200) seems like a clear coat you can buy anywhere and doesn’t seem to be anything special. I guess you could use Future or Krylon Clear to get the same results even though I have not done any experimenting myself.

All in all, I thought the set is good but not great due to the need to upgrade the program and with only one white and one clear decal sheet, I ended up buying the decal paper anyway. I think you could accomplish it all with just a little research and some trial and error and save your money for that expensive decal paper and a good inkjet printer.

NOTE: The grainy look of the test decal is a limit of the printer and not of the product.