I present Federation Silkscreened Decals

[Starfighter Decals]

I need to finish the Placement booklet. Hopefully by the weekend, but next week for sure. Names to follow.

PS, I know the sheet is "trimmed a bit close" or "Missing the top". Keeps copying down.

[Savedfromwhat]

Mark, are these decals in a clear film or will I have to cut them out with an exacto knife to remove any white edge?

[Starfighter Decals]

I'm not sure what you are asking. I never produced, or ever seen any Silkscreened decals with a "White edge" unless they were terribly out of register. I can assure you, these are not, as the company I use is of the highest quality and uses the latest technology with resolutions that match my Alps printer. Each decal or decal grouping has it's own decal carrier film, seperate from other markings. I do suggest using an X-acto blade to cut them as placement is pretty close.

[Savedfromwhat]

Cool I look forward to getting my hands on these.

[Starfighter Decals]

I just made the Web Store's link active. Place your orders.

As a Thank you for waiting, I offer a 20% off coupon for this sheet only. Enter code sfu2010 to get the discount. It's good for 60 days.

If you know a store that might be interested, have them contact me for wholesale terms. I have pleanty!

[Jiraiya1969]

Hey Mark!

Any chance you can print out the old squadron box and border box decal templates using this new silkscreen printing process? Or would they all have to be done by scratch?

The squadron/border box set specific decals were nice in that you could get just the decals you were looking for and not a bunch of other decals you may not specifically need.

In any case I will work around these issues if I have too. It's just the squardon/border decal sets were very convenient.

Regards,

Sarpeidon

[Starfighter Decals]

No can do unless I get a guarented order of at least 200 sets to start with.

The art work is done, so it would be very easy to do. Getting them printed with my next batch of decals is not a problem either. But tying up that much capital for a decal set that I sell less than 50 sets ea. a year would mean at least 4 years before breaking even. I have to get 500 sets at a time. I sell 150-200 of my aircraft decals in the first 30 days in wholesale orders alone. I combined the 3 best selling Fed Sheets (Squadron Box 1, Fleet Box 2, and Squadron Box 7) along with the Fed CA sheet get the maximum potential sales from the set. You can do any Fed Fleet Box or Squadron box using this set. You can do any Fed Mini except the Old CV using this set. I no longer have to carry 10 different sheets that duplicate 50% or better artwork. Customers get a superior product to any other similar decal sheet, its more flexible, and much easier to use than my old Alps/Laser printed sets.

The SFU is a very small nich market. It would be nice if I thought it was profitable to release all of my SFU artwork in a similar way as this sheet. But I would go broke from slow moving inventory. (Contrary to popular belief, I'm not independantly wealthy or live on goveremnt retirement. I work very hard to get where I am now, just like you guys). If some one else though there was money to be made hear, they would have been done years ago.

I hope this addressed your question as to the why I did it this way and why I seriously doubt I will ever be able to honor your request unless the conditions are met.

[Sllarr]

Mark.

Do you have an official date for the release of the sheet with SFU ship names ?

I am waiting for that to place my order for both sheets.

[Starfighter Decals]

I have to finish a sheet for Accurate Miniatures. One of those "lack of planing on our part justifies an emergency on yours" deals. 7-10 days for the first one, then 1-2 a week until I get them all done.

You guys can make your own. Just search the internet for the matching font you want (USAF, Federation Hull, or Amarillo), use MS paint to format the lettering to your liking and you can print them to your hearts content. SVC has listed the names on-line or make your own up. You get the numbers on the sheet, in two different styles.

[Nutterbunnyz]

where do we go to purchase these?

[Starfighter Decals]

www.starfighter-decals.com look under Federation Commander Decals

[Jiraiya1969]

You guys can make your own. Just search the internet for the matching font you want (USAF, Federation Hull, or Amarillo), use MS paint to format the lettering to your liking and you can print them to your hearts content. SVC has listed the names on-line or make your own up. You get the numbers on the sheet, in two different styles.

Wouldn't you have to buy special decal paper to do that? A special printer?

Even if you had all those, wouldn't you get decals of a lower quality than your new silk-screened versions?

If you are going to do a 'ship names' decal sheet using your new silk-screen process I would be happy to wait.

Also, just to clarify, you will be including individual registries for each ship, specifically the ones for the ventral and dorsal primary hull and the engine banners?

Thanks,

Sarpeidon

[Cosmotiger]

You guys can make your own. Just search the internet for the matching font you want (USAF, Federation Hull, or Amarillo), use MS paint to format the lettering to your liking and you can print them to your hearts content. SVC has listed the names on-line or make your own up. You get the numbers on the sheet, in two different styles.

Wouldn't you have to buy special decal paper to do that? A special printer?

You would need inkjet decal paper and an inkjet printer. A Google search will turn up many places that sell the paper. Since the ship names are simple plain black lettering, the quality won't be noticeably different than professional decals. I've done this several times myself to replace damaged decals, and I can't tell the difference.

[Starfighter Decals]

Wouldn't you have to buy special decal paper to do that? A special printer?

Even if you had all those, wouldn't you get decals of a lower quality than your new silk-screened versions?

If you are going to do a 'ship names' decal sheet using your new silk-screen process I would be happy to wait.

Also, just to clarify, you will be including individual registries for each ship, specifically the ones for the ventral and dorsal primary hull and the engine banners?

Thanks,

Sarpeidon

Nope. and nope. I am not having the name decals silk screened. I will never sell that many decals ever. It has money looser written all over it. I doubt I will sell the 500 Fed sets I had printed. I should break even, and maybe even make a bit. But all 500? Seriously doubt it.

The sheet will be names only. The set already provides the numbers and "NCC". You just have to take the effort to put it together. ADB has published the Ship registry somewhere on their site so you can match ships names and numbers. A simple cut and paste, changing the font, and setting the size is all you have to do to set up to print.

I have found over the years of offering these decals that many want names that I refuse to make. Another problem is somebody always thinks they have to make evey ship in the class, or have to have something different than what I offered. I spent so much time making custom lettering that I didn't have any time to do anything else. It is also the easist part of making decals, and anybody can do it at home. The fonts are easily found on the internet (search Federation Hull, Amarillo, Star Trek Fonts, etc..) and Hobbytown USA & Hobby Lobby sell Ink Jet/Laser decal paper. Between the two, you can make as many names as outrageous as you want. I am only offering the Name sheets as a convience when I get a chance to do it. Hopefully next week when I get back from my sales trip.

[Steve Cole]

Mark has learned the unpleasant lesson that I had to learn.

Not everything that it is possible to do is actually worth doing.

That's why we never made 1 inch fleet counters for F&E (the minimum print run is 1000 and the total LSMs are about 300, so even if every single LSM purchasor wanted a set, we'd lose money.) Some minis aren't worth doing because of low sales. We lost money on Module W but had to do it to sell minis. And so forth.