The Future of Alps

[kurtschachner]

As in printers, not the mountains. The mountains have a rather secure future.

Phred mentioned in another post that he got some el-neato Alps tips and tricks at NARAM, and I was hoping he would share them with us all. Also, I would like to open up a discussion of anyone that uses the OKI ink cartridges with their Alps printer, seeing how those carts are all that are available now.

Anyone? I put this question in the Building Techniques section since these printers are used to make decals.

[Phred]

OK, Here goes:

1st: You can still buy a brand new ALPS MD-5500 printer here:

http://www.alps-supplies.com/product_info.php?products_id=28

This guy is in New Zealand and gets his printers from Japan. (grey market if I am reading in between the lines). They ain't cheap, but I have one and it works very well. It took about a week to arrive. The advantage to buying from this site is that you get a driver in English, not Japanese!

He also sells ink, but Tango Papa and others in the US are still cheaper by a bit.

I use the OKI cartridges, and they work just like the ALPS.

As for tips, there is no better tutor than "Make your own decals 101" by Tango Papa:

http://www.tangopapadecals.com/Make%20your%20own%20decals%20101.pdf

Other tips can be gleaned from the two yahoo groups. The files sections are a wealth of info:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alpsdecal/

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Alps/

The most significant tip that Scott and I discussed was concerning printing white decals, and how to change the brightness to 20% for the second coat, or the first coat may be scratched or smeared. This is in TP's tutorial listed above.

How is that for openers Kurt? :o

Phred

[kurtschachner]

How is that for openers Kurt? :o

Phred

Oh that is good, I just wondered what you learned last week. Of course you run a business selling decals (and I don't) so I didn't want you to give up any trade secrets.

Another really good site is here:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~robdebie/models/decals.htm

and there are links to other pages with additional information. I especially like his discussion of dithering and producing nice looking colors. One page he mentions is What the Font? at:

http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

Which I've used many times to try and recreate decal sheets.

[Phred]

Ah yes, many, many of my decal fonts have come froom What the Font. In fact, I have to send a sample there in a day or two.....

Phred

[scigs30]

Alps are great printers for I own 3. You can still get good deals on Craigslist for about 100.00 used. But even for under a 1000.00 brand new these are great printers and cheaper than any other printer that can print white. Ink is still easy to get and the quality of the print is excellent.