Custom Local police Department Decals

[jjsipes]

I just purchased the AMT Charger Pursuit kit and would like to build a custom cruiser from my local police department. Have not been able to find decals for this. Would anyone be able to create and print this for me and at what cost?

 

[robdebie]

I would guess it's 2-3 hours of drawing + communication, plus printing. Roughly 100-120 US$? I realize that's triple the cost of the kit, but that's the reality of custom decals.

I do a couple of decal projects every year, here is more information: https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/customdecals.htm

Rob

 

[bh1701]

You might want to consider creating these yourself and printing them on decal paper on a LaserJet printer. If you don't have one, any office supply store or FedEx Office can print them for you. I have done a number of decals for kits and they have worked out well.

Since the police cars are white, that also works in your favor since most printers cannot print the color white. Any areas on the decals that would need to be white will be clear and will show the white body color through them. Get photos that are straight on of the sides, front and back of the car to avoid any skewing of the markings. The highest quality photos will also help. Size them to the correct size for the model. Use a photo editor to size them and to remove any areas that don't need to print.

Also, fill your 8 x 11 decal sheet with as many decals as you can. It doesn't hurt to have multiples of each decal in case you run into any issues when applying them. It doesn't cost any more to fill the entire sheet with decals!

Here is a car I printed decals for so you have an idea of what can be done. The phone numbers and website info that appears as white is actually clear on the decals and the white body color is being seen.

Feel free to ask any questions you might have!

Bart

 

Edited May 22, 2024 by bh1701
Added info

[Redisetta]

Try this place. I bought from them recently, they have a very large selection and do make custom ones also. 
They shipped my order the day after I placed it. 
 

https://www.cardinalpolicediecast.com/decals

[robdebie]

14 hours ago, Redisetta said:

Try this place. I bought from them recently, they have a very large selection and do make custom ones also. 
They shipped my order the day after I placed it. 
 

https://www.cardinalpolicediecast.com/decals

I'm happy to see that my cost estimate isn't far removed from theirs: they list a '$100 Exclusive Decal Fee' for single-user custom decals. It's reduced to half of that if they can add the decals to their catalog, but I don't have that option.

Rob

[SfanGoch]

A hundred bucks for a decal sheet is ridiculous. I've been doing business with this eBay vendor, Police Decal Shop,  for years. He has over 1,000 PD vehicle sets available. The quality is superb. Contact him if you can't find what you're looking for.

[roadhawg]

It was mentioned to print these on an inkjet printer, the problem there would be most of the lettering and stripes on Police cars are done in a reflective vinyl, I don't know how you would do that on an inkjet, I've had some success with that sort of thing using Alps printers by using metallic colors , Alps has a metallic cyan color, Good luck!!!

[peteski]

The reflective property only really shows up when a light is shined directly onto the stickers from the direction of the viewer. When viewed during the day those stickers don't show any reflectivity, so to  me using regular colors would suffice.

Yes, Alps printers do have metallic inks available, and you can also overprint them with other colors. For example printing yellow over met. magenta produced metallic red, and yellow over met. cyan produces metallic green.