Clark,
Inkjet decals have a number of serious problems: the ink is not water-proof
(can be clear-coated, however); the ink is not UV-resistant (it fades in the
sunlight); the ink is not very opaque, so the color underneath tends to show
through your decal; inkjets will only print RGB images (colors made of red,
green and blue). The last is not a problem as long as your image is made
only of these colors.
The reason so many hobbyists (and many companies) have started using
Alps printers is that the thermal wax printing method doesn't have these
problems. The wax is water-proof, though it must be clear-coated if it's going
to be handled. The pigments are UV-resistant and very opaque. You can
print CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) as well as silver, gold and white.
The bad news is that Alps no longer imports these printers, though Okidata
has licensed the technology and there's a user movement to get them to
make the printers available again here. The worse news is that almost no
one has been satisfied with the ink-jet decals. You'd be better off making
yourself a silk-screen table and learning how to make them the old-fashioned
way (it's not really that hard).
In short, I would say you shouldn't buy 100 sheets of ink-jet paper without
trying one first to see if you like the results. There's a guy who does model
decals full-time on Alps printers who's doing work for Hartford Products and
others. I can give you his e-mail address if you're interested.
-vance-
