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   Printing Decals on Tissue Paper

You can customize your ornithopter -or any other tissue covered model for that matter- by printing decals directly onto the tissue paper covering. Anything that can be printed on paper can be printed on tissue. You can easily design your own custom decals, or use the two wing panel decals below to turn your your ZXO-3 into a Top Secret Air Force U.A.V. (shown above). Note: Wing Panels are in PDF format.

All though you can print on tissue paper of any color most printers were designed to print only on a white background. This means that when printing colored decals you will get the best results with white tissue paper. If you wish to print only with black ink, such as printing black numbers or letters, then colored tissue will work fine.

I should note this method may not work well with all printers, so it may require some experimentation.

Tissue paper is to thin to run through the printer by it’s self. The trick is to attach it to a piece of printer paper before feeding it through the printer. There are many different ways of doing this but I believe the one I will outline is the simplest and there fore gives the greatest likelihood for success.

Note: When printing the wing halves below make sure “Shrink Oversized Pages to Paper Size” is NOT selected.

 Right Wing Panel

  Left Wing Panel

Step One:
Print the desired decal onto a piece of printer paper to determine how the design will be centered on the page. In the case of the two wing panels you will need to use legal size paper.

Step Two:
Cut a piece of tissue paper an inch or two bigger than the desired size. In the case of the two wing panels cut a piece 6”x12”. Lay the tissue on top of the printer paper. Your should be able to see the decal image through the tissue paper. Use this image to line up the tissue paper before taping it in place. [See Photo 1]

Step Three:
Run the page back through the printer making sure the paper is facing the proper direction. Watch the page closely to make sue it dose not become jammed as it’s being fed through the printer.

To remove the tissue from the printer paper do not try to peel off the tape, you will most likely tear the tissue in the process. Instead cut the tissue loose by cutting through both sheets of paper with a pair of scissors. [See Photo 2] Cut on the dotted line.   

Step Four:
Attach the tissue to your airframe and go show off your latest creation!