Tip Of The Day – 92
Modelling Tip Of The Day – 92
This Modelling Tip Of The Day is an ongoing series, in which we’ll be posting a modelling tip that may be of use to the newbie right up to the seasoned modeller. Today’s tip is:
Home Printer
The Home Computer Printer is another great item for railway modeller. Using the home printer opens up more modelling options, from printing off up your own designed signs, transfers, texture sheets to printing off download kits. The home printer has become an essential modelling tool.
Printing off download kits such as those that can be found here in the Railwaymodellers.com Club Shop, is a cost effective way of modelling. Buying the kit & downloading the kit file to your computer, the kit can be printed off as many times as you wish which is great for building long walls, long rows of low relief buildings etc. Download kits offer a wider choice of kit giving a superb end result once built. Unlike some card kit brands that have awful exposed fold joint lines on the corners, download kits construct in such away that no exposed corner joint lines are shown. With the wide choice in both pristine & pre-weathered finishes as well as cost saving, the download kit has a lot going for it.
Inkjet printers can be picked up from as little as £25 with most these days being able to scan & copy as well as print. Apart from connecting to your computer via an Ethernet cable, printers can also be operated wireless by using wi-fi & bluetooth. Some printers also having options to connect to cloud based systems such as Google Cloud Print, Apple Air Print.
For printer inks two options are: ink cartridge systems or refillable tank systems. The refillable tank systems are a more cost effective option over the cartridge system. They usually last longer between refills compared to the cartridge based systems.
For ink cartridges shop around for best prices & deals. You don’t have to stick to the manufacturer’s own brand cartridges! The likes of compatible ink cartridge brands like Jet-Tech are just as good as the manufacturers originals. The compatible ink cartridge brands are more often than not cheaper than the manufacturers originals, so it pays to shop around.
For more details on printing tips have a look at our online printing tips guide which can be found here:
I was using a colour laser but the chip not the toner has a limited life. (How many prints it allows before replacement is needed). So I have been using throw away inkjets. But these are to expensive to replace the ink. (hence throw away inkjets) I bought one of these tank inkjets and WOW. What a great idea and cheaper to use. The only draw back, and they don’t mention is, you also need a maintenance tank. I think it is another word for the micro chip and this is how they limit how many prints you can do without buying another maintenance tank. So it is just like the micro chip. But I will say I can print a lot more full colour pages and the results are great. So far I would recommend one of these over an original inkjet. Another good point is my one is fast, even when compared to my laser, really fast with good quality. These are more expensive to purchase up front, but the ink and maintenance tanks are under $20.00 Aus dollars for each, so really cheap compared to other printers.
Great tips 🙂 Thank you for sharing 🙂