I guess we knew this was coming sooner or later. Excelsior Rocketry, purveyor of classic and custom waterslide decals, is shutting down. The problem is that there is only one more or less affordable printer available (Alps) that can do a good job printing one-off decals — in particular, it can print white ink — and “available” is something of an overstatement. It’s no longer in production and unused ones are hard to come by. It isn’t even compatible with any OS more recent than Windows XP. Excelsior’s owner Gordy (Sandman) a few months back had his last printer break down; he shipped it to Japan for repair, and it broke down again a months later. He was able to buy another printer to replace it, but that lasted less than two months. So he’s throwing in the towel.
Back in 2013 I bought several decal sets from Excelsior none of which I’ve gotten around to using yet. The Honest Goon will be the first, when and if I ever finish it!
Sad to see Excelsior go. Tango Papa Decals is the only other vendor I know of rocketry waterslide decals, and it looks like he doesn’t do custom work, at least no mention on the web site. StickerShock does vinyl, but they’re having their own problems.
Rich's Rockets 