foxofinfinety
Member
so far, nope, but I may at some point, first I want to finish the layouts though.
(yes, layouts, one in H0 one in G)
(yes, layouts, one in H0 one in G)
Poll: Do you use decals?
- Thread starter tomstockton
- Start date
Bat24SS
Needs more space.
Not yet, but I want to do custom ones. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about them first. I have an ink jet printer, but it sounds like I might be happier with a color laser printer. I'd like to make stuff for N, HO, and G Scale. Of course G being the fun and easiest I think. I'll have to do some test with the ink jet and see.
Sir Humphrey
New Member
Yes, but they have been for my QR stuff, which is all kit anyway, but for my freelance system I'm looking at using custom ones.
smittydieseldoc
Southern spoken here!
Been using after market decals for years, both in car and railroad modeling. There are some Southern pieces out there, but like said before, only so many road numbers. Have quite a few cars I have painted and decaled.
nwdrummer379
Class of '11
I'll get my first taste of decaling when I decal some undecorated streamlined coaches for Amtrak Phase 1. I actually cant wait to try it.
Lester Perry
Member
I used to. I model C&O and until probably the last 5-10 years you could get very little C&O. So with that I painted and decaled almost everything. Then CSX released the rights or whatever and now it is easy to get.
I'm going to see if I can talk my LHS into getting a laser printer and charging for them! $625 from Microscale is a little pricey! Do you know how many boxcars that is?
flh80
Member
With all the ready to run stuff these days actual modelers are becoming EXTINCT. Herald King and Champ gone so are a lot of cool decals. With all the Fallen Flags there are a modeler can't even model them. A lot of history is gone with it. Most of my motive power I custom painted (and still am) as with my cabeese. For now most of my rolling stock is just that - Stock from the box.
Lester Perry
Member
I have had some success with the Testors decal making kit. I used it to make custom decals for a business on my layout which has a few of its own rail cars
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The car data is microscale. I have not tried copying another image but could only assume it would be the same. I also have used colors besides black but don't have any pics.
78176[/ATTACH]"]
The car data is microscale. I have not tried copying another image but could only assume it would be the same. I also have used colors besides black but don't have any pics.
Attachments
Scordicus
Member
I am just about to embark on producing some custom decals using an ink jet printer for my prototypically freelanced railroad, and if their no good then I'll find someone with a laser printer.
I would use a commercial supplier which I have actually looked in to recently, but not only do they want the customer to provide all the art work in a particular format, they then typically want a minimum run of 200+ sheets and at $5+ per sheet, for the average hobbyist it just becomes far too unrealistically expensive and with unrealistic numbers (typically 4 loco's per sheet = 800 loco's worth! WFT!), this is why IMO a lot of the companies have/are going out of business, because of pure greed!
I would use a commercial supplier which I have actually looked in to recently, but not only do they want the customer to provide all the art work in a particular format, they then typically want a minimum run of 200+ sheets and at $5+ per sheet, for the average hobbyist it just becomes far too unrealistically expensive and with unrealistic numbers (typically 4 loco's per sheet = 800 loco's worth! WFT!), this is why IMO a lot of the companies have/are going out of business, because of pure greed!
tomstockton
Tom Stockton
You might want to check out Rail Graphics Decals:
http://www.railgraphicsdecals.com/
They have a minimum run of 25 sheets, and if I recall correctly, a minimum price of under $55 for 25 2" x 3" sheets, done in one color.
I had some alphabet / number sets done some time ago, in 4-point type, and was very pleased with the results.
I am in no way affiliated with Rail Graphics -- but was very pleased with their work, and thought I'd pass this along as an option.
Regards,
Tom Stockton
http://www.railgraphicsdecals.com/
They have a minimum run of 25 sheets, and if I recall correctly, a minimum price of under $55 for 25 2" x 3" sheets, done in one color.
I had some alphabet / number sets done some time ago, in 4-point type, and was very pleased with the results.
I am in no way affiliated with Rail Graphics -- but was very pleased with their work, and thought I'd pass this along as an option.
Regards,
Tom Stockton
Scordicus
Member
But that's still 25 sheets!
At the end of the day, what do they do at the printers?? Load the pictures on to a computer and send them to the printer to be printed (exactly the same as we would do at home), so why does there have to be a minimum run?? Or am I seriously missing something??
Lester Perry
Member
It has been a long time since I had anything to do with printing but they would have to burn a plate which requires time and material. That means they would need a minimum order to offset the cost. Now remember it has been a long time since I had anything to do with printing. They are providing a professional service which requires different materials and equipment to satisfy customers.
I have used microscale decals and occasionally dry transfers. I have not had much success with making my own decals. I tried the Testor's decal paper with my HP inkjet printer. The printing comes out so thin, the image is almost transparent when I slide it off the backing paper. When I tried to decal the tender of a steam locomotive with yellow or gold lettering (my printer doesn't print white) the image was basically invisible. Maybe a dark color on a light background would work better. If anyone has any pointers on using the Testor's paper with an inkjet printer I would love to hear from them. IN the meantime I am looking into the Rail Graphics decals--their pricing seems pretty reasonable.
Scordicus
Member
Inkjet printers can't print white which is why you have both clear and white decal paper, you leave the white area blank on the white decal paper and color the rest..
If the printing comes out thin, then you need to look at the quality settings on the printers software...
tomstockton
Tom Stockton
Hudson1,
Color ink-jet and laser printers rely on the "white" paper they print on for the lighter colors. I am guessing the tender you made a decal for is black; without the "white" of the background, your yellow decal is practically invisible.
I would guess that if you used a white decal paper instead of clear, the decals would look pretty good -- but then you have the white background. Fine for signs, not so good for black tenders.
I have seen home-made decals with black lettering, printed on clear decal paper, that look very nice on a model. I would assume that would hold true for any dark color -- but as the color became lighter, the decal would become more "transparent" when applied to a model.
Unfortunately for us modelers, being able to make a decal with white (or light-color, like yellow) lettering is darned near impossible. What we would need is a "dye-sublimation" printer (guys, correct me if I wrong!) to get those white decals. A company named Alps made one several years ago; from what I've read, it did a very good job. But if I recall correctly, the printer was not cheap, the "supplies" were not cheap, and the company no longer makes those printers (if they are even still in business).
My guess would be that a printer like that would cost much more than the average hobbyist could afford -- which is why the few companies that will make custom decals seem to be more expensive.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Tom Stockton
Color ink-jet and laser printers rely on the "white" paper they print on for the lighter colors. I am guessing the tender you made a decal for is black; without the "white" of the background, your yellow decal is practically invisible.
I would guess that if you used a white decal paper instead of clear, the decals would look pretty good -- but then you have the white background. Fine for signs, not so good for black tenders.
I have seen home-made decals with black lettering, printed on clear decal paper, that look very nice on a model. I would assume that would hold true for any dark color -- but as the color became lighter, the decal would become more "transparent" when applied to a model.
Unfortunately for us modelers, being able to make a decal with white (or light-color, like yellow) lettering is darned near impossible. What we would need is a "dye-sublimation" printer (guys, correct me if I wrong!) to get those white decals. A company named Alps made one several years ago; from what I've read, it did a very good job. But if I recall correctly, the printer was not cheap, the "supplies" were not cheap, and the company no longer makes those printers (if they are even still in business).
My guess would be that a printer like that would cost much more than the average hobbyist could afford -- which is why the few companies that will make custom decals seem to be more expensive.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Tom Stockton
Scordicus & Tom,
Thanks for the comments. They are helpful. Yes, the tender is black, so I guess I will be looking into ordering some custom decals for my home roadname--at least for locomotive tenders. I used white dry transfers for lettering a few years back and they come out alright, except it's really hard to get the letters to line up perfectly. That works if you're only using 2 or 3 letters, as in an abbreviated name, but not if you want to spell out a long road name like my Purgatory Creek & Northern. Anyway, thanks again.
Thanks for the comments. They are helpful. Yes, the tender is black, so I guess I will be looking into ordering some custom decals for my home roadname--at least for locomotive tenders. I used white dry transfers for lettering a few years back and they come out alright, except it's really hard to get the letters to line up perfectly. That works if you're only using 2 or 3 letters, as in an abbreviated name, but not if you want to spell out a long road name like my Purgatory Creek & Northern. Anyway, thanks again.
I used www.solidesign.bizland.com to make my private road decals. I had them make me two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets with a variety of sizes and colors. My herald is an L over a V same as the N over H for New Haven. I also had some of Lobuc Valley printed out. For samples I just included some NH decals and requested the same letting style and colors and how many of each I wanted. I also told them if there was still room on the second sheet to fill it proportionally with the LV heralds. Including the one time set up charge the total was $90 ( IIRC ). They keep the artwork on file so future re-orders are priced only for a sheet of whatever fits and I think that was $25.
I ended up with enough heralds and lettered names to do 30 - 40 models whether engines or freight cars or whatever.
They can work up artwork from your sketches also.
I ended up with enough heralds and lettered names to do 30 - 40 models whether engines or freight cars or whatever.
They can work up artwork from your sketches also.
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