Stencils: A Potential Alternative to Decals

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Hello, all. While this isn't viable for all road names, scales, and skill/ability levels etc, it's certainly something to think about. So, here we go. I had been struggling to locate suitable decals for a number of my locomotives and various other pieces of equipment in good condition and at reasonable prices, and I've had limited success with making my own decals with my inkjet printer, plus custom/ freelance road names, so I bought some small sized alphabet stencils and gave it a try. First I stencil the letters (and sometimes numbers, I usually freehand the numbers due to their small size) in with a super sharp No.2 pencil onto the piece of equipment, then paint them in with a toothpick. (Obviously this requires a fairly steady hand, but mistakes are usually easily corrected if caught early) Below, are the results. All pieces are HO scale.

CM, MT & SL 522, a Russian Decapod

CM 101, 0-6-0

CM 39, a 4-6-0

CM, MT & SL 75, a former SP E-27 class 4-4-0

CM, MT & SL 111, a former AT&SF 825 class 0-8-0

CM, MT & SL 1701, an FM H-24-66 Train Master

And, last but not least, CM, MT & SL 930, an EMD BL2

Since these photos were taken, I have also used this technique to letter two rotary snow plows, and I have some other projects in the works. Hope you've all enjoyed this post, and that it might just prove useful to someone out there.

P.S. These are the same type of stencils I used.

 

[Bruette]

Fantastic work!

 

[C&OMtnMan]

Nice work.

As I model in N scale, this probably won’t be a thing for me, but do you put some fort of seal coat over the transfers, and if so, what?

Also, do any of your models have stenciling on them that is old enough to see how it stands up over time? Or is that all fairly new work?

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Fantastic work!

Thank you!

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Nice work.

As I model in N scale, this probably won’t be a thing for me, but do you put some fort of seal coat over the transfers, and if so, what?

Also, do any of your models have stenciling on them that is old enough to see how it stands up over time? Or is that all fairly new work?

Thank you! This is all something new I've been trying, the oldest example is about 2 months old, (lettering on the Russian Decapod) but I haven't seen any signs of paint loss or chipping yet. I may yet look into clear coating it for extra durability.

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Some more examples of what can be done with stencils.
CM Rotary A

CM Rotary B

Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining District 1, an ALCO S1

And, CM, MT & SL 6242, an EMD SD24. (Since I kept its BN number, which is out of sequence with my scheme, I'm calling it an SD24M to indicate that it was rebuilt.) For this one, I decided to include in progress photos to give an idea of how the process works, finishing with the completed model.

 

[Gary B]

Very nice work! An alternative method I've used is stickers. Paint the color you want the finished lettering to be. Then place stickers over and paint the overall color. Remove sticker and you have it. That's how the Union Station sign was done. Sammy's donut was done the same way then once over free hand.

 

[logandsawman]

I did some using Woodland Scenics transfer sheet letters.

I thought that was a pretty good alternative, however at times I had trouble getting the bottom of each letter "perfectly lined up"

I think yours turned out very well. NICE JOB!

 

[catnippertom]

So you just use the stencil for the pencil outline then paint inside the pencil outline with a toothpick? Interesting technique!

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Very nice work! An alternative method I've used is stickers. Paint the color you want the finished lettering to be. Then place stickers over and paint the overall color. Remove sticker and you have it. That's how the Union Station sign was done. Sammy's donut was done the same way then once over free hand.View attachment 213344
View attachment 213343

Thank you! That's a good idea, I hadn't thought of that before.

I did some using Woodland Scenics transfer sheet letters.

I thought that was a pretty good alternative, however at times I had trouble getting the bottom of each letter "perfectly lined up"

I think yours turned out very well. NICE JOB!

Thanks! I had tried transfer sheets on something quite awhile ago, but they didn't work for some reason. Maybe they were too old.

So you just use the stencil for the pencil outline then paint inside the pencil outline with a toothpick? Interesting technique!

Yep! While it doesn't work on everything and has limits, I find it to be a satisfactory technique. I find that it works best one rectangular tenders and most diesel bodies.