Conspicuity Stripes

[Toolbelt]

Yea, cutting all those is going to be a bear! Might be worth it to just order a lifetime supply of the self stick pre done ones.

The time and aggravation may make the $30.00 shipping worth it!

It's not just the shipping costs but also the minimum order sizes. With the exchange rates to Canada, I'm easily looking at $60+. I would imagine FRA striping has to be the single largest demand item as far as decals/tapes go and yet so difficult to acquire at reasonable cost. Then again, more modern rolling stock typically comes with it applied, and applying it to older era cars makes it out of era. How hard would it have been for Scale Trains to equip their Operator Series with this striping applied (as well as shelf couplers). It's a head scratcher at times in this hobby. lol

 

[migalyto]

How hard would it have been for Scale Trains to equip their Operator Series with this striping applied (as well as shelf couplers).

It's not hard at all and would add pennies to the models to add the stripping. In my opinion its more of a marketing tool to force you to upgrade to the Rivet Counter models. By the time you add the decal sheet and the detail upgrade you are at the Rivet Counter price point.

As for the couplers, yea they are total junk and mine immediately get changed to Kadee

 

[Toolbelt]

It's not hard at all and would add pennies to the models to add the stripping. In my opinion its more of a marketing tool to force you to upgrade to the Rivet Counter models. By the time you add the decal sheet and the detail upgrade you are at the Rivet Counter price point.

As for the couplers, yea they are total junk and mine immediately get changed to Kadee

The main concern with the couplers is that they're not even shelf couplers, which certainly were mandated long before the prototypes were released. The same issue existed with some Rapido tankers I purchased. While I mind paying $40+ for high end rolling stock, I really really mind it not coming with prototype accurate couplers. And assuming these Operator cars are likely built on the same line as the Rivet counters, the cost of adding stripes and endshield decals and even accurate couplers would probably add a fraction of a penny to the final costs, as base decals are included anyways. The detail parts would add greater cost premiums so I can live with that.

 

[CambriaArea51]

I've used smokebox graphics but I guess they are no longer. Microscale has water slide decals I've use them also.

Microscale Decals: HO Scale - Reflector Stripes - HO Scale 4 x 18 Yellow

www.microscale.com

 

[Toolbelt]

I've used smokebox graphics but I guess they are no longer. Microscale has water slide decals I've use them also.

Microscale Decals: HO Scale - Reflector Stripes - HO Scale 4 x 18 Yellow

www.microscale.com

I actually went to an old school hobby store and they had a box of partially used miscellaneous decal sheet sets, and I came across Microscale #91138 (4" and 6" stripes). While these are not bright yellow, I think they will serve the purpose.

Microscale Decals: HO Scale - Stripes - 4 and 6 inch widths - Dulux (Imitation Gold)

www.microscale.com

As a bonus, they also had a set of generic CN steam loco (1931-1960) decals so I can finally decorate an old Mehano Pacific 4-6-2 I inherited from my dad almost 30 years ago.

Microscale Decals: HO Scale - Canadian National Steam Locomotives (1931-1960)

www.microscale.com

Going direct to Microscale incurs shipping and handling fees, minimum order size, exchange rate and possibly duties/brokerage fees. So I kinda lucked out finding these two sets kicking around in a box that looked like they've been there since the 70's.

 

[Snowman]

I actually went to an old school hobby store and they had a box of partially used miscellaneous decal sheet sets, and I came across Microscale #91138 (4" and 6" stripes). While these are not bright yellow, I think they will serve the purpose.

Microscale Decals: HO Scale - Stripes - 4 and 6 inch widths - Dulux (Imitation Gold)

www.microscale.com

As a bonus, they also had a set of generic CN steam loco (1931-1960) decals so I can finally decorate an old Mehano Pacific 4-6-2 I inherited from my dad almost 30 years ago.

Microscale Decals: HO Scale - Canadian National Steam Locomotives (1931-1960)

www.microscale.com

Going direct to Microscale incurs shipping and handling fees, minimum order size, exchange rate and possibly duties/brokerage fees. So I kinda lucked out finding these two sets kicking around in a box that looked like they've been there since the 70's.

If they date from the seventies they might have enough in the way of cracks that they come apart when you try to apply them (try a small section first). In which case, give them a clear coat first even before applying them to help hold them together.

As far as your import duty, tariff, tax issues go generally, in your case it might pay you many-fold to "think like a manufacturer," even more than I do. For example, one way to secure stripes is to literally ink-jet print them onto decal paper and then clear coat to keep the inks from running. It's quicker than the classic silkscreen method, although printing white might be a bit more problematic.*

[*I have NOT tried this, but I do think any ink-jet tank type printer which will print black could be "spoofed" into printing white (white alone, aka "white only") just by changing the ink. Otherwise, white printers are available, but are considerably more costly too].

And the other thing you could look into as well would be pad-printing. Manual machines are not hugely expensive--a few hundred dollars--and there are several way to make the cliches these days which can also be pretty fast. Larger versions of these machines, usually multi-color, are the method used by commercial manufacturer's like Scale Trains.

Some of the printing process is shown beginning around the 30 minute mark.

 

[Snowman]

As an aside, if it matters my yellow avatar stripes are based on the front sandbox stripes as seen on D&RGW Challengers. In this case they are actually reflective yellow tape very, very, very carefully cut and "applied" to the old tunnel portal screen I put together about forty years back. It was quite a challenge even in HO, but the N scale version took all I had to get it done well.

In order to end up with the "flush" surface appearance, the stripes (laminated onto thin styrene) were cut out as positives, and the four slots were cut out as negatives...the combo then fit together very carefully. Both curtains came out well, but I could never do it now with shakier hands. Twice in one lifetime is enough.

An easier way would have been photo-etching, but I'm not sure I even knew that process existed at the time.

I just noticed--maybe this works for you and maybe it doesn't--if you click on someone's avatar (I clicked on mine) it might give you a much larger version, aka "zoomed in." When I do that on my stripes, it's a little more obvious they are hand cut.

The horizontal bottom cut on my bottom stripe (of four) is a bit more ragged than the others, and it still bothers me all these years later. Don't really want to zoom in on that one. Meh!

-----------------

I hate computers at times. I was trying to zoom in on the darned thing and just deleted it by accident. Good grief, Charlie Brown.
Gonna have to try recovery my avatar from the other computer as the avatar file is not on this newer one.

 

[Toolbelt]

I actually just discovered that a local mail order model train parts house distributes Micro Scale decals, however they were out of stock on the yellow stripe sets, so I'll use the dulux (gold) ones I have. In the meantime, i ordered a couple of their graffiti sheet sets as I'm about to start weathering all my fleet.

 

[Toolbelt]

If they date from the seventies they might have enough in the way of cracks that they come apart when you try to apply them (try a small section first). In which case, give them a clear coat first even before applying them to help hold them together.

Wow you were bang on with that caution. When I went to apply the first badge to the side of the tender, it literally started disintegrating almost to dust when I tried repositioning it slightly with a fine brush, even though the mounting surface was wet with M/Set. Fortunately, the decal set came with about 8 of those same badges so I was ultra ultra careful applying another decal. I was especially cautious applying the cab numbers as the set only had 2 of that number sequence so it was do or die. This set did the trick for what I needed.