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As a long-time modeler (both in railroading and in other genres), I'm disappointed by what I perceive as a rapidly diminishing availability of and use of decals. I have always enjoyed painting and decaling my own models. In what I've modeled, it seemed as though the only place that offered painted and "ready to go" models was in model railroading. And if what I wanted was not available -- I bought an undecorated model and then painted and decaled it myself, thus ending up with a product that was not available otherwise. And I loved doing it!
From what I've seen, though, it seems like many of the decal companies are either gone or are going out of business. Walthers and Herald King had fairly thick catalogs with hundreds (if not thousands) of selections... gone. Now Champion is closing its doors and looking for a buyer. I know Microscale is still in business, and there are other, smaller companies that make and sell decals. But the impression I get is that the "do-it-yourselfer" is being pushed to the side, so to speak, by the "ready-to-run" segment of the hobby world. I do understand that if a company can't make a profit it will (most likely) go out of business.
Which leads to my question: Do you use decals?
I look forward to not only the poll results, but the comments as well.
I haven't yet, but I have bought a bunch for future projects and plan on buying more. For me it's one of the only ways I am going to get the Conrail locos and cars that I want so anytime I come across some I snatch them right up.
But of course I use decals... Only way I can letter rolling stock for the SLOW (Seneca Lake, Ontario, & Western RR).
I had a run of decals made up by micro scale a few years ago. Should last me for many a year.......... I also make my own decals for specific items, like local businesses for the layout, and other uses. Helps that I have a color Laser Printer, so i don't have to mess with all the fixitive and stuff.
I use Micro-Scale, Highball, Shell Scale, Rail Graphics, Odd Ball, and any older ones I can still find. I must be one of the dying breed. I'd say out of the 400+ engines I have 75% are custom detailed, painted and decaled.
Most of my rolling stock & engines are decalled by me. Once upon a time it was almost impossible to get Reading, Lehigh Valley, Lehigh & New England equipment.
Tom, it's just what model railroading has evovled into, R-T-R is the new. Decaling & Detailing are dying off, I don't like it one bit, considering I'm one of the few that stops by my LHS's and asks for decals/detail parts, shop owners/employees always call me a rarity
Most of my rolling stock & engines are decalled by me. Once upon a time it was almost impossible to get Reading, Lehigh Valley, Lehigh & New England equipment.
Most of the stuff I want isn't readily made in RTR. I can find kits from the past, but there just isn't a lot of ICG out there. So, I have to buy what I can find of new old stock ICG decals.
You might have added another choice to the poll : "I used to use decals." I have shelves full of HO scale models, most of them have been painted and decalled by me; I only have a few factory painted models.
Having said that, I haven't done any for quite some time now as my interests have been changing, mostly into On30. I've lettered some of my larger stuff using dry transfers.
I still have a three ring binder full of decal sheets from Accucal, Microscale and such. I doubt if they will ever be used, and there's not much demand for them these days.
Bob, that's a good point. It's one that I hadn't thought of when I set up the poll. I knew there would be others besides "yes" and "no" -- I included the "other" hoping it'd be a catch-all for the non-"yes" and "no" responses.
I've not had much success with dry transfers. I don't know if I'm not burnishing enough or burnishing too much, or if the surface I used was not properly prepared, or if it was an "old" dry transfer and didn't adhere properly, or... And my other problem was getting things to line up properly. I have "fumble fingers", which is why I like decals -- most of the time, I can get them close upon first application, then nudge them into place, then add the setting solution. But with dry transfers, it's gotta be spot-on with the first try -- something I've not mastered.
Well, I've aways bought pre-painted rolling stock and seldom felt a need to change them. My other modeling interests (modeling commercial airliners in particular) require a lot of decaling. I really think some decals for HO commercial vehicles would be handy. Like generic owner info for light trucks as the law requires. The current Boley line of trucks could be greatly improved with these. I've tried to create these on my computer printer but the print is too small to come ot clearly.
I use decals and dry transfers. I prefer decals. I have over 700 decal sheets that I will pull from when decaling. I don't use the dry transfers as much as they are really hard to find now days. I have also found that while a set of decals can be restored as it gets older, a set of dry transfers can't be. I recently had to throw away over 100 dry transfer sheets because the had dried out over the years.
I use premade decals from time to time, sometimes I make my own on Testor's decal paper (a lot of work if you ask me) but by and large I make most of my decals on tracing paper. It's something that has to be carefully because you can almost tear the paper by breathing on it. Almost anything that touches it can leave a mark or a tiny crease on it.
The Testor's paper is great when you need to make stuff that you can't find anywhere else or want to do it yourself. A previous hobby of mine was 1/6th scale military action figures (GI Joe dollies), and often I would kitbash and customize figures that no one made or personalize them. I would end up making small decals to go on equipment to add realism, and the Testor's paper was great.
I use purchased decals, DIY decals, and dry transfers. Each have their place. I model the Nickel Plate and my own shortline, the Prattville and Northern. I have to make my own decals for my shortline and some Nickel Plate equipment, since it's hard to find NKP schemes on much in the way of kits or RTR models. Clover House still makes a nice selection of dry transfers and some decals. (http://www.cloverhouse.com/)
I am one of the "Other" votes. I model in HO scale and design my own decals using CorelDRAW X4. I print the decals on MicroMark paper. 8 1/2X11 feeds smoothly in my printer. Smaller sheets sometime feed crooked spoiling the decal. I can print legible 2 point and smaller type which is small even in HO scale. Printing at 600 DPI will probably allow me to print the smallest lettering on a covered hopper. My only regret is that my HO Business InkJet 2230 will not print white.
I also use purchased decals and dry transfers. I print on very thin paper, and transparencies. I have not tried to print directly on thin styrene simply because I have none.
I make my own decals using decal paper that I take to the print shop and have them run off on a laser printer. My first loco scheme turned out OK but after being out of the hobby for 20-25 years I found my skills to be quite a bit rusty.
To make things easier for myself I am changing up the scheme of my freelance road to a modified CRIP Phase 7 paint scheme with my own black lettering. Should turn out nice.
