On30 decals

[Mike_AA9ZY]

I was wondered if folks lettered engines and rolling stock for their railroads, what do you use for decals?

[NMWTRR]

I believe you can purchase them from a comapny called champ decals at least you used to be able. There may be other manufacturers too.

There is another option and that is you can make them your self using a product called HobbyCal ink jet decal paper.  Walthers has this on sale right now for $12.98 for 5 sheets.  Be careful to print on the correct side.

I like this brand because where you don't print it is white. The link below shows some examples of my New Mexico and West Texas RR logos.  Also the Colorado and Southern decals were made this way on my On 30 2-6-0.

http://s902.photobucket.com/albums/ac226/nmwtrr/DCC%20pictures/

[Mike_AA9ZY]

I've been looking for these decal sheets and they seem to be out of stock at Walthers.

[hminky]

This guy is said to do a good job:

http://gold.mylargescale.com/StanCedarleaf/WebPageDecals/CustomDecalsx.html#SGROBJ7D415911313A35B1

Harold

[Kevin Strong]

Check with Caboose Hobbies. They've got file cabinets full of lettering in the various scales for various existing railroads. For custom work, Stan Cedarleaf (linked above in Harold's post) is very well respected in large scale circles. Another source for custom artwork would be Jeff Damherst, at shawmut car shops. http://www.shawmutcarshops.com. Jeff also does very nice work.  

If decals aren't your "thing," and you're looking to letter fleets of cars (not just one engine or box car), then you may want to look into having custom dry transfers made. I find them far easier to apply than decals, as you don't need to worry about such finicky things as making sure you've got a glossy surface beneath, problems with air bubbles, silvering, or any of those other nasties that come with decals. The trade-off is that they're comparatively bloody expensive to have a sheet made--on the order of $60 or so per sheet. But being O scale, you can get lettering for 20, maybe 30 cars on a 9 x 12 sheet, so your per-car car cost can be pretty minimal. The shop I use is All-Out Graphics up in Vancouver. (You can't get dry transfers made in the US except at one or two shops who still do it, and they're more expensive than All-Out by a fair margin.)

If you have a laser printer, you can make your own dry transfers using this system:
http://www.pulsarprofx.com/
I've not used it myself, but know one or two people who have who say it works pretty well.

Later,

K

[Mike_AA9ZY]

These are all great suggestions.

My On30 railway is called the "Plum River Valley Railway."

I've never used dry transfers before, so I have no experience with that sort of thing.

[texdon]

This post is actually about something I was considering.  I do intend to have a name of some sort for my railroad, and I was wondering about how to get decals or such.  I live in Houston, so I can probably find someone in town who would print them commercially.

[Kevin Strong]

Dry transfers are rub-on graphics. They're printed "backwards" on the underside of a plastic carrier, with a pressure-sensitive adhesive underneath. You place the graphic on the car where you want it, burnish the top of the plastic with a dull pencil or some such, and the graphic transfers to the surface. You lift the plastic off, and you're done. No decal film or anything messy, and can be placed on unpainted wood, metal, or anything. You can then easily distress it with sandpaper to simulate worn lettering. It's by far my favorite means of applying lettering, I just wish it wasn't so doggone expensive.

Getting decals printed from a local commercial printer will probably be about as cost-prohibitive as dry transfers. Commercial printers will use a silkscreen process, and will very likely want a minimum order. That's where custom guys like Stan and Jeff come in. They use a dry-wax-transfer printer (ALPS is the most common brand, also Okidata or Kodak FirstCheck) to print the decals. The advantage here is that you can do full color logos very easily, and because of the nature of the process, you can also do whites and metallics (gold, silver). Unfortunately the printers aren't made anymore, so no one really knows how long guys like Stan and Jeff will be in business. I believe both have a few spare printers in the closet. I've got one myself that I use for one-off lettering projects. (Sorry, I'm stingy with mine. I refer all commercial requests to Stan and Jeff.)

There is an alternative system that just came on the market, called the YuDu. It's a home silk-screen printer that works in conjunction with your ink-jet printer. You print the artwork on clear plastic, use that to burn a photo-reactive mask on the screen, then print your decals using their inks and decal paper you supply. The system is available from Michaels, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, etc. Look for sales. The screens can be re-used. I've not used this, but it's a thought. If you've got a spouse who's into crafting, it may be a great mutual present that you both can use. Having said that, you can get a bunch of custom sheets for the cost of this system, so unless you really have need for one, I'd just give Stan or Jeff a call.

Later,

K

[NMWTRR]

Not to harp on the hobby cal decals but for 15 dollars you can make a bunch.

Here is the manufacturers website.

I have had a few problems with them curling especially on smooth plastic but a little Elmer's and they stay in place very good.


http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/decalpaper.html

There was another brand I used for awhile but it required a spray coating that had lots of Volatile Organic Carbons so not to healthy. Vitacal I believe was the name of it.

I like being able to create my own version of deacl and even evolve it over time.