After a few weeks getting used my new compressor and practicing with the air brush I am ready to paint the Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth rolling stock. I know from reading this forum that homemade decals are trick and custom decals are expensive so I am wondering if there are any alternatives. Larger scales could possibly use stencils or the talented among us could freehand at least the railroad and unit number but I am working in N scale. All I need is “CG&P” Nothing fancy. It is a very small short line road with limited resources. Standard decals will work for the numbers.
Has anybody tried having a rubber stamp made for their railroads name or initials?
What about “dry transfers” that you rub on with a burnishing tool? Another possibility might be Champ Decals “private” road name decals if they still have stock all three of the names for your rail road. I ordered “Wilmington Keystone & Great Lakes RR” from them years ago as individual words. Unfortunately they are now out of stock on “Wilmington” so when I run out of my current supply I will probably have to get a large supply of custom made ones run off. Good luck in your pursuit.
HTH
Will
You can buy alphabet sets as either decals or dry transfers. Champ or Microscale offer alphabets in various colours, styles, and sizes. Since you are doing N scale, you’ll probably want something fairly small. Usually there are more letters and numerals on each sheet in the smaller sizes. You can get dry transfers from C-D-S and probably others. If you find something that you like, try to get a good supply of it on hand, as certain styles are sometimes hard to find. While Champ is no longer producing decals, they have a large stock on hand, so check them out. If you do find a size and style that you like, you should be aware that the letter “G” is not as plentiful as some others. However, you can use excess "C"s, along with parts cut from other letters, to make up the missing bits. Ditto for the "P"s: just alter a “B” to suit. Tricks like this will help you to get good use out of each sheet.
One thing that works pretty well is to put dry transfers on clear decal stock and then just apply it like a regular decal. It works for more basic stuff like this.
The problem with a rubber stamp is that it wouldn’t work too well on anything but a perfectly smooth surface, and most stamp ink isn’t meant for non-absorbent surfaces like styrene.
Homemade decals using a laser printer aren’t too much trouble to make and can look really good. Don’t rule them out. Dry transfers, or decal letter sets, are another option if you just want some letters.