Forgot to tack this question on my other post…How could someone like myself get some custom decals that the lettering is white. I know you can by alphabet sheets (A-Z) but for a entire locomotive roster that could get a little pricey. This is for my freelanced railroad.[banghead]
Your only real option is getting a run of them done through Rail Graphics. ALPS printers are OOP, and their ink tanks will soon be all gone, so it’s the only way to go.
Phil
Do you mean white decals that you would print yourself, or from a custom decal maker like Don Manlich etc.??
Either or…doesn’t really matter really. I just need white decals, I have a decal makeing kit…but no white ink.[V] Or do you people thing it would be easier coming up with a new paint scheme.?
You really can’t print white yourself. Even light colors require some special techniques.
You can buy white-backed decal paper. However, that means you have to trim the edges of the decal to exactly the shape you want. You could print the outline of the letters, and then cut them out with scissors or a hobby knife, but I find it very difficult to get good, clean shapes that way. You might be able to match the color of the engine body and print that color on the decal surrounding the letter. This could actually work pretty well if you’re going to weather the engine, since you can use the weathering to cover up slight differences in color.
I do a lot of advertising signs with decals. I use clear decal paper, and I paint the surface white before I apply the decal. That way, the clear part of the decal shows through as white, and the light colors come out as intended. You might be able to design your logos with a small, dark-colored border to hide the edges of the white paint. This sign was printed on clear decal paper and applied to a white rectangle painted on the building:
If you look closely, you can still see the edges of the rectangle here. I could have been more careful in painting the rectangle before applying the decal, but in this case, I wanted a weathered look to the sign anyway, so I used cheap acrylic and Dul-Cote to make it look ratty.
Railgraphics is reasonably cheap, good quality, and has a quick turnaround.
You can send them black and white artwork from your printer and they’ll add whatever colors you want. White lettering is no problem at all.
Thinking that is my best bet. Do they have a website?
Not going to enter into a debate here, but not so, if you are happy to deal with an Aussie (Several on this forum do), I can assist, contact me off list if you wish to know more.
Teditor
I had some cusrom made for the Chicago West Pullman and Southern in n scale. These were done in Australia as the post above indicated they were of superb quaility and the fellow I worked with emailed me back and forth a bunch of times to make sure all was done correctly And the price was right If you want some great custome work email him.
Generally a good custom decal maker isn’t going to be as expensive as you might think. I use Don Manlich (unfortunately he doesn’t have a website). I calculated that in lettering all the ore cars I have (or will have) on my layout that using his custom decals made up for my free-lance railroad actually came out to be a few cents per car cheaper than using Champ decals for say Great Northern or some other ‘real’ railroad.
Thanks for the kind words, I trust they worked out OK.
Teditor
arjay1969, I got your message, but can not work out how to get a reply to you, can you post on here or send me a PM.
Teditor.
In the last of the Model Railroader DVDs, they show how to make white lettering on a building. I guess you could do the same for decals, of course you be limited to the fonts available in vinyl lettering. They paint the base coat white, then apply the lettering over that. Then the final color is applied. When you peel the lettering up, you have what it covered… in white.