I just saw the ‘Unstoppable’ movie today, and asde from it being a real good movie (in my opinion, at least) I also liked the paint schemes of the locomotives for the fictional Allegheny and West Virginia Railroad.
I think I have seen several photos floating around out there in cyber space, and I was wondering, Are there any decal sheets for any of the locomotives in Unstoppable? Or will I have to make my own?
Do you think there would be any chance that a decal company (i.e. Microscale) would eventually make decals for the movie?
I don’t know of any decals yet, but I suspect someone will do them (probably a small custom run…you could even get someone to do it for you). It would more likely be a small firm, rather than Microscale.
Interesting thing though…Athearn is releasing an AC4400CW for CP Rail which is painted to match one of the CP units that was used for filming, after it’s CP repaint. These 4 locos are unique on CP because while the body was repainted, they left the yellow striping on the plow from the movie!
Check it out:
The real unit:
And then the upcoming Athearn model (due in January):
It’s not AWVR, but it’s sort of close Perhaps Athearn would even think of producing an AWVR AC4400CW some time in the future. Let them know you’re interested, they might just think about it. They’re doing plenty of other “fantasy schemes”, so perhaps that wouldn’t be too far off.
People keep poking Athearn to do it, but you can always try printing them on white-back decal paper. The engines are easy enough to find, a prettycommon model in the Ho scale. Actually, all of them are.
This is the first unit I painted. I do not have pictures of the sister unit (767) which just made it out of the paint shop the other day. I still need to put the white reflective markings on the walkway sides.
I saw a movie trailer a half year ago. I wrote an email to the 20th Century Fox movie company with an idea for a Special Collector’s Edition with DVD [:)]
It would be a great special pack - two models of AWVR AC4400CW #777 i #767 with the DVD. I wrote in my email that Kato have already produced this model so maybe it would be possible to order a special painting from Kato.
It could be an extraordinary movie promotion. Unfortunatelly, they didn’t send me any reply.
I would tend to agree with THayman that any decal run by a commercial manufacturer will be a small, custom run, only briefly available to hobbyists. Hobbyist interest in movie-themed paint schemes and heralds is typically highly transient in nature. I really wouldn’t expect to see interest in this one lasting more than a few months before fading. I recall that MDC produced an entire circus train based on one of the highly touted Indiana Jones films and they don’t even seem to turn up on eBay these days!
Custom decals generally prove much better sellers when associated with a longer lasting, broader audience, rather than the small percentage to folks who make a point of seeing some new train-oriented film in theaters. Thus, G&D decals and complete cars have had a long history in the marketplace, as have decals for the Turtle Creek Central and those depicting a few other famous model railroads.
I never knew about CP9751 keeping the safety stripes on the plow from the movie.
It’s also interesting that there is not that big of a chance for a large run of decals, although THayman’s responce does give me hope that Athern may consier a release of AC 4400s in the AWVR schemes (I agree, Athern has done some unusual scheme releases, as well as some rather difficult ones to pull off. We might just well see AWVR 777 in the Athern flyers in the future)
All options considered, I’ll ask Athern if they will consider a run of the AWVR schemes, and start considering using that decal program I’ve had laying around for a few years now.
Yep, all 4 CP AC4400CWs that were used kept their safety stripes. I guess they figured it just didn’t make sense to repaint the plow, as it will get dirty and banged up soon enough anyways.
The main consideration for why no big firm is likely to release these decals is that the interest group will be very small. Yes, the movie is very popular and on everyone’s minds now, but that will fade over the next few years to the point that many people forget about it. Even those who really enjoy the movie now will somewhat decline in their interest. Not to say that they’ll start to dislike the movie, but rather that they won’t think about it as much. Yes, I agree that an AWVR unit would be neat to have on the shelf (I’d buy one), and even to maybe recreate the filming of the movie on your layout, but most people will want to run their prototype or freelanced railroads. The AWVR is a novelty at the moment.
So I think it would be great to see a custom run, of either decals or painted locomotives, but I don’t expect a run from Microscale or anything more than a very limited run. We’ll see though. If you want it, keep pestering. It’s the only way they’ll know there’s i
Make sure your layout has a nice sharp bend on a trestle above a tank farm that you can try to careen you trains around on one rail, You couldnt have asked for a better ready made peril than that location. BTW Tyco locos are cheap and plentiful if you decide to go the full Gomez Addams route [:O][:P]
Will do. I gave thought to using a custom decal company to get some AWVR decals, but the “Minimum 150 sheets per run” requirement drove me off real quick.
“The real story”.
SD-40-2 locomotive.
Freight, 22 loaded, and 25 empty cars, 2898 gross trailing tons,
How many tons was the freight in the movie?
The runaway loco was a SD40-2. The chase loco was a SD40-2.
The chase loco running backwards at up to 65 mph and caught the runaway which was running at near full throttle. The chase loco caught the runaway which was at about 51mph.
One thing I hadn’t thought of before is an issue of licensing. This is a Hollywood movie, so they’re not just going to let anyone market a product that is ultimately their trademark. Any company wishing to make custom decals for themselves would be fine, but if they tried to sell them it would become a potential copyright infringement case pretty quickly.
This was pointed out to me by the guy at Highball Graphics, who said he initially thought about doing a run of these decals, but was deterred by the potential licensing issues. Perhaps a large company like Athearn could afford to get the rights to produce a model, but I don’t know if they’d bother with the hassle unless they were confident of the demand.
Perhaps it would need to be done as a promotional product in association with the film company, but I doubt that will happen. We’ll see.
I completely forgot about the copyright stuff and legal stuff that companies would have to go through to get the rights to even think about making a model/ decals.
Now, keeping that in mind, I think any kind of decal run is out of the question, unless demand stays up for AWVR 777, and the other road numbers (although there is still some hope that Athern may do a run of the AC 44000s)
I think that gives me the answer: invest in good decal-making software, and make my own decals for my own use.[:|]
Good decal software: Microsft Office Word, Microsoft Paint, and if you have it, Adobe Photshop, or Fireworks, or comperable.
Use Word for making the pieces, meaured with the rulers in Word copy them into MS Paint to save them under a JPG format. Occasioanlly, it becomes neccesary to adjust the clarity and resolution, and if you start with a picture and not a piece from Word, it’s easier to trim off backgrounds with Photoshop than it is with Paint. You don’t need expensive decal software. Just get ahold of a good printer. And you’ll probably need a white-back decal paper, not clear-backed.
Once you print them out, seal the paper in Glosscote.
Then, seal it again. If not properly sealed, the soaking
wow! that looks fantastic! completly accurate to the movie paint scheme. may I ask how you did this? I am wanting to model the paint schemes from the movie as well
Say, they look really nice in your pix. I’ve been part of a Sci-Fi group & they had a member ‘Alps’ng’ decals, & the way ‘they’ were printed didn’t have real nice resolution, have you overcome that? I have tweaked a couple color lasers in the DPI settings & gotten good results in the past, but that was before I have needed quality HO decals.
I have not seen the movie yet, but I know I want to enroll a Canon 4 window cab for an SD40-2 real soon. Are you, or anyone here doing a model of that one?
Please post a shot of 776(?) the two tone GE, would love to see it. (What model loco manu. did you use for your custom models? (Yeah, I may have missed it… sorry)
I am going to paint up a model of the sd40 from the movie soon. The artwork is mostly the same so I can use some of what I did for the 4400’s on the sd40. The models I used for the 4400’s were stock Blue Box Athearns. I have to paint and letter another 777 as someone needed the one I had worse than I did and I sold it at a train show a while back. After seeing the movie I found a couple of discrepancies in my original artwork that I had to fix. Most notably, there is a unit number on the roof of the cab the same size as the number on the sides of the cab. I also now have plows for them that I need to add.
I appreciate the feedback & the info! I recently asked about BB’s on the Prototype page, & your’s look nice! I haven’t searched for the SD40-2 in the movie, but from the split second trailer shots I saw that cab window & immediately liked it. Yeah, decals can be a pain, I tried printing my own IC&E decals, but they were smudgy & washed with a sealer coat, & then I found I I forgot a comma in the lettering that differs from DM&E, Doh!! WHat was savable can be fixed, but I learn every day… Hah hah…
Perhaps Athearn would even think of producing an AWVR AC4400CW some time in the future. Let them know you’re interested, they might just think about it. They’re doing plenty of other “fantasy schemes”, so perhaps that wouldn’t be too far off.