Looking for Decals

[Bob Bufkin]

I have a brass PRR N6 cabin car that I want to paint MOW yellow.  I'm looking for black CK (circle keystone for the uninformed) decals.  Have got a ton of regular white one but can't find any black.  And yes I've looked around the internet with no luck.  Have some in HO I may be able to cut and paste but would rather have N.

[Walkercolt]

Your HO decals sound like a job for an ALPS printer, scanned and reduced 55%. Or I've heard (2nd handed) that some of the "photo-jet" and "photo-laser" printers do a good job (with some colors) on decal paper over-sprayed with Micro-Save. HP, Kodak and Canon swear their photo-inks are water-proof on some models of printers. Water, I can believe, but decal setting solutions...who knows? Might be worth $7 from Micro-Mark to try. ???

[ai5629]

Bob,

Email me off list.  I may have what you are looking for.  Thanks.

[bbussey]

Your HO decals sound like a job for an ALPS printer, scanned and reduced 55%...

You don't need an Alps printer for this one.  For black decals, any good laser printer will do the job.  Just get decal paper for laser printers from Micro-Mark or some other source, shrink the artwork 87.1/160 and output.  The decals for the FGE plug door ice reefer in NSR were done this way.

[Dave Schneider]

Bryan,

Did you apply a clear coat to your decals. I realize the laser printed materials are "waterproof", but I was wondering whether you had any problems with it flaking off. I have a brand new ALPS but haven't had time to get it up and running yet, but as you point out its not needed for all applications.

BTW, I loved your NSR article. I have a fleet of insulated boxcars to build and have been looking into a milling machine. I need to put plug door sides on a Deluxe Innovations end and roof.

Best wishes, Dave

[Bob Bufkin]

Thanks for all the replies.  I've got a couple sets on the way. 

[bbussey]

Bryan,

Did you apply a clear coat to your decals. I realize the laser printed materials are "waterproof", but I was wondering whether you had any problems with it flaking off...

Dave,

I didn't since the car was lightly oversprayed with Dullcoat to hide the decal film and give some teeth for light chalk weathering.  I printed the decals on an HP LaserJet, which makes pretty indestructible toner as far as this usage is concerned.

I've never had a problem with flaking.  The Chiquita fruit container I did was color LaserJet toner over decal film which covers the entire side in order to hide the film edges.  The Micro-Mark film is thin enough that Micro-Set and Micro-Sol get it to practically disappear regarding the relief on the model.  The hardest part in that regard was getting the toner to conform to the side relief.  It took quite a few applications of Solvaset to get it to blend in.

The InterMountain modular parts are excellent for that type of kitbashing.  The use of the milling machine on the MTL mechanical reefer sides saved a lot of headache getting the sides properly configured, but other potential kitbashes could be done without a milling machine.  I was thinking of taking the sides from the new Atlas Trainman 40' DD boxcars and adding it to an IMRC 1937 AAR boxcar core before I realized that except for the roof and roofwalk the detail on that model is pretty good.  And it looks very good on the track once the bolsters are shaved and the car stands at a more prototypical height over the rails.  I might just cut out the existing roof and add on an IMRC roof instead of going through the trouble of grafting the Atlas sides to the IMRC core.

[bbussey]

... BTW, I loved your NSR article. I have a fleet of insulated boxcars to build and have been looking into a milling machine. I need to put plug door sides on a Deluxe Innovations end and roof.

Dave, if you're going to do that (and this is what I should have done) - make a master set, get it perfect as far as the fit is concerned, and then make resin castings.  The IMRC parts are easy to prepare, so there's no need to cast them.  The sides are what takes time to get right.  Eventually I will do another set of sides and have them cast, because I did the prototype with the fan removed and I want some with the fans present.  And, although I'm FGE-dominant, I'd like to do one of the PFE 40' plug door cars (which I believe has the fan).