archer's N treadplate transfers

[scaro]

I am wondering if anyone has tried Archer's N scale treadplate and what your opinion is of the appearance of the transfers? 

I'm looking at an atlas N scale Century shell and the treadplate detail on the walkways is very fine. 

I'm unsure whether it would be possible to reproduce something that fine as a resin transfer, so I'm interested in people's views. 

Motive for asking  ... if a transfer were to be a bit coarser, that would play into my hands ... since I work in TT scale.

regards,

Ben   

[BCR 570]

I applied some last week to my panel track car:



Tim

[scaro]

thanks tim. that is unusual, it looks like a series of rivets more than anything.   

cheers, ben

[mmagliaro]

thanks tim. that is unusual, it looks like a series of rivets more than anything.   

cheers, ben

Yes, I was thinking the same thing.  You might try the BLMA etched brass treadplate set.  You will be glueing very thin sheets
of brass on your model; I don't know if that is workable for your situation.  But the treadplate looks really good.

[peteski]

Tim, wouldn't that walkway on a real car be made from a roofwalk-like panel?  If that is the case, why not just use a photoetched walkway?

[scaro]

i managed to find a plastruct tread plate embossed styrene sheet product that purports to be N scale and a slater's product in the UK which is 1:100. ordered both to see which looks best.

thanks for the responses, gentlemen.

[scaro]

Both the Slaters and Plastruct products came.

Slaters 0449 sheet is claimed to be 1:100 but based on the pattern, way too big, I'd guess it’s probably more like S scale, let alone 1:100.

Plastruct do very small pieces of an N scale diamond pattern which isn’t ideal because it isn't really the right pattern, but also because it only comes in pieces about 3” x 2”.

Now looking at the BLMA treadplate.  I'm wondering what folk think of it, and how long and how wide the pieces are?

http://www.blmamodels.com/images/store/250b.jpg

Regards

Ben S.
Tottenham Hale, England

[Catt]

Now looking at the BLMA treadplate.  I'm wondering what folk think of it, and how long and how wide the pieces are?

Ben, I was planning to email BLMA this morning so I just tossed in a question about the treadplate while I was at it.I will let you know what I find out unless less someone else answers your questions first.

While I was at it I put in a plug for more Z items from Craig.

[jimmo]

I would be more interested in seeing what these different tread plate products look like after they were painted instead of as they come. Seeing little specks on an unfinished model tell me very little, how they look finished tells me all I need to know. Any finished models out there with these products?

[wm3798]

If that's in fact the product, it looks like crap.  Looks like the steel has measles.

When I made this, I simply googled images of tread plate, found a manufacturer's website with sample images, and copied and pasted to make a transparent decal.  Might be a hair over scale, but at least you can tell what it is.



I did it before and I'd do it again if Archer was the only option...

Lee

[peteski]

In N scale, properly scaled threadplate will be almost invisible and will have very fine texture (easily obscured by a layer of non-scale paint we use on out models.  I don't get this quest for modeling N scale (toyish and oversized) thredplate. I rather see the surface smooth than having grossly oversize texture.  Funny thing is that most of the N scale photoetched roofwalks and such do not bother me as much as the threadplate (and the holes in them are large enough for a N scale foot to fall through). 

[jimmo]

I (pretty much) feel the same way Peteski, although Lee's home made decal looks pretty good on that heavily weathered piece of equipment.

I was also curious about how well the Archer rivet sheets work out, anyone have a finished application?

[peteski]

I (pretty much) feel the same way Peteski, although Lee's home made decal looks pretty good on that heavily weathered piece of equipment.

I was also curious about how well the Archer rivet sheets work out, anyone have a finished application?

I agree that Lee's threadplate doesn't look too bad.  It looks a bit sparse though. But I bet that the thickness of the ink over the decal film is probably just about scale thickness for the raised texture.

The rivets work quite well. DKS used them on the masters for his PRR containers and IIRC someone else (Max?) used them on his scratchbuilt tender.  Both are well documented threads, residing somewhere in TRW bowels.

[DKS]

I agree that Lee's threadplate doesn't look too bad.

So, what exactly is "threadplate"? Something to do with sewing, perhaps?

Incidentally, independent of one another, Lee and I used exactly the same trick on the same model. Only difference was, mine was Z scale.

I was also curious about how well the Archer rivet sheets work out, anyone have a finished application?

Lots of folks have used them to good effect. Here they are used for the NZT product Peteski mentioned--

[jimmo]

So, what exactly is "threadplate"? Something to do with sewing, perhaps?

Incidentally, independent of one another, Lee and I used exactly the same trick on the same model. Only difference was, mine was Z scale.



Lots of folks have used them to good effect. Here they are used for the NZT product Peteski mentioned--

"Threadplate" could also have something to do with forums--perhaps to keep the subject from drifting.

David, those are excellent examples of decals used in models and masters. Just what I needed to see.

On the homemade decals were those laser printed or inkjet?