Nice cold Pepsi anyone?
#1
This is one of the early threads created by Arlaghan over at the old Gauge. It was first posted in December, 2003. It is one of several of Arlaghan's threads that are being recreated here in order to preserve our old Academy threads. It was not possible to retrieve some of the comments, but all the original posts by Arlaghan are there.
#2
I was looking for graphics on the net for the interior of the gas station, when I came across something I thought would be quick and easy to make... Sure was!

A nice quick 15 minute project. (Well, if you only count assembly.)

   

Quote:Originally posted by philip
Is that one of those lead pencil refills for mechanical pencil?
Actually, are you ready for this? It's posterboard! What I did was make a "box" out of posterboard, painted it black, and then layered the graphic on the front and two sides with spray adhesive. I shot it with some fixative to give it the glossy look. I plan to mass produce these little suckers and pepper them all over my module (and other people's modules, if they'll let me LOL)

Quote:Originally posted by Anachron
Wow very cool
Can't u give us the image you used?
Sure thing! Here you go! (You might have to finagle with it a little bit... I've set it at 600dpi - which is what my printer puts out - so you might have to adjust the size and settings to match your printer. This is N scale, by the way. Just print it out twice as big for HO scale.)

Coke and Dr. Pepper machines in the works

   
#3
To answer a few questions:
The printer I am using is an HP Photosmart 7960
And yes, I am using regular paper. When printing in photo quality mode you get an astounding 4800 dpi x 1200 dpi, but it really eats away at your memory and harddisk space (up to 500 megs) so I have yet to try it out. I am just printing at regular document resolution of 600 dpi but at the best quality. The "glossy" look comes from the Fixative spray - which is the final step.

Some secrets revealed:
The base paper you see is one of my printouts. It has 8 Coke machines and 4 Dr. Pepper machines. The graphic is then cut out and the fold lines are scored. (Got to be careful here, paper is very easy to cut all the way through without trying!)

The stack of "cards" you see on the right is the posterboard pattern I use for the machines. One sheet = one machine. I like to keep it as a single piece so it just folds up into a box, leaving me with only a few sides to glue together.

The squares you see with an 'X' get cut away and discarded. The squares you see with the 'O' get cut away and glued to the back of side '1'. (This gives me a glueing surface later on.) '2' and '3' get folded up and glued to the small square adjacent to form a more solid base and top. '4' is the front, and the rest are the sides. Once it's assembled, I paint it black, making sure to get in between the folds, then glue the paper graphic with the proper bits cut out and seal it with fixative.

Sorry for not posting this sooner, got distracted by the chats last night! Here is the long awaited Coke and Dr. Pepper machines next to their older sister, Pepsi Goldth

   
Here's something I got brewing in the idea factory

   

Here's the Dr. Pepper machine:

   

And the Coke machine:

   
#4
If you look closely, you'll see that the buttons on the right are actually for Pepsi drinks! (This is because I took them off the pepsi graphic and only changed the main image.) Obviously, this makes no difference when it is printed out in N scale as you can't make heads or tails of the buttons any how.

Catt, I'm not familiar with the other two programs but I'm pretty sure you will NOT be able to get a decent printout from MS Paint. You would need a more sophisticated program that allows you to set DPI values for your document.

Basically, for those who want to know the formula:
First you determine what DPI resolution your printer is capable of outputting. Say it is 600dpi (as most usually are nowadays). Next, you create a new graphic document with those same settings. (This way, each pixel of the graphic equates to one dot of ink on the paper. This is likely where you are having the problem, as MS Paint doesn't allow you to specify a document DPI setting.) Once those settings are in place, it's a simple matter of determining how many pixels by how many pixels your graphic should be so that it prints out to proper dimensions on paper.
#5
Yep Dash, I've got tons of pics too. I've even been able to salvage one's that weren't "straight on" like the one you posted. In fact, the pepsi and coke machines were both at an angle. (You gotta love Photoshop Free Transform feature!)

Jason, I do the same thing! I make sure and line them up with each other as well, so that you can align your ruler over a greater distance and ensure a perfect 90 degree corner. It also makes it easier to cut them out as you don't have to be constantly adjusting the ruler to line up each image. Just a Tip!

Tad, Here's a drawing I made up in Photoshop that gives dimenstions for a posterboard "box". I've been wondering if it would be easier to just chop a piece of wood or styrene to make a block, but this is definitely a cheaper source of materials. Please note I had to make this diagram at 300dpi, as 600 would have been over the limit for what I could post on The-Gauge.

Dimensions are as follows: the width of all the parts is 5mm. The height of the smaller ones are also 5mm. The height of the center row is 12mm. When you score the fold lines, and fold it up, you will end up with a corner that looks like the little drawing I made lower left. The measurements take this extra width into account. (The width of the machine becomes 6mm.)

The solid lines get cut, the dotted lines get folded. 1 gets folded down onto T (Top) and glued. (This gives thickness to it, you will need it for gluing.) Do the same for 2 and B. 4 gets glued to the back of 3. Try to center it vertically. The extra space on the top and the bottom is to accomodate T and B. Once you've glues all the pieces, fold up the box and glue the edges. F will be the front and R the rear. Spray paint it black, and then apply your image printout. I find that it's much easier to make a bunch of these at the same time and do an "assembly line". In other words, cut out several cards 20mm x 32mm... then do all the cutting... then all the gluing, the folding... etc. Then you can spray paint them all together and things go quickly.

   

Here's an old style coke machine I'm doing for Dick. It's somewhat more suitable for 50's era layouts.

   
#6
Quote:Originally posted by Lighthorseman
I like the older Coke machine, Arl! Now, roughly what size (in real life) are these things? I'd like to do a few in O scale.

They are about 72" tall. Of course, machines vary based on capacity and what not, but 72" is about as tall as a man, and it looks good on the layout at that size.
#7
And now a few photos that also appear in this thread:

From Badyin Macfadyi, we have the following:

   
   

And from rdlshadow:

   
       
#8
This topic is locked and the author is not available for comments on our regular forums.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)