Rail Graphics decals

[Puddlejumper]

As promised, here are some pix of models I have built using decals from Rail Graphics. I would recommend Rail Graphics to anybody for custom decals, I am extremely happy with their product and service.

[ocalicreek]

Dave - the decals do indeed look excellent, and they are well-applied, sir! Nice work and thanks for going the extra mile to answer my question about the decals.

Now here's another - how long did it take from the time you sent the order in until you rec'd them? Funds are tight and I'm going to have to postpone purchasing them for a month or so. Wondering if I'll still be able to get the engines lettered by the end of the challenge period.

Thanks,

Galen

[faraway]

I like the 401 most. The bleached green is a fantastic base for the decals.

[Puddlejumper]

Galen,
It only takes about a week, less if the order is not to complicated, for him to make and ship the decals. The only drawback is the minimum order, but in my case it worked out since I have lots of Potomac Line equipment to letter. The Nike geep though, I had extra decals that I would never use. I just gave them to fellow Conrail modelers that I thought may need them.

Reinhard,
I will have to post an updated photo of the 401. The shop guys got a hold of her and updated her with matching handrails and FRA mandated frame stripe. They did not repaint the whole unit though, they just spot painted her.

Dave

[tomustang]

I'd love to have their printing machine, the whites and yellow are great. One question I have is did you try any setting solutions on the decals?

[Puddlejumper]

One question I have is did you try any setting solutions on the decals?

Yes I use Micro-Sol. It works quite well with the RG decals, though it takes a couple or 3 applications to get the decals to settle around large details, particularly the large JUST DO IT decal, I suppose just because of it's sheer size.

[P5se Camelback]

BiL is reading all this with great interest!


... and wondering ... where can I get a few photo copies of my artwork made ... Hmmmmmmm.


That hand-done original artwork is not leaving this house!

[Puddlejumper]

BiL is reading all this with great interest!


... and wondering ... where can I get a few photo copies of my artwork made ... Hmmmmmmm.


That hand-done original artwork is not leaving this house!

biL,
FedEx Kinkos, Staples, or Office Depot should be able to make high quality color copies for you.

[Puddlejumper]

Here is the 401 after the shop got aholt of 'er and added the scotchlite on the frame without repainting... coupled with freshly repainted GP20 406.

[P5se Camelback]

biL,
FedEx Kinkos, Staples, or Office Depot should be able to make high quality color copies for you.

Dave,

I know of places where I can get high quality color copies made … the design office where I worked (before the company closed it & hired a couple of fresh grads with no experience to replace the five of us with a collective 138 year’s experience) used Kinkos and several other places until the in-house VP of Design figured it would be cheaper to have our own machine. That was great! Wow!

But … I don’t need color copies. My artwork is black art on a white field. It is what we used to call … “Camera-Ready.”

I need a Copy Camera … or whatever the equivalent is in Today’s World. A Copy Camera (used to) produce High Quality, Super Crisp, Dense Black / Brilliant White images in exactly the size needed for “paste-up” for like, for instance, putting a decal sheet together. I could produce camera-ready art that was “400% Up” and then shoot it down to exactly the size needed for the boxcar-sized herald, print out six copies for Paste-up … shoot six copies that were caboose size, six copies that were steam loco tender size all using this artwork …



Then do more or less the same for Reporting Marks and Numbers using this piece of camera-ready artwork …



… then rip out a dozen “Spelled Out Names” …



… and then, to cover emergencies, shoot a couple Alphabet / Number copies for a separate decal sheet …



From there, I would do my paste up (using a hot wax coating the back of the copy camera art,) making the best use of available space (no wasted space) exactly what I wanted on a 4 ¼” x 5 ½” sheet of decal paper, run that through the copy camera routine and then send that artwork to the decal house … Super crisp, super high contrast, exactly the size I need … all the decal producer must do is print them!

Maybe Kinkos or that type of copy house is the place to go … I don’t know … I guess I’ll have to pay them a visit and see.

I’ll check it all out and let you all in on what I find out!

[P.S. The light over my breakfast area table (model-building workbench) is not the best to shoot crisp, high contrast artwork! I had to do massive photo editing to get what I presented here … the original photos have a decided yellow cast to them … disgusting!]

[Puddlejumper]

Wow, biL, I should have enlisted your help when I made the artwork for the JUST DO IT decals. It took me forever to get those right. The very basic computer programs I have to work with distort the lettering whether enlarging or shrinking. Your artwork looks great, I am willing to bet that RG can work with whatever prepared artwork you provide him, it is certainly high quality.

[P5se Camelback]

That artwork was all laid out by hand, using Letraset "Windsor Bold" transfer type on hot pressed illustration board back in 1978 and still looks decent as each piece of art had a "fly sheet" of drafting vellum taped on the back and folded over, covering and protecting the whole front.

But it is not leaving this house without being in my possession when it does ... too much work, too long ago!

If I go to Kinkos, they will have to do what I need done while I stand there and watch them, or I go somewhere else. There were these two gay guys who had a custom copy house in Ft. Myers who did a nice job tweaking the color last minute on my marker presentation renderings. I'd work though the night, finishing the needed renderings in the morning, they'd work some magic over the lunch hour (for a price) and we'd pack up the copies and head to the airport for a presentation to a client the next morning in East Japip!

If they're still alive and still in business, they could probably do what I need ... Hmmmm, I'd forgotten about them!

[doctorwayne]

BiL, don't forget reporting marks and numbers for the car ends, and you might want some stripes to place above and below the same on the car's sides. With Champ now finished, have you got a source for the dimensional data?

Wayne

[P5se Camelback]

Good doctorwayne, you have brought up some very good points that, having been "out of the loop" for a "couple" years I am sure to have overlooked until they were needed. :oops:

I had either not thought of the lines for above and below the reporting marks or that piece of art is among the missing (I vaguely remember doing a piece of artwork that was lines and corners - the fancy corners that Reading Company had on tenders that were striped.)

Now dimensional data ... that's a different story altogether! I know I have a collection of decal sheets of dim.data in my "Decal Box" (a water-tight fishing tackle box ) and I'm pretty sure the collection includes examples of each of the classes of freight car. I'll have to look to be sure. Otherwise, I suppose I'll either have to generate art based on the examples I have or find a substitute for Champ or Walthers (yep, there are some old Walthers sheets in there ... )

And to be totally honest, I don't think I ever gave car end markings any thought! There is, however, a piece of art for tender numbers, with coal and water capacities. I did think of that. Back then, I had lots of time to think about stuff ... time to work on developing the "Compleat Freelanced Prototype Railroad" and generate camera-ready art for every graphic need thinkable, including Forms and Rulebooks and VIP Passes, etc., (and access to the equipment to do it) but no money or room for much else - flat pieces of illustration board take up almost no room and LSW Artwork had its own envelope in with all my product design flatwork in the flat file drawer. (Drawing Boards and Flat Files and Supply Cabinets full of markers and colored pencils and drawing pads took up living space and cash expenditures that, had I been in another profession, probably would have been used for a small model railroad.)

Thanks, doctorwayne, for the important reminder! I would have had to beat myself sharply about the head and shoulders had I gotten a box car all painted up, decaled, weathered and dullcoted and then have someone mention numbers on the car's ends!

I'm quite interested to know, Dave and Galen, what kind of graphics and/or direction did you guys each give to Rail Graphics to have them generate decals for you?

[BR60103]

Dave:
I like the way the B&P numbers go both above and below the lines. I wonder if any railroad actually did that?