doctorwayne's New Years Resolution Challenge...

[doctorwayne]

I forgot to post the following, which may be of use for anyone lettering something using decals or dry transfers. The item to be lettered should have a gloss or semi-gloss finish when using decals, and a matte finish when using dry transfers.

If you're lettering a car or locomotive using a commercially-available decal or dry transfer set, there are usually references on the model to aid in aligning the lettering: a word begins three door panels from the left end, or a stripe should be applied below a particular rivet strip, etc., etc.
However, sometimes these aids aren't available, so you need to add your own in order to keep the lettering straight and properly spaced. An easy way to do so is with masking tape. Lay a strip of it, sticky side down, on a sheet of glass, then, with a sharp blade and a straightedge, trim away both factory-edges - these become nicked with handling or collect fuzz and dust, so it's best to get them out of the way. You'll need to have an idea of where the lettering is to be placed, and suitable reference points are the car's eaves, sidesills, and ends. You can also make use of rivet lines, windows, or other moulded-on detail. For the caboose shown above, I wanted the lettering to be in the area under the cupola and centred length-wise between the nearest window and the end of the car's side. Based on the size of the lettering I wished to use, I decided that the top of the upper line should be at the same level as the top of the windows, and that the top of the second line would be 1' (HO) below the bottom of the letters on the upper line.
Using dividers, I set them to the distance between the eaves of the car and the top of the window frame, then transferred that measurement to the tape, cutting it accordingly. That strip was then applied to the car, lining-up its upper edge with the top of the car's side.
A second strip of tape, corresponding to the required distance from the car's sill to the bottom edge of the second line of lettering, was cut and applied to the car.
Next, using my scale rule, I made a mark on both strips of tape at the mid-point of the area where the lettering was to be placed. I arbitrarily decided that the two words on the top line should be 2' (HO) apart, and made two lines, each 1' from the centre line. Based on the size of the letters, I determined that if I made the over-all length of "GRAND" 3'3" long, the spacing between the letters would be appropriate. I then made marks at that distance from both of the ones previously made. These represent the start and end points of the top line, and similar start and finish marks were transferred to the lower strip of tape.



After cutting out the individual letters, the decals for one side were grouped, by-word, on a sheet of glass, then a few drops of distilled water was applied and the decals were allowed to soak.
When cutting decals, I use a new blade in my X-Acto and cut as close to the lettering as possible. Any clear film above or below the lettering has to be taken into account when using the tape as an alignment aid, and the closer the letters can be to the tape, the better the chances of them being in a straight line. With dry transfers, there's no decal film to worry about, but you'll still need to stay a bit away from the tape to account for its thickness.
You should also take into consideration the letter spacing, and leave as little excess film as possible on the sides of the individual characters. Letters, especially those on the beginning and end of words, which have rounded corners (2, 3, C, O, R, etc.) will look less conspicuous as decals if you trim away the clear film at those curves, too. You can cut the characters from the decal sheet, then, working on a sheet of glass, snick-off excess material with a firm press of the blade.

Once the decal releases from the backing paper, use tweezers to pick up the letters, one at a time, for the first word, depositing them roughly where they should be. For mine, the "G" and "D" both have their outer extremities marked on the tape, so they're easy to place, then the other three letters are spaced "by eye". If you're working with longer words, it helps to make a mark for the mid-point or middle letter, too. Be aware, though, that not all letters require the same space, nor are the spaces between all letters necessarily the same. This is illustrated by the word "RIVER": it's five letters long, just like "GRAND", but that "I" takes up less space than other letters. Because of this, I applied these letters by placing the "D" first, then spaced the remainder "by eye", which placed the first "R" somewhat to the right of where the mark on the tape was.
In addition to "I" being narrower than other letters, the letters "A", "L", "T", and "V" are often placed just a little closer to those around them to give a more even appearance to the spacing. This often depends on the preceding and following letters, so you'll need to play around with it a bit until it looks right to you. Of course, "M" and "W" take up a little more room than the others.



For my second line, I started with the "S" and pretty-well followed the spacing used on "GRAND" until I got to the "T". It was placed slightly closer to the "U" and the "H" was then placed slightly closer to the "T". "RY." was started with the "Y" just inboard of the line marking the finish point, and the "." added right at the finish mark. To check your work, sight along the car from each end and correct as necessary. then remove the tape and apply setting solution. Once it had dried, I used a sharp blade to slit each letter at the grooves denoting the board edges, then applied more setting solution.
A similar technique was used to add the number, and when everything had dried sufficiently, the parts were airbrushed with Dullcote, then the caboose was re-assembled.

Wayne

[Sumpter250]

Excellent "step by step" !! That should be extremely helpful to many who haven't done a lot of custom lettering.

[doctorwayne]

This post will wrap-up my Challenge attempt, although I'll continue to work on these boxcars and post my progress here. All eight boxcars have had their sides lowered and the side ladders removed. I've started re-attaching the rivet strips to the top of the sides, but since I have only one Athearn boxcar floor, progress is slow. After coating the mating surfaces with lacquer thinner, the rivet strip, with the original roof still attached, is positioned atop the shortened sides, then elastic bands are wrapped tightly around the assembly. The floor prevents the elastics from collapsing the car's sides.
Once the cement has set, the roofs will be removed, leaving the rivet strip with the car sides, and then new roofs will be attached.

Removing the side ladders:



The lowered car with the rivet strip (and original roof) re-attached:



To summarise my Challenge progress, all three of the CPR "Miniboxes" were re-done, and one totally new one built - it wasn't originally part of the Challenge and was done for a friend.
Of the twenty-or-so in-service cars requiring brake gear, all but one was done. The lone unmodified car is a Varney model of a Pennsy X-31, with factory paint for Illinois Central's "Mainline of Mid-America" scheme, probably too modern for my '30s-era layout. It also has a fishbelly underframe, something not used on the Pennsy prototypes. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it.
Except for the Athearn cars mentioned above, all of the cars shown at the beginning of this thread have been completed, along with a kitbashed tankcar not included in my original post. Also, one of the in-service cars that that was retro-fitted with brake gear ended-up getting a complete re-build, as a fellow Member noted some discrepancies in the original car.
All this activity had me checking for other things which needed attention, and I found three boxcars which needed re-weigh data added (shown in the Challenge thread, even though they're not officially part of it). I also repainted the wheels on a dozen-or-so freight cars, then decided to re-paint and re-letter a recently acquired caboose - the cars with the re-painted wheels aren't shown, but the caboose is.
Not shown in the Challenge thread, but done within the same time frame, was a repair to a brass steamer for a friend - this included adding all-wheel pick-up. I've also started painting nine cast resin automobiles which have been sitting around daring me to finish them - they're not done yet, but getting close.
Even though I've officially failed my Challenge, I'm certainly glad that I decided to participate, as it motivated me to get to work on stuff that's been sitting around too long. Once the Athearn boxcars and the automobiles are done, I hope to keep things rolling and perhaps get some locomotives off the shelf and into service. Or maybe scratchbuild those ten cabooses, or perhaps some baggage cars....

Wayne

[Charlie B]

Wayne, two thumbs up for sure...
Charlie

[doctorwayne]

Thanks, Charlie. Two great things about the Challenge were seeing what everybody else was up to and lighting a fire under my own behind to finally get something done. If I'd tackled the Athearn boxcars first, they'd probably still be unfinished, and nothing else would have been even started. Of course, showing everybody what you plan to accomplish, then not finishing it is a bit embarrassing, but I intend to carry on, posting my progress in this thread until those cars are completed.

Wayne

[doctorwayne]

Progress continues on the EG&E boxcars, with all of the rivet strips (and the original roofs) re-attached to the lowered cars. The next task is to remove the roof, leaving the rivet strip intact. This was done by repeatedly scoring with a utility knife from inside of the car:



The rough edges and any remnants of the roof are then sanded-off by rubbing the upside-down car over a sheet of sandpaper, face-up on the workbench. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the rivet strip is not damaged:



The new Viking roof, from Des Plaines Hobbies in Chicago, is intended for the Red Caboose X-29 boxcar, and has a lip which fits into those cars, aligning it properly. However, the Athearn car casting is too thick to allow the roof to seat properly, so the lip needs to be removed. I carved away the bulk of it, along with those locator pins, using a #18 blade in my X-Acto, then carefully sanded to remove the remainder. Here's an original roof at top, with the modified version below:



That roof is on the car, with elastic bands holding it in place while the cement sets. Photos, if I have time, tomorrow.

Wayne

[MasonJar]

Re: doctorwayne's New Years Resolution Challenge...

Post by doctorwayne on Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:38 am

Photos, if I have time, tomorrow.

It is tomorrow... according to the time on your post!


Andrew

[Gary S]

This is a great thread with some great work. Also, thanks for the tip on using masking tape to align decal letters.... so simple, like "duh, why didn't I think of that?"

[doctorwayne]

Re: doctorwayne's New Years Resolution Challenge...

Post by doctorwayne on Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:38 am

Photos, if I have time, tomorrow.

It is tomorrow... according to the time on your post!


Andrew

No, that was yesterday. Since it is now tomorrow, I finally have a photo.



The other five cars have had their original roofs removed, but have not yet been sanded. Sanding the new roofs is the most difficult part of this operation, as there's very little to hold as the roof is slid over the sandpaper.
Once all the new roofs are installed, the next step is removing the ends and replacing them with the Tichy parts.

Wayne

[Charlie B]

Great looking job Wayne. Lots of hard work there.
Charlie

[doctorwayne]

With all of the new roofs in place, the next step is to remove the original car ends. For this, I used a utility knife to repeatedly score the interior faces of the ends close to where they meet the car's sides. I cut right through, as I didn't want to unduly stress the remaining structure of the car.





The rough edges remaining on the interior of the car bodies was dressed with a mill file, leaving the interior face smooth:



The same file was then used to cut the exposed vertical ends to approximately a 45° angle:





Likewise, the new ends were dragged across sandpaper to impart a similar angle on the edges which were to be mated with those on the car:



All of this filing and sanding generates an enormous amount of styrene dust, requiring frequent vacuuming to prevent tracking it all over the house.
After removing some material from the top of the new ends (they're slightly too tall for the lowered car body) the ends are cemented in place:



Once all of the new ends are in place, the interior of these angled joints will be strengthened with square .125" styrene strips cemented in place.

Only fourteen more ends to do, then it's on to new side sill construction and modifying the Central Valley floors and underframes to fit.

Wayne

[Steamtrains]

This is a great thread with some great work. Also, thanks for the tip on using masking tape to align decal letters.... so simple, like "duh, why didn't I think of that?"

I've found using model plane striping tape to be better than masking tape since it is much thinner and doesn't "interfere" with the placing of the lettering. I've not used it on decals, just on dry transfers. The tape can be found at most hobby shops carrying R/C plane equipment.

[doctorwayne]

With all of the new ends installed, work continues on the boxcars. The first task was to drill out most of the moulded-in holes on the new ends, then plug them with styrene rod. Those at the bottom edge, meant for grab irons, are okay, but the ones near the right side of the end, also for a grab iron, are too high to line-up with the one on the car's side. The holes on the "B" end, intended for the brake platform, are also too high, as these cars will get "power" handbrakes, so those holes are also plugged and new ones drilled in more appropriate locations.
After installing the Tichy support brackets for the brake platform, the retainer valves were cemented to the car ends, then it was time to add their piping. The pipe was formed from .008" brass wire, with the upper end bent at 90° and cemented into a hole drilled into the car's end and located immediately below the retainer:



The bottom end of the pipe was also bent at 90°, then bent the same again and inserted into a hole drilled in the bottom edge of the end:



To keep this light-gauge wire from being pushed out of line, I added a couple of simple brackets. After pushing the wire slightly to one side, a couple of .0145" holes were drilled through the car's end. When the drill bit was withdrawn, the wire re-assumed its original position, more-or-less hiding the hole. Next, short lengths were cut from some .006" brass wire, which was then bent almost in half, leaving one end slightly longer than the other:



With the retainer pipe pushed slightly to one side, the long end of the bracket wire was inserted into the hole:



...then, with the wire pushed to one side in the other direction, the shorter end of the bracket wire was inserted into the same hole:



The ends of the wire were then pulled into the car until the retainer pipe was snugly against the ribbed car end:



...then bent-over and ca'd in place:



The next task was to cement the Ajax brakewheel housing in place. I used ones from Cal-Scale, but substituted Tichy brakewheels in place of the Cal-Scale ones. The Cal-Scale housing includes the chain linkage as part of the casting, so, after trimming away the bottom link, I used a #79 bit to drill through the next link up before installing these parts on the cars' ends. After the cement had set, I re-inserted the drill bit into the hole in the chain, then shoved it further and drilled through the car's end. After forming a rod from .012" brass wire, the upper end was bent 90°, then inserted through the hole in the chain, then through the hole in the car's end. It was then bent-over inside the car and ca'd in place:



The lower end of the rod was bent 90° to one side, then inserted into a hole pre-drilled in a Cal-Scale brake fulcrum, and ca'd in place:



Except for the ladders, the car ends are finished.
The cars' underframes are finished except for paint and weathering:



...while the sides still need ladders and grab irons. Before they can be installed, I need to replace the rivets lost during the re-building process, and will do that using Archer rivet decals.



This is pretty-much the state of all eight cars at this point, with roofwalks also yet to be installed:



Wayne

[Tyson Rayles]

Wonderful work Doc !

[faraway]

It is impressive how much you beef up the cars