How do you guys do white lettering for dark backgrounds? I wanted to do a couple of locomotives in dark blue with white lettering, just curious how some one can do that?
i used white decal paper, with a background to match the colour of the car it was being applied to ..
Oh my.... where's the face palm? How do you guys go about making sure the color matches up? Put a blob of paint on some paper and scan it in?
the alps style printer is one of the few that will print white .. a better choice than doing a background colour for a better looking final decal .. in my case I used white paper, printed yellow letters for my fictional road name, and a black background as it was going to be applied to loco's ... after a bit of weathering to blend the edges, it was okay
I was usually successful printing the letters on decal paper in white color which made them transparent, because ink-jet printers can't print white. The letters were surrounded by rectangular black margins. I painted a gloss white stripe on the tenders that was smaller than the black margins. The clear letters let the white show through, while the black margins covered the rest of the white stripe. It wasn't always perfect, but it satisfied my "three foot rule".
I think you'd just have to "trial and error" it. You can start with a color scan to use as a baseline, then I would print a strip of that color on paper that has a gradient from lighter to darker than you think you'd need. Compare the strip to your paint to find the sweet spot that matches best, then use the color picker in your art software to dial it in as close as you can using the decal paper. Cheers, Mike
These cars were undecorate cars that were custom painted around 30 years ago. The Logan Valley cars were done with box car data, White on clear decal paper and the lettering was done letter by letter, white letters on clear decal paper. The Gallatin Canyon & Western car was done with custom decals, White on clear decal paper. The red in the reverse monad was left clear and red paint was put on the car before the decal was applied.
I am printerless right now, but color laser printers are becoming pretty affordable. Any suggestions as to which would be better?
Can color laser printers print white on transparent decal paper? Each decal paper type that I tried 20+ years ago would jam the early color laser printers because of the multi-layers of decal over glue, over paper were too thick and wouldn't bend around the rollers.
HobbyCal makes waterslip decal paper that dries white and can be printed on an inkjet printer. I haven't worked with it, yet -- but it looks real-l-ly interesting..
This is old fashioned, does not require electronics, and your mileage may vary, but if only doing a few cars, and your lettering scheme is relatively simple, you can use (white or yellow) rub on lettering and heralds on clear decal paper (it takes patience to get everything straight and level and correct), followed by several coats of sealer. You could, of course, use the rub on transfers directly on the model, but you can't tape a model flat on your drafting board as you can a sheet of decal paper. Plus a decal can be more forgiving of rivets, boards and various other details. A lot of roadnames are still available in rub on lettering, plus many sizes of letters in most fonts. And several decal makers market data sets, numbers in various fonts, Pullman car names, etc, in many colors, so that part is usually readily available. One other option is to think in reverse. In real life, C&EI apparently had a hard time painting their orange lettering over dark blue car bodies. In at least a few cases, they painted the orange first, masked the letters, and then painted the blue around them. (You see this in some photos of cars in need of a paint job- the blue has worn off in places revealing the orange underneath)- which we could simulate by painting orange underneath, and printing a decal where the lettering is left clear, and blue stripe printed to overlay the letterboard. Tom D
Tom, I had never thought of rubbing letters onto clear decal paper. That's a great idea and easy, especially using a cutting mat with grid to align the letters. (The link shows an example, not purchase recommendation.)
