Okay, I feel silly for asking this, but how does one make number plates? I'm thinking of finally painting a locomotive if things turn out right. I'm hoping to do SP&S 150 in this scheme (I hope I can find the SP&S decal) and, well, clear plastic and I don't seem to like each other. I'm thinking it takes white decals held in place (since they'd be reversed) with a decal bonder (I have a lot of Testor's for other projects) and then a coat of black behind the decals? I'm doing HO and my decorated or undecorated loco will be a Athearn Genesis. I haven't tried this on the newer Athearns, but my older Athearn loco's number plates are glued in place, and they'er slightly bigger then a cooked grain of long rice. Any help would be appreciated, but don't expect a wip any time soon, they haven't even released them yet.
Most decal sets will have a single decal that is a white number on a black background, or a clear number (unprinted area) on same. You cut, wet, and apply the decals to the numberboard the same way you do the rest of the decals. Be forwarned, some sets may have series of numbers strung together, others you will have to do the digits individually. the Highball Graphics sets for the INRD SD90s have the numberboard decals and number decalfor th erear sandbox done for engines 9001, 9003, 5, 6, and 9, but if you wanted to do 9008, then you have to cut out the (900) and then a seperate supplied 8 and you have to line the two up on the model. Some decal sets won't do specific engine nuimbers, but they will give you the class numbers and a pool of digits for the last part. Other sets will only give you a pool of numbers and you;ll have to do every numberr on each numberboard as a seperate decal. This is why a lot of Freelance roads you'll see things number 11, 12, 23, 22, 45, 123, 456, because the decal block is 00112233445566778899. Depending on the decals, you personally might get llucky and find decals for (150) but more likely you'll find a decal for (15) and one for (0) 0r a 1 a 5 and a 0. Get ready o become very intamite with the blunt end of a toothpick, its about the only way to postion those *&&*%#s. The cab numbers will be the same way, but they will be bigger and easier to position. A Qtip is better for those as its less likely to scratch or poke hols in the decals, but a Qtip will be way to big for the numberboards so the wood thingy it is. Also, let me stress again, use the BLUNT end of the toothpick, not the pointy one. (think the pokers you use to est if cakes are done that are round on top so you don't poke the cake AND your fingertip, not the double ended ones you use for your teeth. If those are the only ones youhave, then sand the ends down really finely... the things we learn by doing...) If Be very thankful this is in HO, and not N or Z... The GP numberboards are usually either a clear piece of plastic light piping (shaped like a Y in front of the lens) or if its unlit, then usually they're just molded depressions in the shell. if the former, reyou don't move the light piping from the shell, and carefully apply Walthers Solvaset to them, and erase them with a mechanical eraser. It'll take a few applications and some elbow grease, but itsa better than trying to strip them in Isopropyl alcohol. 91% alcohol will fog clear plastic, trust me on this one... If the latte,r then the numberboards will simply be pad printed and will come off when you strip the paint off the shell. (Undecorated will not have anything there, so no worries.) for the SP&S, just paint the top two thirds of the engine (black) like your supposed to, glosscote the engine, and then apply decals. If the top of your engine were a more oddball color, say lime green, THEN you might have to get a paint marker or a microbrush and paint the numberboards before decalling, but that's more for asthetics than it is a neccesity of the decal. Now, I say that, but I have a pair of Genesis Fs that act like there's a second cover protecting the boards because they won't strip like every
Awesome. Thanks. This will come in handy whenever Athearn gets around to a real release date. I found out that Athearn in their infinite wisdom, have decided that the Torpedoes will NOT be released in undecorated OR SP&S (but I already knew they wouldn't do SP&S). Lucky me. If this was a Athearn RTR I wouldn't be to concerned about ruining the fine details since those shells don't have that many to begin with. Now I get to make my first attempt stripping and repainting a Genesis. At least I've painted a ton of injected styrene and stripped and repainted a few resin models-but imho resin is much more durable when it comes to stripping off paint.
I picked up a Athearn BB GP38-2 that will be our first repaint/kit bash attempt. I got new fans, a strobe light, new forward light housing, and a plow for it. It was also never fully assembled so I get to number it, but my LHS was completely out of number board decals, but they did have stencils. The number boards for it are just tiny pop ins (as are the "lights") so I have a feeling this could go quite badly wrong fast. At least I got the fans cut out without a trip to the hospital. Maybe I should wait until they get the decals in stock like Flashwave said....
here is a tutorial on how to do number boards. http://home.comcast.net/~atsf_arizona_2/Easy_N_Scale_Locomotive_Numberboards.html
Good work on the tutorial, and always a good nudge for learning to priont decals at home. However, if I may add, I have found that using traditional textboxes in MSWord and/or the spreadshet tool in same has been more effective in positioning decals than is Excel. At least for me, the cost of decal or label paper is such that I would rather fill a sheet or a half-sheet at least of decals before printing and in Word, I can drag around artwork and textboxes very easily, even turn things to run vertically to fill in space in the margins. Example: Teh image is a bit small, but that's an 8.5 by 5.5 document of decals for various projects (that I now have to reprint because my printer chose that monment to run out of red... grr...). To right of center is a block of numbers running vertically, those are milepost numbers to be applied to styrene post a la Concrete Mileposts. In HO, you can kinda see hoe little room those take up. Also, you'll notice both the TBX logos and the Dynamometer decals are running in all directions. I dare ya to do that with Excel. *devillish laugh* ... and what projects could I possibly cooking with a sheet of these, anyway? EDIT: One more minor point I'd like to bring up, your tutorial mentions "if" you use Scotch tape over the sticker/decal/whathave you... Havign had the misfortune of experience, I have found it is quite easy for a bity too much Glosscote to actually wash a decal's ink off. Part/most of that was operator error, I was too close with too much gloss, but unprotected ink can and will run. If the person is using a matte sticker peper, its lesss likely too, but still very possible, and one could risk a soaked paper look.
The decals for my SP&S GP9 project arrived from micro scales. Sadly the number boards for this loco are white on black but micro scales gave me 4 sets of board decals to work with. No idea why, but these aren't lit, covered, or removable number boards so the decals are going to have to be sealed after they set. I'm thinking after primer and the green top is added we'll paint the number boards black with semi gloss, add the decals, and clear coat it. I was thinking of printing them, but we're already using decals for the RR logo, name, and builder plate, so what's a few more? Plus they came with the RR decal pack so might as well. Thanks for the how too's, hope it turns out.
Almost forgot, Flashwave was so right. It seems Micro Scale's numbers were made for the F units and the sole E unit. "7-5-0" are even listed together in almost every one of the number options. Lucky for me my GP9 is #150. Unlucky for me that the green side numbers have weird kerning to avoid the panel latches so it kind of looks like 15 0 on one side.
Reading through Microscale's site, did you do 87-102 or -195? The latter is listed specifically for hood units, while the former for Cab engines.
I got both, but 102's lettering and side numbers look like they the correct dark green while 195 looks black. 102's lettering also has the missing serif on the ampersand and 195's big lettering doesn't. I will use 195's SP&S RY logo however along with it's number plate decals since they look to be about the right size. I'm going with the two tone so the lettering and cab numbers are dark green. I'm really hoping that the True Color SP&S green matches the decals or it'll look weird. Not that my attempt at the long hood's 2nd set of grab irons don't already make it look weird. I also picked up 87-48 for the builder plate.
Thanks again for all the feed back. Here pretty soon I'm going to rap up the painting which means it's time to number it. This is our first attempt at kit bashing, stripping, repainting, and decaling. Do Micro scale decals need a quick spray of decal setter before we soak them or will they be fine?
I'm so glad I have this thread to refer to. I have a lot of Alcos that are going to need numbers and the boards are tiny.
I have this problem with my GE's. I just barely got numbers applied to an Atlas U23B and an Athearn U28C. I actually ended up gluing the number boards into the cab of the Athearn unit, then applied the numbers. It's permanent now, but I don't envision any scenario in ever having to change the number in the future.
