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Just transferring you now....

Pugsley

Entry posted by Pugsley

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For those of you who asked about drawing up your own decals, yes you ;) , here's a little info about how I've gone about it. I won't claim that this is the only or best way to do things, it's just how I've ended up doing it :)

 

blogentry-6668-0-66767500-1294953508_thumb.jpg

 

I use CorelDraw for this, although any vector graphics program would do the job. Inkscape is free, but I can't vouch for how good it is, as I've never used it. CorelDraw X4 home and student edition can be picked up for under £100 on ebay, older versions for even less (the current version is now X5).

 

Of the 3 examples above, the blue wagon owner panel and the Hazchem panel have been done in the same way. They are just simple shapes with text added in the appropriate font. There are several useful font resources on the net, a few of which are listed below:

 

Free font sites:

http://www.fontyukle.net/en/

http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=114&page=1&fpp=20&text=58134

There are many others.

 

What the font:

http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

 

Is extremely useful if you have a good image of the text you want to create, as it'll tell you the closest match. It is a commercial site, so if you want one of the ones it highlights, you'll have to pay for it. Of course, there's nothing stopping you googling the name of the font in question... ;) It has its limitations though, for example it'll only read dark text on a light background and it struggles if the letters are quite close together.

 

If you can't get a good image, or you're looking at something that is light on dark, you'll have to trawl the font sites looking for something similar to what you require. It's time consuming, but ultimately rewarding when you find exactly what you're looking for, or something that's near as dammit :)

 

In terms of company logos, it's a bit more restricted, but there are a couple of sites about that have vector images of corporate logos:

http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/search/logo/shell

http://www.seeklogo.com/search.html?q=norsk+hydro

 

They're mostly North American logos, but not all. For example, the Total logo I've been using has come from the seeklogo site. These are downloaded as vector graphics, so can be opened up in your program and resized as necessary.

 

If you can't get the logo you need, as long as you can get a decent photo to work from, you can trace the outline and then fill in as necessary. The Railfreight Petroleum symbol was done this way, and as they're standard size, in theory I could draw the Coal or Distribution symbols from it, now I've got the proportions right. It's time consuming, and a total ballache, but it is ultimately satisfying when it looks like it's supposed to :) I've done the Caib logos in the same way.

 

The other source of images for use, such as the hazard diamond on the Hazchem panel, is Google images. They won't be the best quality, but if you're scaling them down to fit on a 4mm scale wagon, then no-one will notice!

 

I try to scale from photographs if dimensions aren't known. Something like the Hazchem panel is straightforward, I know that they're 700x400mm (even if you didn't know, you can look it up quite easily). Other items can then be referenced to known dimensions from photographs. Failing that, if you're not sure, print them out on paper, stick them to the model with blu-tack and see how it compares with the photos.

 

One thing to watch, if you're going to end up transferring the images between different programs is their interpretation of colour. For instance, in the image above, the Marcroft Engineering panel is too turquoise, but looks fine in CorelDraw and when printed from it.

 

Of course, you'll spend all this time doing these little panels for your wagons, with all of the correct text and, once printed, you'll hardly be able to read any of it :lol:

 

For those of you who've got this far without falling asleep, well done! I hope it's been of some use/interest.

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Steadfast

Nice one - it's interesting to read how someone else goes about something I'm relatively familiar with, as there are always differences and "user preference" to consider.

For example, I'd never considered using Vector graphic software, instead using Photoshop. I draw to the DPI required by the guy who does my ALPS printing, whether it'll be ALPS or home printed, as it maintains a standard. Font matching is always rather satisfying in the end :lol:

Reminds me I'd better crack on with my FGW graphics...

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Pugsley

Jon - No worries, hope it was of use :)

 

Jo - I only used the vector software as I was familiar with it for drawing etches. I wouldn't know where to start trying to do it in Photoshop!

 

James - I've had a bit of a rethink about this. Originally I was going to get the lot printed on clear, including the white. The supplier that I'd been put in touch with isn't confident that he can print some of the colours I need, particularly orange and blue. This, and the fact that I've just acquired a rather good colour laser printer for a very good price means that I'll end up printing them myself on either white or clear paper as required.

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James Hilton

The thing to watch with it is getting a neat edge on the white ones, and remembering that on clear any colours will be washed out by the paintwork behind! I look forward to seeing how you get on - I've always used Precision Labels as John has an ALPS printer that can print solid colours - although he might struggle with some of those colours he'd be able to advise, I guess it's a good back up if your home brewed ones aren't as successful as you'd hoped.

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Pugsley

Thanks James, I'll bear that in mind if things don't go to plan. I'm fortunate in as much as most of these can be printed on white paper, and the ones that can't are black.

 

The only one I might have to watch is the large red Total logo, that might not work too well without a white backing. If I do have to get those professionally printed, then I've still saved a fair bit of cash!

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