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After a number of months in development, it is with some excitement that we announce an imminent release of a dry rub-on transfer range by Railtec, with some initial offerings parallel to the traditional spot printed waterslide variants. Below is a photo showing a few depot motifs applied to a Heljan 26 (the Westie is factory printed, by the way).

 

drd.JPG

Let me pre-empt a few questions:

- The rub-on range will be limited at first, sitting alongside the mammoth waterslide range. Some rub-on packs will be duplicates of existing waterslide while some packs will be newly created purely to suit rub-on. Waterslide variants will continue to be produced as normal and the catalog still extended aggressively on a daily basis.

- Yes it will be the intent to release ready-made loco, unit, stock etc numbers. Packs for these are already prepared (as are other packs such as depot insignia per the photo), waiting on the first sample to be produced which happened today, and more are likely to be planned.

- Completely filmless packs are already available in waterslide on many line items, such as sub sector logos, BR double arrows etc, with more to come.

- Some 2mm packs are already in testing and some 7mm will be released imminently.

We hope that this extension to the range will offer folks as much choice as possible in terms of preferred product and cost.

Our take on waterslide vs rub-on

- Rub-on transfers are more expensive because of the process involved. This means that there are some limitations (certainly in terms of multi-colours for example). Consequently it won't be economical to produce a rub-on version of a very niche waterslide item.

- Waterslide give much more wiggle room in terms of being able to correctly place a transfer before it sets so you can be sure that it is on straight. Rub-on, pressfix and methfix offer just one hit.

- Waterslide are less expensive and easier to handle for most.

- Rub-on transfers can be a convenient way of applying many transfers in quick succession, although depending on the application method there is also a risk that another part of the rub-on sheet may have inadvertently transferred to the substrate unless the item being applied is cut beforehand.

- Rub-on leaves no trace of carrier film, although Railtec waterslide transfers are, since last summer, spot printed anyway (like Fox as many of you will be familiar) meaning that the film is practically invisible if not completely invisble, and certainly on "solid" items such as sub sector logos, BR double arrows etc, there's no carrier at all on the waterslide.

- Rub-on transfers don't cope very well when going over raised items such as handrails. Waterslides bed in.

- Waterslides offer multi-colour and equisite detail when the rub-on process can struggle with fine detail.

- Rub-on transfers can be problematic with transfers which cover an area larger than a thumbnail, as there is a risk that part of the transfer may not have fully applied, or the sheet will move slightly during the rub down process (unless tape is used to secure the perimeter of the rub-on transfer but by that time it will have likely been quicker to use waterslide).

 

All that said, it's still a trial and we'll see how it goes. Personally we think waterslide offer greater all-round benefits, detail and flexibility, but if there's a market for rub-on then we will make more.

Usual disclaimer applies: our inboxes, chat windows, FB tags etc continue to get absolutely smashed with a ton of requests for new product and custom work. If we haven't responded to your request then we simply haven't got to it yet. Most jobs get logically grouped together so some will take longer than others. Stock items continue to get dispatched within a few hours.

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The first packs in the dry rub-on transfer range have now been released in 2mm, 4mm and 7mm, and are available here:

http://www.railtec-models.com/dryrubon-transfers.php

 

A few examples can be seen below:

 

2mm-D003: BR blue / Dutch / ScotRail / InterCity loco numbers

2mm_D003-1.jpg

 

2mm-D007: BR blue coach numbers / prefixes

2mm_D007-1.jpg

 

2mm-D008: BR blue DMU numbers / prefixes

2mm_D008-1.jpg

 

4mm-D001: BR blue loco depot insignia

D001-1.jpg

 

4mm-D004: BR large logo numbers (smaller Scottish, incl Glasgow curly 7s)

D004-1.jpg

 

4mm-D011: Early BR green / maroon loco numbers

D011-1.jpg

 

4mm-D021: BR Railfreight / sub sector loco numbers

D021-1.jpg

 

As mentioned in the previous post, this is still very much a trial. It would also be impractical to think that rub-ons could satisfy everyone's requirements as there are limitations to what can be achieved with the manufacturing process (the waterslide process being much more versatile in terms of diversity), but hopefully this will at least give folks another option.

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A few more packs added to the dry rub-on range this evening:

2mm-D021: BR Railfreight / sub sector loco numbers
7mm-D005: BR large logo numbers (standard size)
7mm-D004: BR large logo numbers (smaller Scottish)
7mm-D011: Early BR green/maroon loco numbers
7mm-D021: BR Railfreight / sub sector loco numbers

http://www.railtec-transfers.com/dryrubon-transfers.php

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