Fading of card kits

[CullingworthGNR]

Hello guys,

 

I'm looking to add some more buildings to my new layout, and am aware of a variety of great buildings supplied as card kits. My only concern with building these is the potential for fading of the colour, with the buildings looking washed-out and tired.

 

What experience do you have of this? I have tried the Scalescenes station halt but the colours looked fairly faded straight away! Presumably I need the best printing that money can buy?

 

Cheers

Tom

[Rammy]

Tom

 

I think it's just a case of experimenting with different papers and a decent printer. I also believe Matt Varnish is also supposed to help.

I have seen some posts suggest that printing onto matt photo paper works well, although I have never tried it.

I use standard copier paper with an Epson R300 photo printer and the Scalescenes downloads look good to me.

 

Dave

[Oldddudders]

Lots of bragging claims are made by inkjet manufacturers about the permanence of their product - provided you use their own-brand special paper, of course. A quick Google produced this, which may include your printer.

 

http://www.wilhelm-research.com/

[Scalescenes]

Due to the popularity of home photo output, most inks now have excellent longevity, though I'd check the specifications the particular ink you are using if you are concerned(great link - thanks Oldddudders). Colour laser printers are now also becoming quite affordable and offer excellent durability and quality. You can also apply several light coats of artists' spray matt varnish to protect the print surface and greatly improve the life of the pigments. This is usually available from most art supply shops. There are numerous brands of Artist's matt spray on the market, basically any that are labeled as suitable for fixing charcoal or pastels work well, though I have seen some recently specifically for prints and photos which would be perfect. If you are in any doubt, test the spray on a print scrap first to ensure that it doesn't adversely react with the print surface!

As we are on the topic, I have found that spraying the sheets prior to construction is not only much easier but also protects the surface during construction and handling. In addition a good coat of varnish greatly reduces cracking along folded edges.

[Bigglesof266]

G'day Tom

 

From hands on experience with constructing several each of Superquick, Metcalfe and Scalescenes kits during the past 18 months, I find doing this obtains a high quality result for me.

 

Fixing Spray

As JW has already mentioned, spray all the printed work with a light coat of quality matt fixative before commencing assembly. I'm in Oz and I use the Micador brand of products. This not only takes the shine off Superquick's buildings, but fixes the colour in Metcalfe's and Scalesenes' protecting the surface and printed detail so you can wipe away any excess of typical water based glues we use in construction with a damp cloth instead of smudging the detail/ink or wiping it away altogether. Another reason it's preferred to do so before assembly is that if you do it after assembly, then you will have to mask all the windows unless you want a frosted window look.

 

Ink

All inks and printer print profiles aren't equal. If using an inkjet as most of us still are, you don't need pigmentation inks, but quality water based inks are a must as is a decent photo quality capable inkjet printer and the right paper. Quality injset printers are cheap. Quaality inks for them aren't. For a no brainer, use the manufacturer's genuine ink cartridges if you have an unlimited budget, or a reputed known quality ink clone cartridge to reduce costs without reducign quality or reliability. eg: InkTec. If using a CIS, InkTec also retail refill ink in 100ml bottles in ea colour suit to brand and specific printer. There is a discernible difference in the printed result from the cheapie pound/dollar store stuff, more so when you have all the elements right like quality paper and printer. It's a case results can only be as good as the weakest link.

 

Paper

In this case, IME the respective manufacturer's claims about superior results with their brand paper suited to their head type and print method aren't just hyped fear based bunk intended to scare you into buying only their overpriced product as their 'only use genuine <insert brand here> ink or your printer will devour itself' advertising is. I use 6 colour Epson printers with their ultra fine nozzle Peizo head. Using Epson's special 720dpi Photo quality inkjet paper (that's not photo 'paper' ie: card but photo quality paper, there's a difference) in conjunction with good quality ink does effect a superior contrast, colour intensity or depth, resolution and definition result. The most noticeable aspect is that it avoids that poor contrast washed out look when finished and placed on the layout. I suspect Canon paper, inks and printer would also effect similar great results. In my observation and experience, there's a worthwhile difference between the result obtained using the speciality papers versus cheap standard A4 500 sheet ream stuff from Tesco, ALDI et al. You can save on cost by using that 500 sheet ream draft paper for printing the non-visuals to be glued to cardboard for formers etc.

 

Printer

Well one has what one already has, but any leading brand reasonably current model from Canon, Epson et al a bit better than the most basic spec will effect a superb result, and inkjet printers in themselves are super cheap today due to the manufacturers squeezing mega-margins out of consumers on "Genuine" cartridges 'filled' with a few pithy ml of ink.

 

Longevity and fading

I haven't found any of the buildings to be susceptable to discernible fading in the year plus I've had them on my layout, even in our harsh climate when assembling in accord with what I've outlined above. I do actively avoid exposing them to direct sunlight.

.

[CullingworthGNR]

Guys, thanks for all your help. It sounds like a bit of playing around with different papers and varnishes in order - but it will free me up to try a whole range of new buildings. I really fancy the overall station roof from Scalescenes, but don't know if I have the bottle!

 

Cheers

[mikes]

Guys, thanks for all your help. It sounds like a bit of playing around with different papers and varnishes in order - but it will free me up to try a whole range of new buildings. I really fancy the overall station roof from Scalescenes, but don't know if I have the bottle!

 

Cheers

 

 

Tom

 

Im a massive fan of the Scalescenes product and am in the process of using a fair number of the kits to form the basis of some kit bashed buildings for my interpretation of the Manchester Piccadilly to Oxford Road stretch. I would say if you fancy the overall roof... give it a go as if you make an error with something, no worries just print another and try again! The hardest part for me is accurately cutting the parts out, but practice makes perfect.

 

Good luck

 

Mike

[noiseboy72]

I find my £300 OKi Laser (For the pedantic - LED) gives excellent and repeatable results. It costs £90 to fill it with toner and that runs it for 5000 pages.

 

The Large Station is a tricky build, but quite within most people abilities. You just need the time to build it slowly.

 

Try a premium matte paper and print at a high density. This gives maximum print coverage and a good finish.

 

I find HP inkjets to be very good and Lexmarks to be very poor. Epsons need regular printing to keep the print heads clean and you waste a lot ink doing a clean if you don't !

[johnteal]

This is a mixture of Scalescenes prints and metcalfe kits which is about 2 years old.

 

 

I use Railmatch Matt varnish in a spray can at various points of the build as i go along, other wise things like the PVA/water mix for ballast soaks up, and blurs the colours. By the time the model is complete everything will have had several thin coats of the spray. I have never noticed any fading.

 

I use a cheap HP PSC1400 printer and cheap ASDA's own ink in it, on matt photo paper from TESCO. In my opinion its the application of the matt spray not the quality of the ink that gives resilience.

 

 

John

[shortliner]

The best used to be Letracote 103 MATT by Letraset - which now seems to be unobtainable - I can personally recommend "Ghiant Inkjet fixative spray MATT" and one called "Schmincke 50405 Aerospray Fixativ, universal" (satin glossy) - Price is around a tenner a can, both bought from a tiny art supplies in Bonar Bridge here in the Highlands

(NB - spelling is correct in both cases)

Re overall roof - can I suggest that you use Excel or similar to draw a suitable grid and print to full scale on plain white paper, then get it photocopied onto OHP transparenciy ( note that most photocopiers will fractionally reduce the print size so it may be better to print your original at 101% of the size you need the final result to be) Also works for things like factory windows, etc.

[Etched Pixels]

The best used to be Letracote 103 MATT by Letraset - which now seems to be unobtainable - I can personally recommend "Ghiant Inkjet fixative spray MATT" and one called "Schmincke 50405 Aerospray Fixativ, universal" (satin glossy) - Price is around a tenner a can, both bought from a tiny art supplies in Bonar Bridge here in the Highlands

(NB - spelling is correct in both cases)

Re overall roof - can I suggest that you use Excel or similar to draw a suitable grid and print to full scale on plain white paper, then get it photocopied onto OHP transparenciy ( note that most photocopiers will fractionally reduce the print size so it may be better to print your original at 101% of the size you need the final result to be) Also works for things like factory windows, etc.

 

I find it handy to print a scale down one side when doing things you want exact, makes it easier to then rescale the print and check it. Also remember cheap printers are not always going to mis-scale the same amount in each direction if they hate you.

[Coombe Barton]

Many people here have suggested various spray sealants/varnishes.

 

What about using something (and if so, what?) in an airbrush, or is it just a waste of time? I'm thinking that aerosol cans have the habit of running out or gumming up at the wrong moment.

[Bigglesof266]

What about using something (and if so, what?) in an airbrush, or is it just a waste of time? I'm thinking that aerosol cans have the habit of running out or gumming up at the wrong moment.

Aerosol cans and nozzles have come a long way since the one you used which gave you that impression. At least, the quality brand ones have. Back to the old, you get what you pay for adage.

 

Answering your question. You could, but why would you? I also have a quality double action airbrush with 25 years experience behind using it. For a couple of light coats of matt finishing varnish every now and again, a can is just too handy, convenient, inexpensive, easy, and it does a superb job. The nice part is you don't have all the prep, setup and cleanup you do with an airbrush. An airbrush is useful tool for many painting tasks, but in this case not only can you achieve as good a result, it's so convenient even I prefer the can. Now if I was producing volume on a production line commercially I might use an airbrush ...or not. But for a finishing clear coat on individual card projects? Save yourself the bother and go with the can.