railtec-models

Hiya John, here's the Railtec sheet with the route availability and power classifications that Graham mentioned: Link to both 4mm & 7mm sheets: https://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?search_str=GWR+loco+power As you can see they're ready-made, and have perfect print registration too. My personal belief is that having to overlay transfers is a bit of a faff - particularly with such small detail, and as it's no longer 1978 I make the product as I myself would prefer to use it and I'm sure others too. In terms of backing paper, all the Railtec stuff is manufactured on that pale blue stuff so that the white print can be seen. Can't think of anything worse than white on white! Maybe it's a cost thing? The 2mm guys might have to use a magnifying glass to pick out some of the ultra small white bits like wagon solebar detail, but at least they still have a fighting chance 👀

Brilliant stuff thank-you; that'll be really helpful. It's really the finer variations and measurements that are the biggest hurdle. I try to have both breadth and depth of knowledge of railway insignia spanning 120 years (and it's grown exponentially since I created Railtec) but there will always be subject matter specialists with very specific knowledge that I can only dream of. The graphic design is usually the easier part, and I need to make it in such a way that it takes advantage of all the software and hardware hacks that I've made to the machinery to get truly optimal, crisp and perfectly aligned print for an end product that I myself would be happy to receive. But thank-you - that's very kind of you. At risk of hi-jacking the thread (so perhaps done via PM unless you think the folks on the thread would benefit, or on a different thread) and a good place to start would be to learn what would be a useful looking customisable GWR pack similar to the BR packs, and as quirks come to light then the pack can be enhanced as time goes on.

I had to start somewhere! At some point I'll be getting stuck into the Big Four more. Thing is, all of those elements you've mentioned need a ton of research, graphic design, testing, tweaking, and then considering one or more offering(s) that would please everybody all the time. Off the top of my head each of those items would need at least the following research: - Were all the buffer beam numbers the same colour, the same size etc across all loco classes - Did all the buffer beam numbers have a drop shadow, any gradients, were the drop shadows all the same colour and to the left/right - What different makers' plates were there, what photos exist that allow a very precise graphic design of each to be made - Was the Great Western insignia consistent across all loco classes in terms of design and size, what were the different size(s) etc - Did the crests vary, what size were they - Ditto roundels ...and you begin to get an idea of why some would-be offerings can take such a long time to materialise. That's before you get to the graphic design, testing and tweaking. If you happen to have all of that to hand then feel free to PM me and something will appear a lot quicker :>)

The web says to allow up to 14 days for custom items (which gives me some wiggle room in case something crops up), but the reality is they're often designed, made and shipped within a few days. Sometimes even same day as others on here might be able to vouch. If it helps, some of the 3d bits are available separately if needed: 4mm 3d smokebox https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=4363 4mm 3d shed codes https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=2804 4mm 3d smokebox, 3d shed code, 3d GWR cabside plates https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=4362 The complete steam loco packs (like the link you kindly posted) offer all the transfers just to save folks having to buy a bunch of separate items. Hopefully offers a nice choice so people can cherry pick or go for everything.

I'm already working on a new stock item for the Intercity 37s which has the brandings and reflective swallows, which is probably not too far off. As is the Railtec way, I import square-on photos of all the locos to get the number spacing (incl any wonky digits) bang on per the real things, rather than just bang out a sheet of numbers with "standard" spacing. Have noted Andy7's comment about 31454 so I'll see if it makes sense to dovetail that into the same pack (and 31128). The Intercity branding is different of course but I'll need to check if the swallow is the same size as on the 37s. Often the case that a new would-be pack might seem like a 30 minute job, but the more you research, the more quirks you find. Still, it's worth getting it bang on because chances are you or someone else will be looking at these models you're making for a very long time to come.

Hiya John, drop me a PM with some specific info and I'll see if it's something that I may have resource for. It's worth keeping in mind amongst other differentiators that Railtec product is filmless/spot printed, so the carrier film is only present where it needs to be. This means you don't have to cut out a bunch of carrier film and cut close to the print in order to avoid a huge halo around the printed item. Also there are no join lines in the print, it has the full colour palette available and perfect print registration.

Hiya John, do you have the opportunity to try on a different connection? A 403 will either be the result of the hosting company having blanket blocked a range of connections for security purposes (which is going to be nothing to do with anything suss from your specific connection), or me having manually blocked a connection for the handful of people unsuccessfully attempting to do something which they really, really shouldn't. If you still get issues drop me a line.

That's a new one on me! I do notice however that it had its Rainhill plaques at the open day, which have just been made available (3d plates) in both 4mm and 7mm in case they're needed. https://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?search_str=rainhill

If it helps, I make dozens of these a week in 3d, either as part of complete loco packs where you get to choose your own number, shed code, crest, power classification etc, or individually on their own so you can cherry pick just the bit(s) you need. If I can, I try to steer away from the practise of shoe-horning people down the route of having to buy a large item just to get one bit. As a guide, ready-made ready-painted 3d smokebox plates in 4mm with your choice of number are just £1.95. The 3d plates are now on version 11 and have come a long way since I first started making them several years ago. For the smokeboxes, there's a wide selection of styles incl LMS, BR, Midland, Southern and non-standard examples. The backing plates are 3d and the numerals are again 3d on top of that, and I make the mounting bolt detail too. And a couple of shots of the 3d plates in action courtesy of James Wells and Daryl Saxton. The GWR 1458 loco is now on the layout at the NRM. Custom 3d items: https://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?search_str=custom+3d Complete steam loco packs: https://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?search_str=complete+steam+loco Turn-around time on these is generally a few days. Sometimes even next day as I'm making custom 3d runs pretty much most days now in addition to all the conventional 2d stuff. "I have to say: Fantastic. In fact they're so good, I'm still speechless. This is the end of etched for cast plates." Pete Waterman, OBE DL

If it helps, there are a couple of MPV packs via this link: https://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?search_str=mpv Here's one of them, which I believe is what Jerry used above. As is the Railtec way, variations in typefaces and number spacing (yes, even on MPVs) are traced from the originals for authenticity: Safety signs, if needed, also available here: https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=3137

Ah ok. How about the attached mock-up? Putting the actual place names to one side briefly, is this the style you have in mind?

Let me check. The spam filter does seem to have changed its logic in recent months, plus as much as I try, the email account is constantly hovering around the limit as I get no end of enormous files emailed to me!

Are you saying you'd like this sheet but in a different font? Life's too short to be lining up individual letters from an alphabet sheet! There's also the option to get any ready-made allocation name you like in pretty much any font: https://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?search_str=9970

Dead easy. If someone can confirm any additional running numbers that are applicable then I can add those to what would otherwise be a very small 4mm pack. No issue with that, but if there are other confirmed numbers then it's no sweat to add them in.

The reason I suspect it's the norm, as Mick points out, is to accommodate for the plates containing g/j/p/q/y characters which need sufficient real estate beneath the adjoining text without otherwise sitting too close to the lower rim. You could argue if a plate doesn't contain any of those characters (like Mick's Clitheroe) then why not sit the text centrally so that it all looks uniform, but that would require having two templates... I trace dozens of plates a week to get the exact positioning and spacing of the letters per the originals, and the mounting bolts too - a handful of which are vertically offset mainly in privatisation. Getting the mounting bolts in the correct positions may be considered by some as unnecessary detail, but someone somewhere other than me will notice! And that's before you get onto varying gaps either side of the text, varying gaps in between the words and varying radii of the plate corners. All good fun.

I already do custom coach numbers of your choice via this very useful item: https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=4188 As for the coach letters, these can quickly turn into a minefield in terms of research, design and testing (not to mention trying to match what a particular manufacturer printed on a particular production run - assuming they even got it right). If you'd like a quick win to get the vehicle number(s) you need then my advice would be to use the item above. I get the colour, typeface and size per the real things rather than a generic "close enough" approach. As far as the coach letters are concerned, potentially do-able at some point, BUT, if they were to become feasible I'd need some close-up square-on images of the real things which shows all the detail, incl specific dimensions you'd need them to be. Also worth keeping in mind that the coach letter panels are different either end of the vehicle in terms of seat numbers etc.

Is it just coach numbers you need or coach letters too?

The differentiator with Railtec is that the transfers are spot printed, meaning that there's no superfluous carrier film to cut out and you don't have to cut close to the print - and the print has perfect print registration too. I think I make all the different flavours of no/smoking signs filmless anyway, and I print them in reverse so that they can be applied to the inside of the model like the real things. If memory serves I think I currently do the various BR flavours, GWR and perhaps Southern too (it's been another long week).

They've been in design for a little while, as have the MFA data panels. As anyone familiar with Railtec will know, rather than just bang out identical looking data panels with different numbers, I go to quite some lengths to get these looking like the real things with prototypical variations in ton/tare weight and other anomalies based on photos. Here's an example of one of the recent BYA renumbering packs, even though the BYA panels tend to be amongst the better behaved variants in terms of deviations (at the time of writing anyway). The oddballs below aren't just done for effect or to be different; those specific wagons do actually look like that. The MTAs do have quite a few nice variants which I've photographed in detail at Basford yard, so those will make an appearance. I did very recently introduce customisable data panels to help get most people out of most holes, links here: https://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?search_str=customisable+wagon Naturally they're spot printed so no carrier film to have to cut out, and with perfect crisp print registration.

I would leave significantly longer than just 30 mins in between applying the transfers and spraying over them, as the transfers need sufficient time to dry. I think I mention in the accompanying instruction leaflet to leave minimum 24hrs, although this itself will depend on atmospheric conditions. I can well anticipate that's exactly why you've had the results you've shown. At least I saw this on a public forum so I could offer some guidance.

If it's the same Bob re an order from 2 days ago for 5 custom locos then yes I've got it, but simply didn't just yet get to the email. I know I normally get many (web) custom orders turned around in less than 24hrs but sometimes other things can impact that. I wouldn't necessarily call it email difficulties but simply a biproduct and inevitability of providing such a hugely niche service. I made quite an in depth post a little further up the thread about the large number of factors which often make it unrealistic for one guy to respond to every email as quickly as I'd like, which hopefully may help give some context.

Now that the house move is done, the customisable items on the web site are available again. Phew!

Life's too short to be lining up individual numbers, and it'll be quite the challenge to get it looking as good as a one-piece transfer that you can apply in one easy hit. There's an existing item on the Railtec site which I think will give you what you need: 4mm-9091 https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=2251 Quite a useful customisable item to get most people out of most holes with EMU renumbering. For example other modellers have used it to get them this: There's a similar parallel offering for 1st gen DMUs, if it helps: 4mm-9090 https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=3108

Hi Phil, I've just looked and can see one from 48hrs ago, so please bear with me. Whilst here it's probably a useful juncture at which to reiterate and help raise awareness of some of the constraints of running just one hugely niche supplier which helps the hobby grow (because I get that unless you've done it, it's probably not obvious). Other niche suppliers may recognise some elements of this but I absolutely can't speak on others' behalves. The aim is simply to share knowledge and help folks better understand their hobby from the other side of the table perspective, hopefully to ultimately help them, because although this may only be "toy trains", small scale and a topic considered by some as "a bit geeky", many suppliers who support the hobby still require the same amount of applied skill, education, dedication and craftsmanship as is required in other industries. It's true that I get an immense number of emails, forum tags/IMs (here, Instagram, FB, other forums), SMS, Whatsapps, phone calls and sometimes even knocks at the door - which is humbling, because it means there's demand for what I create. The inevitable flip side is that it's often a huge challenge trying to keep on top of just all the inbound comms, as much as it pains me to close the laptop lid at 2am and still not had opportunity to get to everything. That doesn't sit comfortably with me but, I do as much as I physically can; I love to create and I love to help people enjoy their hobby (not jobby, thanks not-so-fat-fingers). So how does that happen and why might someone not get a response to their email when they expect? 1. What I myself didn't realise when I embarked on Railtec - which began purely as a hobby - was the sheer enormity in breadth and depth of subject matter. Obvious in hindsight but if you stop and think about the variety of rolling stock and markings on them over the last 150 years, even with some pretty intense train-spotter-esque knowledge, you're going to have to put in some hard graft to figure out all the areas you don't know. 2. The very nature of what Railtec does means reproducing very, very specific detail - much of which before t'interweb can be pretty hard-going to research. Often people send grainy b/w images scanned from a book taken at a 3/4 angle and ask me to recreate the markings (much of which you can't even see). The kicker is - having to recreate something very specific is often more challenging than creating something from scratch, because people already have a reference point and expect something to look a very particular way and right in context on the model. And you'd be surprised how much of the railway is non-standard, even within the same loco livery and operator. One recent example is all that small bodyside detail on 60s (fuel tank drain, screen wash filler etc). There are at least 7 different variants, and they even vary from one (e.g.) GBRf 60 to another when you would probably expect them all to follow the same template. And then the typefaces of the numbers may look the same, but they're not. Many modellers may be ok with generic markings and a font that looks close enough, but it won't be right, and (a) if you're going to expend the effort to craft something then you may as well nail it, and (b) it's your model - so you're probably going to be looking at it for the rest of your days and it'd be nice if it were bang on, no? I aim for "Wow, look at the detail on that" rather than "Yeah it looks fine". The topic of reproducing number spacing, wonky digits and colour matching would be another para on its own. 3. Once you've done all the painstaking research and figured out what all those markings are exactly (large and small) - and what their dimensions were in 1:1, you need to figure out if they'll fit the model they're supposed to go on. Because we all know that every model is a perfect scaled down replica of the real thing... 4. Time to make the graphic design. For complex elements like crests and other obscure detail, time can evaporate on this one. Remember "wow" not "fine", not just so people will come back for more, but because they get a visible e-buzz when they email in to say just how much they love it. 5. You've done the research, figured out all the markings, made them fit the model and done the graphic design. Now for testing. So that beautiful looking crest you recreated looks epic on the laptop but when printed at 2mm, ends up looking like a dark blob. Not good. Making things look good in 1:1 is easy. Making them look "right" in each scale is much more of a challenge. Cue what can be hours of tedious trial-and-error. Jumping into machine code and bending the hardware to do things it wasn't designed to do in order to tweak the quality of the print would again be another para. (The print method is constantly evolving and is different now to what it was just 3 months ago, and very significantly different to what it was when the newer tech came online). 6. Finally a bit more time spent researching what would make a useful pack. It needs to be relevant and strike a balance between someone having to buy multiple packs to complete a single model, or having to buy a huge pack and only want a small part of it multiple times over. This fable seems relevant! Despite now having a catalog of ~3500 items, hopefully I get it right most of the time. Obviously there are other elements which hamper the ability to be everywhere for everybody in a way I would like, (HMRC/VAT compliancy, web site code, replenishing stock, working with govt & other orgs who are kind enough to grant permission to reproduce trademarks so that you can have them for your models & various other predictable admin type tasks), but hopefully this gives some flavour and insight into why things may not always unfold as you might hope or expect, and if you don't hear from me when you would expect, it's not because I'm sipping a negroni on Copacabana Beach, but instead neck-deep in one of the above . But the wait for quality of research, quality of artwork and quality of print in new and existing designs will be worth it.

It already is. A quick search on "destination blind" on the web site reveals: https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=4514