MikeOxon

Having seen your crop, Martin, I have to agree! It is certainly a very nice pic Mike

Thanks for the comment, PaulR. I have thought that there must be some good mechanisms out there, so will explore further! Mike

I agree but I'd already tried that and the combination of long wheelbase and my tight curves still left it unreliable, as reported in my earlier post at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-12531-milk-churns-and-siphons/ and, anyway, I like a challenge Mike

I agree with 'Western Sunset' re. the first image. Personally, I would crop the picture symmetrically about the centre of the stairs but such things are matters of taste. It's a nice photo - I haven't visited Reading since the re-furb. Mike

As a result of comments on earlier posts, I have added this supplement, to describe some variations in lining styles. The GWR used many different styles of lining at different periods, as I was reminded by 'N15class'. Many of these can be reproduced by slight variations of the methods I described in earlier posts. Before 1881, however, the GWR sometimes used a technique called 'scarfed' lining, which is a variation on 'dropped shadows'. In the period 1864 - 1881, the lining comprised a 1” wide 'pea green' line, bordered on one side by a 1/2” black line and, on the other, by a 1/8” white line - with the added twist that these edges were offset, so that white always appeared to the left and above, whereas black appeared to the right and below. This more complex scheme, also used by other companies than the GWR, can be reproduced by making use of 'layers' in Photoshop (or PSE), to represent the different colours. I start by constructing a rectangular panel frame in black - 24 pixels wide. KH1 suggested a method for creating the curved corners and I have adapted this by using the Elliptical Marquee Tool', rather than Paintbrush (hold down the 'Shift' key to constrain the tool to a circle). I use this Marquee tool to mark off circular selection areas, inside each corner, as shown below, and then 'Invert' the selection [menu: Select | Inverse] and use the Paintbrush to fill in the rounded corner, against the selection boundary. Making Rounded Corners against a selection Boundary The outside corners can be made in exactly the same way, with selection boundaries set against the outer edge of the corner, and painting in the background colour. The next step is to create a duplicate layer [menu: 'Layer | Duplicate Layer...' - select 'Background copy' in the box that opens]. Then select the lining shape, on this new layer, with the 'MagicWand' tool and fill the shape with a Pea Green colour (R,G,B = 128,128,0), Creating a Background Copy Next, invert the selection, so that the whole of the background on the new layer becomes the selection, and select 'Image | Clear'. This will remove the background from the new layer but there will be no visible change, because the original layer will show through from 'below' (Think of 'layers' as a stack of images behind one another.) Now remove the selection [select | Deselect] and use the 'Move' tool to move the new layer upwards and to the left. The 'Pea Green' lining will move relative to the black and the background, which are on the original layer. Position it (by eye), so that half the thickness of the pea green band appear as a black 'drop shadow'. Positioning the top layer relative to the Background Now we do the same again for the white 'shadow'. Make sure the original Background layer is selected (This should happen automatically if you click on the background) and then make another duplicate layer. select the loop of lining again and, this time, fill with White. (The new layer should have slipped in underneath the top 'Pea Green' layer.) As before, select everything except the lining loop on this new layer and 'Clear' the background. Now 'Move' the White layer into its position above and to the left of the Pea Green loop. Now you have some 'Scarfed' lining! 'Flatten' the image [Layers | Flatten Image] and it is ready for printing. 'Scarfed' Lining Panel There are lots of other complications beloved of 19th century designers, such as inverted corners. I've not yet tackled these but would approach them by using the same techniques that I have already described. Always remember that, once you have drawn a complex ornamental flourish, you can use 'Copy' and 'Paste', together with 'Rotate' and 'Flip', to repeat the design in different ways. At this stage, I'll just wish you good luck Mike

My lining is correct for the 1881 - 1906 period (according to 'Great Western Way') The intervening green line came after 1906, when a 1" black line was flanked by

Alas, not nearly so cosy and inviting as the glimpse of Ardley waiting room in post #1245 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/196-creative-photography-railway-related/page-50 Nice photo, though Mike

Thank you,Michael. I'm actually doing this writing while I have an enforced break from modelling - I have dermatitis on my hands, probably from some of the materials I have been using - flux, adhesives, brass...??? A nuisance, but it's clearing up ok. This writing keeps me in the swing of things and has also brought some useful feedback, with additional ideas Mike

Thanks again, KH1, for additional tips - I wasn't too concerned about scan quality, since I only wanted a background template, but I take your point - I hadn't though of a box! I intend to say a little about using a pen tablet in a future post. Mike

Gosh, Mikkel, you were quick of the mark! I hope you weren't kept sitting waiting for this Thank you for the comment. Mike

I like shooting cab videos too and would be interested to know what equipment you use. I find that they often seem to run too fast and, therefore, slow the video down to half speed during editing. You might like to try doing that, as I think it makes a better viewing experience. Mike

In the first post in this series, I covered the basics of setting up Photoshop Elements (PSE) and a printer, to make water-slide transfers on ink-jet printable paper. My first topic was 'Boiler Bands', which are made up from simple straight lines. Now it is necessary to consider the more general subject of lined panels, which raises the new problem of dealing with corners. My 'cheat' way of making sure that the lining will be a good fit to the model is to scan the model itself. I lay the model on its side in my Canon 9900F flatbed scanner and scan it at fairly high resolution, to produce a 1:1 scale image on the computer. The original size of the image shown below was 6900 X 2030 pixels (px), scanned at 800 px/inch Alternatively, if you have a scale drawing, you can scan this as a template for your lining. Scanned Image of 'Stella' model My 'worked example', below, covers the cab-side lining for my GWR 'Stella' class locomotive. I draw the lining and/or crests, etc. over the image of the model in PSE. When I built my own model, shown in the previous post, I worked directly on the scan at this resolution and ended up with rather 'over-scale' lining. Since I want to change the cab-side number, I will re-do both cab sides, using the higher resolution of 720 px/cm, as I described for the boiler bands. I could re-scan at higher resolution but it is very simple to change the resolution by using the 'Re-size' dialogue in the 'Image' menu of PSE. I used the 'Crop Tool' to select the cab side from the original image, shown above. In my case, the cropped image measured 618 x 898 px. I re-sized this cropped image to a resolution of 720 pixels/cm using the dialogue box shown below: Re-size Dialogue in PSE2 (newer versions may appear different) Note that, after the change in resolution, the size of the image in pixels has changed but the Document Size, which represents the size when printed, remains the same, so it will still print at the correct size to fit the model. Having produced a template for the cab side, I next select the area to be printed on the transfer film. I use the 'Polygonal Lasso Tool' around the edge of the required area. For the curved areas around the wheel-arch, I still use the Polygonal tool in small steps, but you might find the 'Magnetic Lasso' works better for you. Once I have selected the area, I flood fill the selection with the GWR green body colour: R,G,B = (1,46,3). I then invert the selection [menu: Select | Inverse] and clear everywhere outside the coloured area [menu: Edit | Clear], as shown below: Create a Cabside Template in PSE2 The lining for GWR locomotives in the period 1881 - 1906 was very similar to the boiler bands, I described previously (i.e. black, bordered by two 1/8” orange-chrome lines) but the overall width is only 1-1/8”, meaning that the central black line is only 7/8”. In my previously chosen scale, this makes the the black line 21 px wide and the orange lines 3 px wide (as before) .As I mentioned before, you may find that, in the smaller scales, the lining is too 'subtle', so you may want to widen the orange lines to suit your personal taste. I start drawing the lining by placing a vertical black line along the longest straight edge (the front of the cab side). I then bound this line with two orange lines, exactly as described for boiler bands. Since PSE creates a new layer for each of these lines then, if you look in the drop down Layers palette, you will see that there are now three layers containing these 'shapes', in addition to the Background. For convenience, you can link these layers, by clicking on the boxes shown below, then combine them by using the command 'Merge Linked' in the 'Layer' menu.. Linking layers in PSE You now 'Duplicate' the combined layer ['Layer' menu] and use the 'Move' tool to place the duplicate along the vertical edge at the back of the cab side. It will be too long, so you simply use the 'Eraser' tool to trim off the excess. Make another duplicate layer and, this time, rotate it through 90° [menu: Image | Rotate | Layer 90° Left], to make the top lining. Repeat these steps as necessary for all the sides. If you have an irregular shape, you can use Free Rotate layer to match non-parallel sides. When you have completed the straight sides, 'Flatten' the image [Layer menu]. Unfortunately,I have not found an 'easy' way of doing the curved lining around the splasher and side cut-out. I use the 'Line' tool to draw an orange line in small segments around the curved edges. Work at 'Actual Pixels' on your screen, to make sure that the segments are contiguous and aligned with one another. Link the segments up with the existing straight edges - you can trim away any excess by over-painting with the background colour. The draw a second orange line, inside the first, by the same method. I draw the second line at the correct spacing, by 'eye'. It sounds tricky but, once you have the hang of it, it goes quite quickly. Then, 'Flatten' the image again and use the Bucket tool to fill the space between the two orange lines with black. The result should be something like that shown below. If you have more patience than me, you can draw in smaller segments, to make smoother curves! You can easily 'touch up' the corners by drawing new linking curves, before painting out any over-run. Drawing curves as a series of line segments Once you have gone around all the sides and joined all the corners, you have a transfer ready for printing. Since you are going to want the opposite side as well, you can copy the whole side and then, after pasting the duplicate (which will automatically be placed as a new layer), select 'Flip Layer Horizontal' from the 'Image | Rotate' menu. If there's not enough space on your drawing area for both sides, simply increase the 'canvas size' to suit, from the 'Image | Resize' menu. Now you have a 'matched pair' of cab sides, ready for printing on decal paper. A Pair of 'Stella' lined cab sides After printing at actual size, as described for 'boiler bands', remember to varnish over the whole area and then use a scalpel to cut carefully around the lining. The decal film is pretty tough, so you should not find it too difficult to 'tease' the loop of lining into place on the model, providing you have 'wetted' the area beforehand, to ensure an easy 'slide' Next time, I will cover number plates, crests, etc. and, hopefully, will provide a few more handy tips . Mike

Thank you DonB. I'm working on a second part, to describe panel lining, which I hope will also be helpful. Mike

Are you sure it is fer and not f

This is magnificent - you must be extremely pleased and justifiably proud of the result. Congratulations! Mike

Pleased to help. Having seen your profile, you're younger than me Mike

I find chassis building a bit daunting as well - though pre-grouping 2-2-2s avoid many alignment problems. Taking time - care and patience - seems to be the key. I had some old K's kits that never ran well but, when i came back to them with 30 years more experience, I managed to get them running pretty well! As you know, I 'cheat', with options like tender drive and SPUD bogies Mike

Thank you for your additions, KH1. There are lots of problems that can arise when trying to match printer and screen resolutions. The screen uses additive (RGB) pixels, while the printer uses subtractive (CMYK) dots, so there is never a 1:1 correspondence. Printer dots per inch (DPI) are not the same as pixels/inch and, usually, much higher printer DPI are needed than the screen pixel size would suggest. This is one area which the full version of Photoshop manages, whereas PSE omits these specialised print functions. I haven't explored this subject very far but will show some microscope views in future posts, which illustrate this point. PSE has had layers since version 2 and it is this feature which allows lines to be moved about, as I described. Mike

Thank you very much for the kind remarks, guys. As one who holds the modelling displayed in www.gwr.org.uk in awe, I am somewhat astonished (pleasantly) by your comments on 'Stella', Mikkel - it was a very basic conversion and quite incorrect in many details - including,of course, the wheelbase! Certainly not a model on which to look for the odd missing rivet. I now have a set of the RCTS books on GWR locomotives, so know that 3205 did not receive a Belpaire firebox until 1915, so it would never have looked like this, with red frames- sadly. However, 3505 did receive a B4 boiler in 1904, so that one might be a better candidate - until someone tells me why that won't do, either. Alas, the more one reads, the more difficult it becomes to make an accurate model Mike

A couple of members on the forums have indicated that they would like to know more details of how I create my own transfers for lining and lettering pre-grouping models. I have already written a little in my earlier post "Cheats Lining & Lettering" and I must also admit that, because I model GWR prototypes, much of what is needed can actually be bought from the trade! I am one of those "scratch-builders" that likes to do things "because I can" I use a Windows PC, together with Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE) software, to produce the 'artwork' and print onto white Inkjet Water-Slide Decal Paper from http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/ , using a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 6980 printer. Of course, other equipment and materials could be used but these are what I am familiar with and will describe in detail. I use the 'white' decal paper, rather than 'clear', because printers are designed to print on a white background and the inks tend to be too transparent to show up against a dark background. In addition, there is no white ink, so white areas are formed by letting the white background show through. I shall begin by describing a rather basic operation:- that of creating boiler bands. To do this, we have to set up the computer and associated printer to work to scale and then use these tools to produce the various coloured lines which, together, make up the band. For GWR locomotives, during the period 1881 - 1906, the standard boiler bands consisted of a 1½" wide black band, flanked by two 1/8" orange-chrome lines. Since 1/8" is the smallest dimension in the lining that I am designing, I base the settings in PSE around this figure. I feel that a 3 pixel (px) wide line is the minimum for reliable and even printing, so my first calculations assume that 3 pixels will equate to 1/8" in the prototype. Hence, if 1/8" = 3 px then 1" will need 24 px and 1 foot will need 288 px. I model in 4 mm scale (1/76), so these 288 px will be required to represent a distance of 4 mm on the model, or 72 px = 1mm. Hence, I need to set up a new page in PSE to a resolution of 720 px/cm. Click on 'New' and enter the dimensions shown below into the box that appears (I use a rather old version of PSE, so your input box may look different), These dimension will provide 10 cm lengths of lining - adjust the width of the drawing area if you need more or less. New Page Set-up in PSE When producing transfers, I aim to surround the patterned areas with the underlying body colour, to make for a smooth transition to adjacent painted areas. Thus, I flood-fill the new page with the basic green colour of the boiler. When I open the 'pre-1928' green from http://www.gwr.org.uk/liverieslococolour.html , the PSE colour picker indicates the colour as R,G,B = (1,46,3), so I fill with this, as the background colour. Now use the 'Line' tool to draw a horizontal black line, with the width set to 36 px (= 1½") - hold down the 'Shift' key to constrain the tool. 'Simplify' this line, then draw an orange-chrome line of width 3px, close to the first line. For 'orange-chrome', I used R,G,B = (255,128,64). Zoom in to 'Actual Size' and use the 'Move' tool to place the orange line immediately adjacent to the black line. Repeat for the orange line on the opposite side of the band, and then 'Flatten' the image, in the 'Layers' menu. If you want to know more about moving and manipulating layers in PSE, you might like to read my article at http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming/layers.htm Placing line with the 'Move' tool in PSE If you want more lengths of this lining, select the complete band then copy and paste duplicate versions on your transfer sheet. Use 'Print Preview' to see how the complete transfer will appear on the page and, preferably, move the image towards the top edge of the sheet, so that the rest of the sheet can be used for other images. If you want to save the image for later use, save it as a TIFF file, rather than JPEG, to avoid any artefacts, which will spoil the crisp edges of the lines. Print Preview screen in PSE It's now necessary to set up your printer for high-quality printing at maximum dots per inch (DPI). On my HP printer, I select 'Presentation printing' under the 'Printing Shortcuts' tab and 'Maximum dpi' under the 'Paper/Quality' tab. This results in 4800 x 1200 dpi printing. Other printers will have different set-up procedures, so experimentation may be needed to get the best results. I place a single sheet of decal paper in the feeder tray and, after printing, leave about 15 minutes for the ink to dry thoroughly. I use a guillotine to cut off the printed area - the rest of the sheet can be saved for further use. Next, it is vital to spray or brush the whole surface of the decal with waterproof varnish - I use Humbrol clear gloss, as I find the matt finish gives a slightly 'milky' look and softens the detail. Some printer inks (e.g. Epson) are claimed to be waterproof but I have not tried these and probably wouldn't trust them without varnish! I cut out the bands individually from the transfer sheet, leaving a green edge to blend with the boiler paintwork, and immerse each one in clean (demin or distilled) water, with a couple of drops of washing-up liquid added as a wetting agent. The decals will curl up at first but should flatten after a minute or so - this can be helped with a paintbrush. I also 'paint' the body of the model with the same water and then use a paintbrush to slide the transfer off the backing paper onto the model, and tamp it down into place with the brush. Job done Actually, you may find that 'true scale' lining is too 'subtle' in 4 mm scale (or smaller), so I have found that a slightly wider orange line can be desirable. Trial and error may be needed to meet your personal taste. The example shown below is my GWR 'Stella', converted from a Mainline Dean Goods. It was my first attempt and I may have over-done the orange a little, at least for photographic purposes - it looks quite good (to me), in practice. GWR 'Stella' with 'home-made' Lining and Lettering Next time, I will write about panels, corners,and adding logos, etc. Mike

Go for it! It's much easier to get your ideas turning into reality, when the scale of effort is not too daunting The surface of that box-file already looks like a coal yard. Mike

I'll write something up on my Pre-Grouping Blog, rather than clutter up this thread. Give me a day or two to put something together Mike

Because there is so little available?

True - most people will go for a hologram.- much less hassle and never any need for "the big hand in the sky" All those 19th century workmen and horses will be faithfully represented, too Mike

Just imagine. You design a layout with Scarm v.23 then put the baseboard under the roving print-head and leave it a while to 'grow' the track, landscape, buildings, trees, trains, etc. How boring On the matter of lining, I make my own transfers using ink-jet printable transfer film. Mike