Hello all,

I am in desperate need to have someone make yellow colored decals for the excess height text on this ATSF car. The decals provided were a good 50% oversized and could never fit where intended much less look right. I have this car lettered except for this detail. Either I leave it off or find a savior! My usual custom decal source says he can only print yellow on a background color. This obviously needs to be on a clear film unless someone has color matched Floquil ATSF Mineral Red. Anyone got ideas?

Regards,

Tom

--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

Tom:

I have been involved with custom decal projects (yellow lettering) where we used both Highball Graphics (https://highballgraphics.com/) and PDC (https://www.pdc.ca/rr/custom_decals/).  It's been a while, and artwork requirements and minimum charges may have charged.  You would need to contact them and inquire about your specific project.

Another option would be to find someone with a working ALPS printer.  I know there were a few on this list at one time, but these printers are getting long in the tooth.

Having tried and failed, printing yellow with a conventional color laser printer is not really practical.  The short explanation is that, because the printer cannot lay down a base layer of white, the yellow decals won't be sufficiently opaque.

Sorry that I can't provide a simpler fix.  Maybe someone else can.
 
--
Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

Dave is correct in that most yellows need a base of white, so in effect a 2 color decal.  We had a custom decal and ended up having Kadee do that; holding a very tight registration was required.  This was a few years ago and they may not be doing custom decals anymore.  Most have a minimum order, you could sell the rest.  

Curt Fortenberry

From what I've seen, it's impossible to get white fully and completely under yellow, while also not having any white creeping out the edges.  And, from what I've seen, it doesn't work, visually.

What WILL work is to shift the yellow color to allow for the transparency of the yellow.  For example, if the decals are going on a red car, you would shift the decal color in the green direction.



Ed

Edward Sutorik

On Wed, Jul 27, 2022 at 04:39 PM, spsalso wrote:

From what I've seen, it's impossible to get white fully and completely under yellow, while also not having any white creeping out the edges.  And, from what I've seen, it doesn't work, visually.

What WILL work is to shift the yellow color to allow for the transparency of the yellow.  For example, if the decals are going on a red car, you would shift the decal color in the green direction.

Ed:

To avoid the apples and oranges syndrome, it would be helpful if you could specify what type of printer(s) you think these generalizations apply to.  For example, Highball's everyday printing is now done with an Ohki CMYKW laser printer and, having purchased yellow decals from them recently, neither statement would seem to apply (but perhaps would to other situations).
 
--
Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

Dave,

I did preface my statement with "From what I've seen,...".  I am not intimately acquainted with the decal production business.

I've seen the problem of yellow-over-white I describe in Microscale SP&S passenger car striping (87-1492), where they made the white stripe narrower than the yellow one.

And I just recently received a set of Circus City decals (UP 87-11) where the layers of the yellow striping were out of register.  And on their set 87-01, they printed the red slightly off of the white, leaving a very faint white edge on one side.  I have the impression these are laser printed.

If you're saying that Highball can get the two layers in perfect register, and do it every time, then I will have to check them out.

My experience is mostly with silk screen decals, rather than laser printed.  The Highball laser ones sound promising.



Ed

Edward Sutorik 

If it's hard to print yellow over white in perfect register why not print yellow over yellow?

For small lettering that may not be legible in HO anyway I use N scale dimension data applied upside down and backwards.

Mark Vinski

Because it still might not be opaque enough.  

I used the word "might" because I don't know.

A very interesting proposal, though.

That said, I like my idea better.  Only one layer of one color.  No registration problems.  No thickness problems.


Ed

Edward Sutorik

--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts