The last couple weeks I've been working on a set of nine Accurail hoppers to be used in beet service.
First order of business was to renumber them using Accurail's renumbering decal set. I'm not totally thrilled with how they're turning out.
After I applied the decals using Microscale's Microset initially and then several applications of Microsol they looked like this one:
Pretty glaring, huh? Then I applied a Microscale's flat clearcoat and it got a little better, but not much:
I'm hoping when I complete the weathering on the cars the decal will be less obvious, but it still will be visible I'm sure (unless I obscure it to the point the number is unreadable, and so what would have been the point?).
My questions are:
Is this typical of how the Accurail renumbering decals look after application? The decals are a bit thicker than most because of the opaque background, I think, but still...
Am I doing this wrong? Last time I applied decals was about 40 years ago (no exaggeration), except for the hoper pictured below. Did I forget how to do it?
Can someone who has used the Accurail renumbering decals show me one or two cars so I can see how they should look when finished?
Finally, I did a another hopper, this one CNW, late in 2022 and it looks like this after I weathered it:
Not perfect, but not wholly bad, either. I can't imagine the new set of hoppers will look this good when I'm done.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
I've used the Accurail renumber sets but in my case they were going onto Bessemer & Lake Erie ore jennies. The paint on the MTH cars was much glossier than the Accurail finish.
I think you might have to apply a layer of clear gloss or Future Floor Finish over the area first, then apply the renumber decal then — you might get away with flat finish over that but you may also have to shoot a layer of gloss to make the new decal match the rest of the previously glossed area before finally shooting the flat finish.
Renumbering is a pain and, honestly, I don't mind a car looking like it has been renumbered. Happens in real life all the time so it really doesn't bother me too much.
BnLE_ore-hopper by Edmund, on Flickr
Out of all these ore cars MTH only offered FOUR different numbers, even if you bought a case of six, all six cars had the same number
Jenny_Belly by Edmund, on Flickr
Model Railroading is Fun!
Cheers, Ed
Hi Mark,
As you are probably aware, I recently had some similar problems applying the name decals to my rotary snow plow project. As was suggested by the decal instructions, I applied a layer of Glosscote to the surface before applying the decal. The area that I Glosscoted was only as large as the decal so it stood out like a sore thumb when I applied the Dullcote. It was suggested that I should have applied a coat of Glosscote to the entire surface to avoid having the decal carrier film stand out.
It turned out that I didn't have to apply the Glosscoat on the second attempt because the TrueLine paint that I was using is a gloss finish, but my point is that having the entire area covered with the glossy finish definitely solved the problem.
I have also heard of someone putting another coat of Glosscote over the decals, and then applying the Dullcote.
There is a risk that the clear coats might wash out your weathering so that could complicate the process.
Cheers!!
Dave
Edit: Ed beat me to it!!
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks for the comments, guys.
I did apply Microscale gloss coat over the areas before applying the decals. Then I added the decals.
If the gloss coat is only to prevent silvering I'm not sure it's necessary since the entire decal is opaque, but I did it anyway.
I'm not so much worried about the decal film itself being visible in the way yours was, Dave. I'll apply enough weathering to eliminate that. My concern is the obvious step down from the surface of the decal to the cars' sides.
I'm hoping that the flat coat settled around the edges of the decals, acting as ramp between the decal and the car bodies. If it did then weathering might make the obvious edges mostly go away as the top layers are added. Guess I'll know in a few days.
Meanwhile are there any other thoughts?
The paint underneath the decal certainly looks shinier than the standard Accurail paint.
Maybe contact Accurail for an explanation about this issue? I would think since its their decals over their cars, they would have some answers.
Or you could work around the patch job look and redecal all of the numbers instead of just 2 or 3. Still might stand out compared to the letters but you might be able to weather the entire number to make at least it look uniform.
- Douglas
Mark,
It's been closer to 60 years for me since I decaled anything, so I have been reluctat to tackle doing my boxcars. My initial stumbling block is that the numbers are so cloose together. As I remember decal sheets there was space between the items on the sheet so that when y0u cut them apart there was something to hang onto with your fingers (If i'd had tweezers would I have used them?). How do you slip the decal off with nothing to hang onto?
Don't mean to steal your tread but you seem to have my problem setttled. Then I need to follow the advice you've been given for your question.
Good luck,
Richard
I've found that my results have varied considerably on Accurail renumbering decals from car model to car.. The paint on the background on some sets is really thin and flattens out nicely while others are really thick and no matter what i do, I can't get the edges to flatten out nicely. They look really good on my CNW triple hoppers in box car red and not so good on the MILW ice reefers in yellow.
I've even considered lightly sanding some of the edges before I apply them to see what would happen. Hopefully it turns out for you.
Scott Sonntag
Whenever I'm doing decal work, I generally cut out the words or numbers that I want to use, then place them on my glass-covered work desk, and use a chisel-type blade in my X-Acto to remove any portions of blank decal around the letters and numerals. This is fairly easy to do, although for smaller lettering, such as weights and capacities, it's a little more fiddly work.I also do the application of clear gloss prior to adding the decals, then once all of the lettering is in place, follow-up with another coat of it, and then finish with another application of clear...usually flat or partially glossy - it depends on what kind of finish you want: is it a newly built car, or one that's been in service for sometime and has become dirty and weathered, or is it a clapped-out rust-bucket headed for the scrappers?
I've also used the decals from Tichy, and when I first ordered them, was somewhat disappointed, as they seemed overly thick to me. However, after trimming away the blank material around the lettering, the decals went on easily, and looked just as good as the other lettering that had been applied earlier.
Wayne
Therein lies the problem, there is no space between the numbers to give a handle to hold while slipping the decal off the paper.
Have fun,
I don't see an issue with the renumbered cars.
Similar to what Wayne describes, I gently touch the decals with the corner of a paper towel to help dry the number(s).
In the past, I used to drop the cut-out decal into a glass of tap water, but when I started using distilled water, I simply dip the decal in the water, then put it atop the glass sheet on my work desk. Depending on the size of the decal, the decal will release from the paper quite quickly for small lettering, and take a little longer for the bigger ones. In many cases, the decal releases and floats on the blob of water, making small decals very easy to pick up with tweezers.
Larger decals usually take longer to release from the backing paper, and can be difficult to pick up, as they often fold-over on themselves, making it difficult to get them unstuck. For those, I slip a used blade from a utility knife under them, in order to lift it out of the blob of water, and allow getting it straightened-out with a combination of tweezers and an ordinary #11 X-Acto blade.
Things went from bad to worse.
When I start weathering, the first thing I do is apply a very thin wash of black to the entire car. To do this I thin Model Masters flat black with a lot of alcohol.
Turns out alcohol reacts with flat finishes like Dullcote, or in this case Microscale's Micro Flat. So on one side of all the cars, the decals now looked like this or even worse:
This project was really turning into a disaster!
Using an Exacto knife, I very carefully scraped the surfaces of the decals, and was able to remove a lot of the white film. At least the road numbers are readable now.
For the other side of the cars, I switched to Vallejo black thinned with distilled water. No clouding of the rod numbers there.
I finished weathering a couple cars, and they came out better than thought they would, though I'm still not totally happy with them. Here's the same one I showed above, complete and on the layout:
The finished product does look a bit better. Perhaps me, but you can hardly notice the issue. Why not add some weathering powder on that numbers? You might be able to mask some of the discoloration?