What have your experiences been with using different brand decals on the same piece of rolling stock? In my case, it would be white - colored decals.
My first thought was that there would very possibly be a difference in the opacity of each decal. I'm new at decaling .... could a difference be hidden with some weathering?
Accurail sells their kits in a "data only" version. So, I assume folks are buying the road name and road number decals from the various decal companies. Don't folks have problems with different color shades, etc?
In my case, it would be Accurail black coal hoppers with the data printed in white. And, I would be buying the road name and road number from Tichy. Microscale does not offer what I need. (Someone, somewhere on the internet, stated that Tichy decals are screen-printed, or some other such process. I don't know.)
Thank you in advance for any experiences/advice.
Jim
I suspect many people who buy 'data only' cars are freelancers like me, or who want a car that isn't offered (and likely won't be) offered pre-lettered for a particular railroad or owner.
If you're looking at decals with basic colors - white or black - the manufacturer shouldn't make much difference. Yellows can vary a bit, but generally it all works together. I've lettered a car using multiple makers to get what I want, and it seems to work out fine.
Of course, that's part of why a little weathering is important. For example, coal cars don't stay clean long! Once the car has been lettered and the decals sealed in with a spray of flat finish, I like to add a light layer of powdered charcoal over the entire car and then spray another coat of flat finish (usually Tamiya in a spray can). That 'tones down' the white lettering to a more realistic light gray.
I don't see why not. Looking at the tens--of thousands of cars out there and the various ways the lettering has faded/weathered there's no shch thing as a perfect paint job. Even in the paint shop the data may have been applied at a different time or with different paint than the herald. Sometimes, too, there's a change of ownership or redesign of the herald but the data may not have been repainted.
It looks like Penn Central used too much Micro-Sol on this "decal":
PC-220125_X61E 1970 by Edmund, on Flickr
Just be sure you have a glossy surface to apply your decal.
Good Luck, Ed
JimLMy first thought was that there would very possibly be a difference in the opacity of each decal.
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You are 100% correct. White is different from different manufacturers.
There is good news... White decals from Microscale, Speedwitch, Rail Graphics, Cartograf, Citadel, Armory, and Herald King are all about the same. I have mixed all of these with no problems.
Champ and Walthers are the two that look different when applied to cars.
Champ can actually be different opacity from one set to another.
I only rarely use data only freight cars. It is too much work to gloss coat the cars and try to get the decal film to set correctly. I think it is easier to paint an undecorated car with Scalecoat 2 paint.
Mix away... it all looks OK when weathered and in a train.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Here is a car I lettered with individual words from Champ. These were decals they made where you could make custom roadnames using a library of pre-printed individual words. Eagle, Express, Ridge, Terminal, and Lines were all from different "sets" of one word each.
You can see that each word is a slightly different color of white. This is most obvious in the reporting marks "RTLX" which is one letter from each set.
The white stripes are from Microscale and the double headed "Aquilla" eagle emblem is from Citadel. All are slightly different colors of white.
Can you notice it when the car is in a train, nope! It is only evident in pictures where there is time to analyze all the details.
No need to worry about mixing!
I modified this Accurail reefer to better represent a SFRD RR4-Class USRA reefer. The lettering is a combination from two different Champ sets, and Microscale, and C&BT Shops decals...
This one (of three) is a modified LifeLike car, lettered with a combination of decals from Champ and Rail Graphics, and custom dry transfers from C-D-S...
A modified MDC/Roundhouse 36' boxcar, representing a Southern Su Class boxcar. Lettering for the roadname and numbers is from a C-D-S dry transfer set for a 50' automobile car, while dimensional data is from Champ...
Wayne