Personalized Decals

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how to do personalized Decals for buildings? I'm going to be putting a Brewery in my layout & it's going to Wolf Beer. I'd like to maybe do a logo if it's not too hard. I dont have any Graphics other the Paint, so I might need to get on to do this. Any ideas. Thanks All

[lupo]

You could start making a simple sign in MS Paint, print it, cut it out and see how it looks,
you could figure out the size by calculating down from the print quality settings from your printer:
if you want a sign 2 inches wide 1 inch high, and your printerresolution is set to 300 DPI
the file you make should be 2 x 300 = 600 pixels wide and1 x 300 = 300 pixels high.
create such a file in PAINT and fill it up with the design you want, print it, cut it out and see how it looks, you could make a test with normal paper and if it's OK with you switch to more expensive stuff like clear film, special inkjet decal paper, waterproof inkjet paper
and so on.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/768-5000
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/934-706821
type in "decal paper " at the search over at www.walthers.com and some more will come up

There is also "backlit film" it has a dull-white coated back to print on, you could make nice billboards with , or print small home-interiors scenes on them glue those behind the windows of your structures lite them up, now you can watch inside the houses and see what your lay-out people are up to at night

[Anonymous]

Wolf:

Most of your questions have been answered in pervious threads in the forum. A topic search will pull up the threads for you.

You don't mention what era you are modeling so its hard to recommend specific sites for graphics styles. Do a Google for suggestions.

You might have a look at http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/ for period adverts to 1920. Also the Library of Congress has good material in their image collection. www.loc.gov

As an alternative to a decal you might consider printing your image on standard paper and using it as a "painted on the wall" advertisement. Such an approach is much easier to age appropriately and thus avoid the shiney-decal-on-the-wall look.

Good Luck

Randy

[Jetrock]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Wolf0503

Does anyone know how to do personalized Decals for buildings? I'm going to be putting a Brewery in my layout & it's going to Wolf Beer. I'd like to maybe do a logo if it's not too hard. I dont have any Graphics other the Paint, so I might need to get on to do this. Any ideas. Thanks All

Making decals is pretty easy these days--you can get sheets of decal paper and sealant at your local hobby shop. The design depends on your level of artistic creativity--you can find an image you would like to use (say, a picture of a wolf) and scan it, then type in a text logo in whatever font you choose. I'm not sure if MS Paint would work with a scanner, but that's about all you'd need... if you need a free paint program, try downloading the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program.)