What is a good way to locate decal stripes? Need to outline a square on a tender side & back
Thanks....
If the tender has rivets, they make a good guide
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Rivets or other cast-on details make good reference points. I like to use masking tape, cut to width, as a striping and lettering aid. Lay a strip of tape, sticky side down, on a clean sheet of glass, then use a sharp blade and straightedge to cut away the factory edges - they often get dinged or pick up fuzz and other debris during handling and storage. Next, use your scale rule, calipers, or dividers to determine the position of your lettering or striping relative to something straight on your model - usually, this will be one of the parallel edges, but it could also be the eave line of the roof, a rivet line, belt line or row of windows. Make sure to leave allowance for any excess clear decal film that will left beyond the edges of the cut-out stripe or lettering. This technique can also be used for dry transfers, but even though there's no excess decal film with which to contend, you'll still need to allow a little extra space between the edge of the tape and the top or bottom edge of the letter or stripe being applied.
The striping and lettering on the loco shown below were done with this method, although I used dry transfers as masking devices. After painting the cab and tender white, dry transfer alphabet letters and striping (any colour can be used) were applied, but not burnished in place. Then, after an application of black, the dry transfers were lifted with bits of masking tape, revealing the white lettering and stripes.
Here's an in-progress view:
For long roadnames, especially when applied letter-by-letter using alphabet sets, the masking tape alignment trick is very useful:
Wayne