Microscale's New Reading Decals

[tom]

I picked up Microscale's new Reading decal set (87-1393) for lettering various boxcars. I had high hopes for this set so that I could letter one of Reading's famous banner scheme boxcars (the one with the large READING spelled out across the side.

To me the READING lettering and banner looks too small when compared to photos. I then compared it to "Readind Modeler" banner decals and it also appears too small.

The "Reading Modeler" decals appear very accurate but the too yellow not the yellow/creme that that this lettering looked like most of its service life. The Microscale lettering looks a little more faded but if the large lettering and banner is too small it would not look right.

Any thoughts?

This is another reason why RTR sells.....often the lettering on the RTR cars is better researched than the decals.

Sigh.....the old Herald King Reading decals were too lemony, the Reading Modeler looks too yellow, the Highball Graphics were not that accurate, and now the Microscale ones look too small.

[Mark R.]

Hard to tell looking at the pictures. What I wish they would have done is forget the green lettering, and just have knocked the lettering out of the yellow band. That way the green lettering would match whatever green the car was painted with. Chances of their green print exactly matching your green paint is slim to none.

.... Nothing that some weathering probably wouldn't cure ....


Mark.

[shoofly]

Tom,
Sorry to hear you are dissatisfied with one of my sets. In defense of my work, I formally beg to differ, I took great pains researching the artwork for the READING scheme. Often I notice the RTR art is COMPLETELY WRONG versus my research...thus validating a decal release. Here's my proof...albeit the set is really designed for PLATE B models. Even now, think I may have erred to making the banner lettering perhaps a little LARGE. Since I don't have access to these cars to measure dimensions straight off the sides, I need to rely on proportions.

Proto photo with some reference lines dragged out to show how I was able to achieve my dimensions. Using the short ladder as a guide. The bottom of the yellow banner lines up with the top rung on the short ladder. It's about 5" from the bottom of the yellow banner to the bottom of the letter then 5" from the top of the letter to the top of the banner then another 5" of green to the roof line


This was duplicated on my artwork at size:


They are the correct size for Plate B boxcars.

Mark,
I really debated long and hard about knocking the lettering out and saving a color to print. The reasoning behind the green letters is three-fold.

-I know there are some that would prefer to mask the yellow and paint it themselves, especially over ribs and a youngstown door. As a modeler, I would be more likely to paint this for better results. Others may prefer to simply lay down a decal...this set accommodates both modeling preferences.

-There's this nasty thing about having to back up transparent colors with white. Yellow is just naturally transparent so I have to back it up to make it a little more opaque. Now there's a trap (setback) to the white so the edges appear kind of soft. I felt that the knocked out lettering would have been soft around the edges and looked like crap. I describe this in the instructions, I know maybe a bit of a P.I.T.A. but it'll work, is to trim the clear off the green letters and shoot them the same color you use to paint the boxcar. This will guarantee a perfect color match between the body and the letters. I have considered another method of doing this by printing the letters with just clear no color, you paint over the clear tracer film with the green tone you desire and then drop them in water and lay them on the model. That method is pretty obscure and I think it would have confused a lot of people. I decided to keep the more conventional method and if matching the color was a priority, one could go the extra step of cutting off the clear tracer film.

-With the letters being separate and not knocked out of the yellow, one could use the same sheet to model 50' and 40' cars.

As far the lettering being a bit too brite...have you laid the yellow down on the dark green yet? Even though the appear bright on the sheet, the color will dull down a bit when laid down on a dark surface.

Thanks for the comments...I gotta keep y'all on your toes
Chris

[tom]

Thanks for the reply and showing the prototype pictures. The method that you used for determining the letter is basically what I often do to come up with the size of lettering........and I have not done that yet with these specific decals.

I will pull out a Branchline car and check out the decals compared to that.

Like I mentioned the Microscale colors look better than the other offerings.

Thanks for replying and I hope that I will be showing a photo of one of my Reading boxcars lettered with this set.

[trebor]

We also must thank Shoofly Mark for even conversing with us. many manufactuers still say take it or leave it. It is very nice of him to address us on issues!

For my 2ct., I prefer either clear lettering on panel striped, nose placards etc. or separate lettering.

[Mark R.]

Thanks for the reply Chris.

Has the issue yet been addressed regarding the brittle inks ? Over the last while, I've noted that whenever I cut through the print image to adjust size, the ink cracks and flakes off the cut edge making it very jagged. I've tried brushing on some liquid decal film where my cut will be, but the ink still flakes off at the edge .... almost like it's not adhering to the decal film. (?)

Mark.

[Deleted]

Mar 21, 2013 8:16:43 GMT -8 Mark R. said:

Thanks for the reply Chris.

Has the issue yet been addressed regarding the brittle inks ? Over the last while, I've noted that whenever I cut through the print image to adjust size, the ink cracks and flakes off the cut edge making it very jagged. I've tried brushing on some liquid decal film where my cut will be, but the ink still flakes off at the edge .... almost like it's not adhering to the decal film. (?)

Mark.

I'll second what Mark has stated about brittle inks.

[trebor]

I had good results spraying Decal-Saver thinned with DuPont 3606S and retarder.

[shoofly]

Mar 21, 2013 8:21:36 GMT -8 @australianterrier said:

Mar 21, 2013 8:16:43 GMT -8 Mark R. said:

Thanks for the reply Chris.

Has the issue yet been addressed regarding the brittle inks ? Over the last while, I've noted that whenever I cut through the print image to adjust size, the ink cracks and flakes off the cut edge making it very jagged. I've tried brushing on some liquid decal film where my cut will be, but the ink still flakes off at the edge .... almost like it's not adhering to the decal film. (?)

Mark.

I'll second what Mark has stated about brittle inks.

WOAH...I haven't heard anything about brittle inks before. I know there was an issue with the clear turning amber last year. I'll have to try to trim out some sets and see what happens

[shoofly]

Mar 21, 2013 1:45:37 GMT -8 tom said:

Thanks for the reply and showing the prototype pictures. The method that you used for determining the letter is basically what I often do to come up with the size of lettering........and I have not done that yet with these specific decals.

I will pull out a Branchline car and check out the decals compared to that.

Like I mentioned the Microscale colors look better than the other offerings.

Thanks for replying and I hope that I will be showing a photo of one of my Reading boxcars lettered with this set.

Tom,
Your work is some of the best I've seen! Hope the decals work out to your satisfaction. Really looking forward to seeing how that bxcar turns out! ;D

[Mark R.]

Mar 21, 2013 10:33:15 GMT -8 shoofly said:

Mar 21, 2013 8:21:36 GMT -8 @australianterrier said:

I'll second what Mark has stated about brittle inks.

WOAH...I haven't heard anything about brittle inks before. I know there was an issue with the clear turning amber last year. I'll have to try to trim out some sets and see what happens

I first brought this to the attention of Rachel at Microscale back in November of 2010. It has also been a topic on a few other forums as well. I was also having problems with registration on a number of sets as well - most notably what started my inquirey was the orange stripes on the Guilford set. The white underprint of the orange stripes wasn't registered properly with the orange leaving a white edge on the orange stripe, which was really noticeable on a dark gray engine. Subsequent attempts to carefully trim off the offending white edge resulted in the orange cracking and flaking off rendering the stripes useless.

In the last couple years, I've noticed this brittle ink seems to be becoming more prominent. I shudder every time I have to cut stripes or anything through the print. I almost always have to cut out a printed "end" of a stripe to attach to the end of a cut stripe just to get a clean end - or square it up with a steady hand and paint !


Mark.

[shoofly]

I'll try trimming out a few things and report back

[Mark R.]

This picture shows the problem described with the registration - notice the white along the edges (this is NOT my work). Found this picture online - I would not use the stripes looking like that !

Rachel sent me a replacement set that wasn't much better. Sorry Chris, but I ended up having to go to Highball Graphics to get some clean orange stripes ....



This is what I ended up with ....




Mark.

Attachments:

[shoofly]

geeeeeeeeez...some of those earlier sets, I'm not sure if it's QC or printing. Maybe a little of both. if you ever get a set like this, be sure to ask for an exchange and have someone at the office check for registration prior to exchanging.

Each set is manually checked for registration...occasionally one will slip by. This happened more often before Microscale got their routine down for the white backup

Chris

[Mark R.]

Thanks Chris - Hopefully this problem has been rectified over the course. There was more than enough trap on the white, so the registration was actually off by quite a bit !

I'm looking forward to your testing regarding the brittle flaking of the ink though. That has caused more than a few headaches when printed striping needs to be trimmed .... and don't even get me started on the trim film ! - yikes !

Also, a big thank you for even participating here - very seldom do we have the luxury of voicing our concerns and getting any public replies from the manufacturers.


Mark.

[atsfan]

I have always loved Microscale decals. I ONLY use them as I have never had one issue with them and they have not been "brittle". The BEST thing about their decals is they only have the film to fit the lettering. They make some decals for scale plastic aftermarket decals (at least I think they do). I only buy those.

I would flatly dispute the OP comment of "this is why RTR sells". I have never had one issue with any set of MS decals in more years than I want to remember. Even the OLD sets I have still work fine when I break them out.

[shoofly]

To Tom's defense...There was a time not long ago when there was a transition period of hand stripping lay-ups vs going digital and about the same time federal ink standards changed thus also transition to lead free inks. Things got a little weird in finessing all the new techniques and make them a quality product. Unfortunately a few sub-par sets got away into the distribution channels. The best thing you can do is if you have a set that is shattering or off registered...exchange it for one that is. Microscale really wants to keep their customer base happy.

[nsc39d8]

I have encountered the same problem as Mark but with stripe set. I tried two different sets of 1 & 2 inch Dulux stripe and every time after no more that 10 seconds in distilled water the stripes broke apart even before trying to slide them off the paper. I was working on two Southern models and ended up having to use Shellscale decals.

James Wall
Southern, N&W and NS modeler

[shoofly]

two ways to get around that with small stripes are to apply microsol to the stripe prior to placing it in water. That will soften the stripe a bit to allow the paper backing curling. I found most of the time what breaks a long decal is the paper back flexing in ways the decal can't.

The second way is to shoot a little liquid decal film over the entire sheet let it dry then do the microsol trick just to make sure it'll come out in one piece after the backing curls

Chris

[grahamline]

Mark probably does this as well, but when cutting a line that absolutely has to be straight, I begin with a new blade. The only tearing and shattering issues here have been with sets that were several years old; yellow seems to be the touchiest color.

[shoofly]

I can confirm from testing a few sheets, orange and yellow seem to be pretty delicate. I don't know why

[tom]

By my measurements also using photos I calculated that the height of the banner should be five feet. The new Microscale set comes out to 4' 9".

The Reading Modeler banner decals also comes out to 5' (I measured the set after I calculated it). I suspect that the Reading Modeler decals are correctly sized because they may have access to a couple of Reading boxcars that are still around at the RDG&TS.

3" height difference might not seem like a lot but when spread over a 40' or 50' car but it does to me.

One other thing was that I did apply the Microscale yellow banner to a green painted surface and the yellow does look like a very good representation of Reading yellow/cream. If you could combine the very accurate Reading Modeler decals (that are done in an incorrect yellow) with the Microscale cream colors then I think I would have a set of decals that I have wanted for a couple of decades. Now however.........

[shoofly]

Tom,

You could just mask and paint the yellow banner. I'll see about perhaps printing an insert with two 5' banners...how about that

[tom]

Mar 23, 2013 11:09:49 GMT -8 shoofly said:

Tom,

You could just mask and paint the yellow banner. I'll see about perhaps printing an insert with two 5' banners...how about that

That would be really cool! Like I said the cream/yellow color seems to match the Reading colors really well.

With the wide expanse of the banner it is really important to have the colors correct and the right size.

[buffalobill]

Tom: Now that is customer service. Will be looking forward to the Reading masterpiece you will be presenting in the near future. How about something other than a Box or Covered Hopper.

Bill

[shoofly]

Tom,
I'd like to attempt and experiment with you. I'm also including the lettering but printed as simply "clear" film. My thought is to match the READING banner lettering to the green you paint the rest of the car, simply paint over the clear film lettering with the same color you are using for the boxcar. You up for this?

Chris

[Mark R.]

Mar 23, 2013 22:04:11 GMT -8 shoofly said:

Tom,
I'd like to attempt and experiment with you. I'm also including the lettering but printed as simply "clear" film. My thought is to match the READING banner lettering to the green you paint the rest of the car, simply paint over the clear film lettering with the same color you are using for the boxcar. You up for this?

Chris

Will the individual painted decal letter separate cleanly from the sheet with a film of paint over the entire thing ?


Mark.

[shoofly]

yes, it should

[onequiknova]

Are you suggesting you can print the lettering out of clear decal film only? I'm surprised you can make such a sharp edge with the film itself. Sounds interesting if it works.

[nsc39d8]

Christopher,

After problems with the first set of stripes I used the Microscale liquid decal film over both sets and allowed it to dry for 48 hours before cutting it or dipping it in water. I have not tried the MicroSol first thing but I will on these sets. Not sure when I will get to this, could you PM me with your email so I can keep you posted?

James Wall