Microscale Decals

[spookyac47]

I do not have a decent LHS closer than 120 miles and since we are on the west coast side of the country, anything related to my railroad, PRR, and era, transition, is rare to see.
A while back, I placed an order for Microscale decal set, 87-21, Pennsylvania Railroad Diesels (1937-1968) Diesel - Hoods
I had purchased this set over the years and the more recent decal sheet had the colors shifted so they no longer were even close - too much brown. I had contacted Microscale but until very recently, had not seen an improvement (remember, I can only "touch and see" by ordering and getting the product in hand). They had updated the decal set and included a second sheet in the package with additional lettering and numbering in the yellow used on second generation diesels and those being renumbered prior to the Penn Central merger.
I decided to order some additional decal sets
87-67, Pennsylvania Railroad Cab Diesels and Electric Locomotives (1955-1968) Single Stripe Scheme - Dulux
87-39, PRR Diesel Cabs & Electrics - 5 Stripe Scheme - Dulux
Dates:1947-50
87-677, PRR Diesels- Cabs & Electrics - 5 Stripe Scheme - Gold Leaf
Dates:1950-54
87-810, Pennsylvania Railroad E-Unit Diesels (1953-1968)-Diesel - E-Units - Single Stripe Scheme - Dulux
Dates:1953-68

I would say that sets 87-67 and 87-39 are reasonably close to the intended colors.
However, set 87-810, which should be the same colors as 87-67 (a dulux or buff color (straw colored)) has too much brown.
Set 87-677 appears to have gotten the gold leaf pretty close but the keystone emblems are very, very dark, don't even appear close to red. The remedy for this would be to use keystones from the other decal sheets, if there enough left over.

When I realized that Microscale had improved the 87-21 set, I contacted them and mentioned that I had previously purchased the sets that had too much brown in the color and they sent me the second sheets with the improved colors that they are now including in their current release. Thank you Microscale . . .

These are my opinions as I am by no means an expert . . .

[valenciajim]

I have ordered many items from Microscale. They are a class outfit.

[drolsen]

Chris P. from Microscale is on this forum and can certainly explain this better than me, but I know that he's been doing a lot of revisions to old decal sets. I think for a while, they were upgrading old sets, but I believe they are now replacing old sets with a new number as they are overhauled so there's no confusion with the original set. For example, if they revise (completely made-up as an example) set 87-95 ATSF F-Units, it will get a new number like 87-1893. I could be wrong, but I know that's at least the case with the Minicals, which I understand they are doing away with. The Tropicana set is the most recent example - they released a completely new one with decals for both the orange cars and the new white ones, which replaces the older Minical that covered only the orange ones.

Dave

[atsfan]

I wonder if Microscale does decals for model airplanes?

[edwardsutorik]

Jun 27, 2012 15:46:50 GMT -8 atsfan said:

I wonder if Microscale does decals for model airplanes?

I think the picture in the upper left corner implies that they do:

www.microscale.com/products.htm



Ed

[atsfan]

Jun 27, 2012 16:37:18 GMT -8 edwardsutorik said:

Jun 27, 2012 15:46:50 GMT -8 atsfan said:

I wonder if Microscale does decals for model airplanes?

I think the picture in the upper left corner implies that they do:

www.microscale.com/products.htm



Ed

Yes.
I "think" they make the decals other small producers sell for Model Airplanes. There is a pretty large number of small mom and pop parts and decal sellers for the Model Airplane Market.

[spookyac47]

Jun 24, 2012 19:16:33 GMT -8 valenciajim said:

I have ordered many items from Microscale. They are a class outfit.

I have been painting and decaling HO scale model railroad products for about 30 years.
As I stated in my last sentence, when I contacted them and asked about the updated set, they sent me the additional sheets they were including in the updated set.
Regardless, I have multiple Microscale decal sets from many years back, and for the past three or four years the colors on the decal sheets I purchase have gotten pretty far off. Since Champion is out of business, there aren't a whole lot of other choices.

[fredmoehrle]

I've got lots of Microscale Military decals.
Tanks, planes, hmm, no ships.