Home made transfers

How about this

Spray a piece of card with same colour paint, scan it along with some old transfers to get sizes. I used 720DPI, save as BMP.

Edit and save as different name in paint, open up a paint in BW mode and write in Arial bold from 16 to 36 size, (no 32 size!!!!) the text you need.

C&P a TOPS panel and draw over, use correct colour to block fill the gaps, and also C&P the text off the other page.

Use bucket to get the colours correct.

Upon receipt I will then print onto white waterslide paper, I have a very close colour match of the brown and weathering will cover the rest.

I hope it works!!!!

I'll add in my china clay ones then print out when I get the paper.

Reply to
Martin
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I'm not sure what the origins of the original posting are, and am not sure that I follow the proposed method of producing transfers, but I do note the reference to china clay (wagons?).

It may be relevant to point out that I have just produced transfers in

2mm., 3mm., 3.5mm., 4mm. & 7mm. scales for BR china clay tipplers.

See

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Regards, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers.

Reply to
cctransuk

Simply trying to buy TOPS era wagon numbers and panels without having to spend £20 on different sheets sight unseen (or with a certain company a large catalogue)

Unfortunately AFAIR you don't do TOPS era.

I am modelling late 70s early 80s so I have the last of the vacuum braked stuff

Reply to
Martin

Martin said the following on 07/03/2008 11:39:

Not sure I follow, but never mind.

Are you using an inkjet printer for this? Good luck!

Reply to
Paul Boyd

Well it worked (eventually)

here are my tips.

1) Make sure you get the background colour properly into the computer, scanner/printer differences mean the shades differ slightly.

2) Use photo paper for tests as colours are different to plain paper, transfer paper is very similar to photo paper.

3) Use 720DPI or higher when scanning a painted item, also scan some existing transfers to get the correct size panels. You won't be able to use them but are great for getting the correct size.

4) Copy the BMP if you cut and paste you lose the resolution

5) Slice the paper in half and use A5

5) Don't use black use a dark grey - less likelu to run into the white

6) Leave plenty of white space.

7) Leave at least 2mm border of wagon colour beyond the new transfer

8) Leave to dry for a few hours.

9) Use a spray can of acrylic varnish designed for the job, acrylic floor polish causes ink runs and cellulose laquer cracks and allows water to run in.

10) Do not soak for long and only soak from behind.

11) Use weathering to disguise any colour differences.

12) When producing them make sure you have variations, use pictures, also while you are doing it you might as well do transfers for more wagons and store them.

13) Arial is the nearest font to BR found on a Windows PC, with 720 dpi I use 20 point, 28 point and 36 point.

14) Do the lettering as white on black on a mono BMP to avoid the edge blurring normally found in mspaint. Cut and Paste into your BMP

15) Use BMPs as JPGs will change the colours due to compression.

Engineers Olive is well to dark when scanned and printed, I suggest creating a large amounts of tests on a sheet of photo paper.

Reply to
Martin

You forgot the monitor. You've managed it once but as soon as you try a different colour you will be back to doing lots of trial runs unless you have a very expensive colour calibrated setup.

Don't understand that one.

MBQ

Reply to
manatbandq

Martin said the following on 28/03/2008 10:29:

I'm glad you got it sorted. I gave up with inkjet transfers.

My tip is to buy an ALPS printer :-) That was my solution, and I don't regret it at all. It's just a shame they're discontinued.

Reply to
Paul Boyd

Seconded - when I'm down to my last stockpiled Alps Microdry printer Cambridge Custom Transfers will shut down overnight and I will use the last printer for my own modelling !!

Regards, John Isherwood.

Reply to
cctransuk

That's not as important as it seems to be. Unless of course your _knowing_ that the colour is wrong interferes with your colour perception. ;-) See below.

I don't either, but I suspect Martin confuses image size in pixels x pixels with resolution, because of how "resolution" is used to describe monitors. You can change the resolution of a monitor without changing its size. (This was SOP on VDTs, but makes no sense on LCD monitors. IMO, an LCD monitor's resolution should be unchangeable.)

Anyhow, colour mixing and printing is a black art, not a science, despite technical helps such as colour calibration, and colour spec schemes such as Pantone.

IMO, the point of diminishing returns in the search for "exact" matches is reached very early on. Too many factors, psychological and physical, affect how you perceive colour. For example, change incandescent bulbs to fluorescents, and all the colours on your layout will change. As long as they have the same "colour distance" between them as they had before, you won't notice, but unfortunately some colours will shift more than others (because some colours are missing in the light), so you will notice. So what do you do? You get used to it, and after a week or two, everything will look "normal" again.

The single most important factor in making rolling stock (and buildings, etc) look right is the overall colour tone of your layout. Muted colours look best. That's why weathering is so important. It doesn't just reproduce the effects of sun and rain and rain and dirt, it applies an overall tone which makes the inevitably inexact colour matches unnoticeable. It produces consistent differences among colours, and that's what makes them look right. NB that one of Martin's tips is to weather over transfers to "disguise" colour differences. That's the most important tip, IMO. ;-)

HTH

Reply to
Wolf K.

A Xerox Phaser laser printer, which uses solid (wax) ink, should work just fine. No white ink, though. 1200DPI resolution.

Reply to
Wolf K.

Wolf K. said the following on 28/03/2008 13:31:

The key bit there though is "No white ink" ;-)

Reply to
Paul Boyd

Right Click properties and have a look at resolution.

Don't have to scale on printing if this is correct

Reply to
Martin

Saw one on ebay - very tempted

Reply to
Martin

I did the white by using white transfer paper and printing the wagon colour.

Reply to
Martin

Someone will have to produce a similar printer again one day

Reply to
Martin

On 28/03/2008 16:24, Martin said,

If you do buy one, make sure the seller packs it properly for shipping. The head needs to be well-secured. You also need to bear in mind that there is no repair support any more, although it is still possible to buy a new MD-5500 from a guy in New Zealand.

Consumables availability is confused, well, it is to me! I think ribbons will be available for a while yet, although like many people I have a reasonable stock. I also have a new spare MD-1000 tucked away! Once the head goes, the printer has pretty much had it.

If you are seriously tempted, it will be worth joining the alpsdecal group on Yahoo groups, and have a good read of the files section. Printing on an ALPS is nothing like printing on an inkjet, and this is where beginners to ALPS often get confused.

Reply to
Paul Boyd

So who is the guy in New Zealand???

Regards, Greg.P. (Alps owner) New Zealand!

Reply to
Greg Procter

On 29/03/2008 09:24, Greg Procter said,

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Reply to
Paul Boyd

Hi Paul & All

There is a repair service for the MD-5500, but not others. The 5500 also comes with a 12 month warranty.

Ribbons are still available

Reply to
frankfft

Hi Greg

That would be me ;-)

You can find printers and supplies at

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Currently available are MD-5500 printers, CMYK ribbons, standard white and gold foil. Silver foil, metallic gold and silver, Opaque white, Finish, Finish II and VPhoto primer are to be added within the next few days.

regards

Frank

Reply to
frankfft

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