EXTERNAL: HO Herald King Hopper Decals

[NW Modeling List]

 Ryan:

A noble endeavor!

There is a fellow who has been printing modern-ish decals on an ALPS
machine and selling in person at the Boeing Model Railroad Club meets in
St. Louis who may have done these.  He is a meticulous researcher, and his
printing is very crisp.  Unfortunately I cannot remember his name, so
hopefully this will allow you to network to him-- maybe start with the
Boeing St. Louis Model RR Club web site. He specializes in modern IC
prototypes, but has ranged pretty far from that over time.  I can't recall
seeing your specific set in his list, but he's got over a hundred
prototypes covered, and if one is yours, you are in tall cotton.

I have been having custom decals made for me by Jim Abbott of Highball
Graphics (http://www.highballgraphics.com/).  He's willing to print single
pages (8.5" x 11", less 1/4" borders all around), and does a superb job,
with decal paper as good as Microscale's current offering.  Jim has a
4-color laser printer plus an Alps printer and limited stock of gold and
silver material for it.  He also sells good decals of his own artwork,
mostly of NE prototypes.

The catch with Jim is that he ONLY accepts artwork from a vector graphics
software called Corel, and ONLY in Version 13.  I purchased a copy (Version
19, but which can "save down" to 13) for the sole purpose of generating
artwork for modeling.  Corel is fantastically capable, although with a very
steep learning curve which is mitigated somewhat if you are already
familiar with CAD packages.  It's also expensive (~$450) if you buy the
full commercial version, but a very complete academic version (compatible
with Jim's requirements) is available on Amazon for $99.  Go find a student
or teacher in your life!

I'll also recommend checking out fonts from Railfonts (http://railfonts.com/),
which (in my Windows 8 and 10 machines) are fully compatible with Corel, as
are all other True-Type fonts.  Not having to design your own font for a
project saves LOTS of hours-- but I have done that too, for example for the
numbers on T&P steam locos.

If you go this route, you will open up an entire new world of opportunities
for finishing your models more accurately than even the factory painters.
I have had Jim print up 11 different sheets for me, that will allow me (as
I get project slots with my painters) to finish over 70 unpainted brass
models.  So far, I have been able to complete a T&P F-1s, a B-6, and an
I-1a (all in the green boiler livery); a Wabash P-1 (in the full Banner
Blue livery); an NYC DES-3; and a WECX 20-axle Schnaebel car.  I have
completed the artwork for several N&W steam locos, including the Jawn Henry
and an E-3.  The decals are truly superb-- far sharper and denser than old
Herald King, Walthers, or Champ sets, and easily equivalent to Microscale's
sets, which are screen printed.

If you can live with one of the True-Type fonts available commercially, the
artwork design for your hopper cars could be as little as a 2-3 hour
project.  Note that Corel can scale, anamorphically stretch, tilt, and add
perspective to any Tru-Type font (or any other vector object), and has
superb kerning and line height editing features, so "existing fonts" is
much less of a constraint than one might at first think. BTW, it's hugely
helpful to have photos taken at right angles to (and from the same height
as) print blocks on a prototype-- this makes scaling the art
straightforward.

Jim accepts digital files by email, and payment via PayPal on his web
site.  About a week after payment, your decals show up in the mail.  You
could probably fit enough decals for 20-30 of your cars on a single sheet.
Because your printing is all white, Jim would use his 4-color printer, and
his total charge would be $35 plus $3.50 for shipping.  (Metallics cost
$40/sheet at this time, but will probably go up as his ALPS paper stock
dwindles.)

The first attachment hereto is a .jpg copy of the latest sheet I have been
working on.  This will include decals for a Lehigh Valley drop-center
flatcar, a YVT Westinghouse B-1 electric, a T&P M-1 in the MP Eagle paint
scheme, three VGN cabooses that had slightly different liveries, a GN
Sno-Dozer, an ATSF Dynamometer car, a LIRR G-5, three TCY HWT cars for the
1937 Super Chief, several GN HWT head-end cars, and a drumhead or three for
the CNW 400's.  I have a bit of room left, and may try a first cut at
decals for an OMI Erie tugboat.  (At $35/sheet, it's cheap enough to do a
trial run, and I have taken this route several times.)  As you can see, you
have complete artistic freedom over what you do with the page real estate.
And, as you can see, models that have been hopeless to finish previously
can now be finished in literally any livery version you can document.
Although, as the 2nd attachment shows, even that's not a requirement.  (I
had two Global Outlet sets, plus an Alco set, of EL-2b's, and had this
"what if" painted by Don Silberbauer of Model Memories with my custom
decals plus stripes from a Microscale EF-4 set.  We'd both like to have
seen an EL-2b set crossing the Hell Gate Bridge!)

And, lest you fret that maybe Corel/Highball only allows you to do
alpha-numerics, check out the 3rd attachment.  These are some of the logos
for which I have generated artwork from scratch in Corel, modeled after
images from the www.  I'm especially proud of "Dashing Dottie", which I did
for a LIRR N-22b caboose project.  I don't think there will be too many of
those out there in Model Railroad Land!  And I now have all the CMSt.P&P
logo versions I need to correctly do the EF-1 and EP-1 sets that have
languished naked in unpainted brass for decades.  The Baldwin builder's
plate was for the YVT B-1 electric-- somebody had the presence of mind to
take a close-up of the plate on YVT #297, and so now my model will have the
exact correct builder's number and date represented.  Way Cool!

Jim was very helpful with advice on how to use some of Corel's more arcane
features.  I'll be happy to advise as well, through this forum, if anybody
wants to try this out.

Did I mention I'm looking for another custom painter or two?

Best,

-Eric Bott

Moderator:
http://www.nwhs.org/mailinglist/2018/20180611.DSC02090.JPG
http://www.nwhs.org/mailinglist/2018/20180611.Lehigh-Valley-9955.pdf
http://www.nwhs.org/mailinglist/2018/20180611.Logos.pdf


-----Original Message-----
From: NW-Modeling-List [mailto:nw-modeling-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf
Of NW Modeling List
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2018 18:19
To: NW Modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: EXTERNAL: HO Herald King Hopper Decals

Hello modeling group. I'm Ryan Harris and I've been modeling N&W equipment
from afar for several years now. I got hooked on NS when I was in college
in Georgia in the early 90s, but it wasn't long before I became more
interested in the predecessor roads of NS. My modeling era is the mid to
late 80s, so that puts me squarely in post-merger territory but I have more
than my fair share of pre-merger equipment.

I'm working on a coal train based largely on the Andrew Dow book. I've come
to the point where I want to decorate some hoppers in what I believe is
called the Claytor scheme (seen here:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1959433 ) but I
haven't had much success finding decals for these cars until now - maybe.

I found Herald King set H-55 in their alphabetic listing of decals,
described as: "H-55 HOPPER: Blk 100 Ton (1981) Wht Decal". The illustrated
catalog is not much help, since the images are such a low resolution it's
impossible to make them out. Here's the image from their
website:

https://heraldkingdecals.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/H22-232x300.jpg

It looks like the upper left image on the catalog page might be what I'm
looking for. Can anyone confirm if Herald King H-55 is the set I'm looking
for?

Also, another problem is I can't find any in stock anywhere. I've set up a
saved search on ebay in case any turn up there, but I'm looking to letter
about a dozen cars. If these are indeed the decals I'm looking for and
anyone has a lead on where I can purchase about a dozen sets, I'd very much
like to know.

Of course, if there is a better set that I'm unaware of I'd love to find
out about it. I bought a couple sets from the commissary a few weeks ago,
but those decals will work only for earlier cars.

Thanks,

Ryan Harris
Fort Worth, Texas
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