Need Help On Decals

The emblem is not as big a problem as that lettering - not only is it increasing/decreasing in height, but it's also changing in width to suggest a 3D effect.

Maybe I can talk to my daughter about this one - be aware, her middle name is "Mercenary".

And, if that can be done, you might be able to get Clover House to make you a few pages of dry transfers,

In most cases, it is more money than any of us wants to pay, but he did a wonderful job on some custom decals for me several years ago.  And the plus is the minimum deal usually involves enough decals for all of us. The art work you have shown may be enough for him to work the graphics, if you know the basic decal size needed.  I could be wrong and often.

Rail Graphics

I only need one graphic that wasn't lettering.  The multi colors may cost more.

Bob - I can help you out on this but you may need to work the type as vector objects to be able to modify it as you are needing which likely means Adobe Illustrator. Feel free to reach out to me via my email in my profile.

Any good graphics program can modify fonts or images. The logo would not be that difficult to produce......but I'd figure about 3 hours to do a near perfect repro. I use CorelDraw but there are many other out there. 

Sample.......

Thanks guys!!!

Here's what I've done this morning:

Not sure about the yellow/gold, need to read the book some more.

How did they do it back in the 1940s without a computer?!?!?!?!  Talent I guess

Thanks Martin, wouldn't that logo look good on the caboose?

Mike, I'll keep them in mind.  Ed Reutling had some decals made when we both built the Whalebelly hoppers, the price wasn't too bad but the company is no longer in business.  That's the price we pay to get what we want.

Tim, the Adobe Photo Deluxe 3.0 was a free version I got with some other program, it's very limited in what it can do.

The president of the current NPBL used to come out to the golf course where I work, but I haven't seen him in over a year, he may have moved on.  Hugh Moomaw (author of the book) passed away a year or 2 ago, the only other person I can think of that may have something on this herald is Tal Carey, but I'm not sure if he's still in the area or still kicking for that matter.  I have a phone number for him, guess it won't hurt to call.

The old timers knew their stuff. There's a local sign painter I still see from time to time who I've gone up to talk to. Amazing is all I can say. Last of the breed.

My background was in graphic design and I taught typography at a local university for years. I have to bite my lip with some frequency looking at some of the layouts - I see egregious type violations constantly. Some of the manufacturers of scenic and building stuff are actually the worst. I spent a lot of time studying the history of type, printing, lettering etc. I've even got an old letterpress and a few tons of lead type so I have a little background on this.

That said, I love working digitally. The idea here is that you have to break the letterforms into editable shapes so that you can modify them. If you just stretch stuff you will not be happy. The decals are not going to be cheap so you really want to get the art right.

If you are on a Mac there are some apps that can modify graphics and type in what is called vector art that I can suggest that are reasonable but most have a pretty steep learning curve for most folks.

If anyone needs help with the "correctness" of a particular font I am happy to help out. For me it's like somebody put Mel's diner on a steam era layout when I see Helvetica plastered across the tender of a steamer. I guess we all have our own hangups... Ha.

Tim,

The yellow image I posted was saved at 6" wide.  The decal I'll need should be approx 2" wide.  I'm thinking that I can take this 6" wide image and knock it down to 2" it should work (at least eliminate some of the choppiness), or does it work that way?

I can reduce it and print it out to see what happens.

And, that's where mercenary comes into play - I've got that on both of my computers, but the daughter actually knows how to use it.

Martin,

You and Tim are right about the "vectoring", I tried simply reducing my image and printing it.  It came out ok, but I can't read the lettering now.

I've got the caboose painted, just need to paint the roof black.

I've been trying to figure out the colors used.  Looks like maybe dulux gold or white herald on the steamer and white herald on the caboose, but I'm not sure.

So yesterday I emailed the current Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line and the VP emailed me back this morning and invited me to come to their office to take a look at their color photos they have, hopefully I can get all my questions answered then.