I had recently bought an older Kato GP35 and a Proto 2000 FA2 that didnt have factory number boards. I made some with ink jet decal paper but they let too much light through and just didnt look right. So I tried making them out of paper and applied them with white glue. They looked better, but still not quite right. Then I tried glossy photo paper. And now I am happy once again. They look great. the white numbers let the right amount of light through and the paper is thick enough that the black still looks black with the lights on. When you cut them out use a blake marker around the otside edge and apply them with white glue. Hopefuly someone will find this helpfull. Does anyone else have a trick for number boards?
That's a good one. We have had some major threads on N scale numberboards. Some of those would work easily on H0 scale for appearance, but for lighted number boards, I'm not so sure. The ink jet should provide you with all the capability you need for number boards. Your technique is the first I have heard for H0 scale. Thanks for posting.
I've had success with using Microscale's blank/white decal sheets for inkjet printers and sealing my print job with a few coats of dullcote. Your idea of photopaper makes sense, I'll have to give it a try!
Shellscale? Look here http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=95838&highlight=number+decal
I ended up documenting my N scale numberboard procedure as follows, it seems similar to what you ended up doing, Jdvass. The main difference is that I ended up using regular paper or adhesive mailing label printer paper (because I had it handy and didn't have to go to a store to buy anything) ........ You can see that procedure at: Easier N Scale Locomotive Number Boards by John Sing The regular paper or adhesive mailing label paper used to print the number boards seemed to work acceptably well for back-lighting: Big thanks to Flash Blackman, who posted earlier in this thread, his article in N Scale Railroading got me going on this type of procedure. Thx, Flash! Hope this helps.
I would try painting the number boards white. And then the decals, black with white numbers. Wolfgang
John Sing's numberboards look really nice. I tried something similar, but thought the paper was too thick. John's even let the light through. I highly recommend John Sing's tutorial linked above. But, I still periodically have some other ideas, too. Here is a technique for white boards with black letters using an inkjet printer. This is N scale, but I am also going try it on a set of H0 scale F units. Printed the numbers at 3.5 point font height on white decal paper. Atlas numberboard plastic parts shown, too. The numberboards from Atlas have the black printed with clear so you can see the lighted boards. I scraped the black Atlas boards off. Next I cut the decal paper slightly larger than the numberboard so the white would completely cover the number board area. The put the decals in place and center them on the plastic board. Boards in place on one of those Atlas decorated shells. I am unsuccessful with this technique for black numberboards so today I used a laser printer to do this same technique for black numberboards. It may work.
Here is the result of the white letters on a black number board decals with a laser printer. It is applied the same way as the ink jet procedure above; however, the openings on this Kato SD40 are not as large as those on the Atlas shell. I suppose I could reduce the font and I may try that. First, I will try John Sing's method by just cutting out the number boards and gluing them in place.
