I finally collected up all the artwork, and did the layout. Doing decals is not a 15 minute affair, as I spent 9.5 hours finding out what each reporting mark reads, and it's most common placement. Contrary to popular belief, not all cars are the same, especially repaints. These cars below, were all repaints from either Middletown & New Jersey cars that BN aquired,(SIECO Cars) or Railbox cars BN owned and pooled. (FMC cars) What that means is each car has been repainted by BN, and since they don't do them at the same time like the manufacturer would, each is custom. Now I have to actually print the decals, then I can get on with the other projects I promised people.
I got a sheet of the Sieco car decals done, and will work on the others tomorrow after work. I had messed up and somehow printed out the decal sheet with the black at 90% black, which left holes, so I fixed the artwork, and tested the decals, and found I did the same thing with white, at 90% coverage. All is fixed now, but I wasted 4 sheets of paper to figure out what was happening. What happened is the side effect of a power outage in the middle of doing the drawings, and somehow all the artwork got converted to 90% of the color instead of 100%. At first I thought I lost it all, but I found the "AUTOBACKUP_OF_BN 50' BOXCAR Z DECAL .CDR" that Corel Draw X4 created in case of power loss. Saved a whole day's work.
Robert, If you need reporting mark info, let me know, I have access to some great images and can get it for you...and for most of these cars, we've already done the research here. Cheers Joe MTL
Thanks Joe, I will take you up on that, as i am always looking o make my decals correct and complete as possible.
ROB! No UPS ??? They're less than $100 for 30 minutes ! I have 2: one to run the primary PC, monitor and cable and the second runs all the extras that I don't really need like the printer, sound, chargers, etc. .
Jeff, I also have a UPS on my tvs also. I hate it when it shuts down during a split second power outages, and I think its better for the tv.
Well, I am done with decals and doors. I just had to test them out, so more of the NS cars went to the stripper. These are 2 of the door types used on these cars Here is the 3rd door type on this car. Also visible is the lower door slider support ribbing mod. End reporting marks are readable, if you can apply such small decals. I needed to use the 5X loupe on my #5 optivisor to see them well enough to cut out the decals. Good grief, I don't relish doing that again soon. Again, readable text, and easier to apply decals on the side.
Hey Rob, it's always fun to apply this small decals. The best thing is you apply them and find out later under the magnifying glass they are upsidedown.....
Robert, the car looks great. If somebody said your decals looks like one from Microscale, I would take that as a insult.
I just wanted to let everybody know we are also working on getting some end walkways/platforms made to be added to the boxcars. These will be added to your cars at no additional cost to you, as a treat from me to say, Thanks for waiting and getting through the delay to get these cars completed. The next runs will go much faster.
Eddie and Robert, Excellent job on the cars and decals. Mine will have a prominent place on my layout! John
