Custom-Painted Locomotives

[Lady_Railfan]

Nick, I just hunted up this thread since I've wondered about using clear Avery labels to print "decals" for my train. I'm not sure how well they'd stand up under outdoor use, but if they bubble or peel, it won't be hard to just replace them.

Here's the Avery site: http://www.avery.com/ Any office supply or stationery store should carry them.



It looks like the clear labels or the ones suitable for color printers might be a good bet.

 

[CBCNSfan]

Claudia, I have used Avery labels for my disks, and they do not come off very easy, so the holding power of their glue is excellent. I have used some of their clear labels on envelopes and packaging for ebay and no failures there either. I have one concern though, it's the thickness of the label that may be difficult to hide and it will certainly require a spray of Dullcoat to take the shine off. There are quite a few sizes, some of them are very transparent, and some are semi transparent, sort of fogged which doesn't have as much shine but would terrible looking on a black background. Maybe the thickness wouldn't be so noticable in G scale. They are relatively cheap, and you can always use them on something else if they don't work out for your rollingstock, but worth a try if you use a couple on something other than your trains for a test.
I got mine at a Staples store in town, but most book stores and office supply stores cary them.
Other than that there are decal makers who make up specal sets of decals. I think the setup fee is under $50 and each decal set after that would be around six or seven dollars. A friend of mine had such a set made up for his road. I could look furthur into that if you wish, but then again maybe some members on this forum have experience and information regarding that.
Cheers Willis

 

[Russian]

This used to be a Athearn F59PHI Metrolink engine. As I am trying to highlight and promote the Canadian Cadet Organization in Winnipeg, I repainted the engine and 15 Con-Cor Bi-Level coaches white and printed off decals on my printer. I just went to Staples and found self-adhesive labels for inkjet printers and played around with the images until they fit properly.

I know I know...the labels are crooked....I plan to fix this soon...just haven't had much time lately to work on them....

So you can buy the paper at Staples and make your own decals for it? When I go to Staples, what should I be asking for?