A pic of my shortline roster

[Ralph]

I'm creating a shortline for my layout that will interchange with the Penn Central. Its the Kings Port & Western. Before attempting custom made decals I bought some Microscale plain white letters and fashioned the KP&W herald on the cabs. It's nice to have a little extra color among my otherwise black loco roster. I've been experimenting with decal paper and my ink jet printer in making decals like this

KP&W

But so far the orange color isn't coming out opaque enough to show well on the slate blue body. I printed up some blue numbers that will work OK if I put them on the orange cabs.
I'll keep working at it because I think the blue and orange letter and number scheme is attractive.

At the moment the white letters and numbers is a provisional scheme. Here the entire current roster of the KP&W pulls a string of hoppers while an RDC commuter heads out on the high line.

 

[Ralph]

Here's the cheap dummy loco I bought for a couple of bucks at a flea market that I used to test the orange and blue scheme. I didn't take many pains to make it neat...just a let's-see-how-it-might-look. You can see how washed out the KP&W logo is but the number on the cab is readable, although the blue doesn't stand out.
Ralph

 

[Russ Bellinis]

One trick you could use for the orange is to paint the entire shell orange, then apply dry transfer lettering from Woodland Scenics. Once the dry transfer is applied, don't burnish it. Then paint the blue, and when dry just clean off the dry transfer leaving orange lettering underneath.

 

[Ralph]

Thanks for the idea Russ!
Ralph

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Ralph,
Try doubling up the decal. Put one on top of another.
When I print my decals, I usually print a sheet of six or so...Just in case it does wash out.
I even done it with Micro-Scale decals...When doing a McGuinness New Haven freight scheme.

 

[UP SD40-2]

I LIKE 'EM RALPH!!!:thumb: i think the orange and blue engines will make a nice contrast to the PC engines. GREAT JOB!!

-Deano

 

[MilesWestern]

A SHORTLINE is BORN! :thumb: !

 

[doctorwayne]

One trick you could use for the orange is to paint the entire shell orange, then apply dry transfer lettering from Woodland Scenics. Once the dry transfer is applied, don't burnish it. Then paint the blue, and when dry just clean off the dry transfer leaving orange lettering underneath.

Russ is right, this is a fairly easy technique to use, and it works for any colour. That's the main reason I used it for these TH&B diesels, as nobody made the lettering in the proper colour at the time these locos were done. I used C-D-S alphabet sets, and the stripes were done with masking tape. The paint is Polly S, applied with a brush, and the heralds on the cabs are hand-painted.

Your colour choice is a nice contrast with all the PC black, and a shortline also offers a good opportunity to run locos that your prototype didn't, although Penn Central pretty much covered 'em all!

Wayne