Putting signs on buildings?

[vanda32547]

Morning all,

I was wondering how you all adhere advertisements to buildings?
Do you use decals?
How do you make them look like they have been there a while?
Do you just glue them on?

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[CharlesH.]

I use paper signs printed on thin paper, then sand them thinner and adhere them to the wall using white glue, that way it's easier to work it into the bricks. Either that or I merely paint it on.

 

[JBBVry]

depends on what kind of sign it is. if the sign would have been on poster bord or wood i use card stock to print it on. if it was painted on the building i try to use the thinest papper i can find to print it on. then i use white glue and let it sit for a couple min so it gets realy wet and soggy the use a Ex-acto to push it into the boards or bricks. you canalso sand them a bit to make them even thiner. i have found a few sites on the net i go to and copy signs from the 20's to the 60's to use some look better than others. so look for metal signs on the net to get some nice ones.

 

[vanda32547]

Got any links to those sites?

 

[spitfire]

I use decals, which I create myself in Illustrator and Photoshop. For decal material I have the set that gives you 3 sheets clear and 3 sheets white. The tricky thing to wrap your head around is that you can't print white - so when I need white lettering I either use the white sheet or I paint white underneath.

Now, the cool thing about using Photoshop is that I can do all my distressing and weathering of the sign right there, so when it's printed there's nothing more to do to get it to look old and faded.

Dash also has a thread about printing directly from ink jet printer onto brick sheet, which would be great for scratchbuilt buildings. It's here

Hope this helps.

Val

 

[rockislandmike]

I've personally found the fastest and best way for me is to print the sign out on label paper; adhere the label to some thin styrene; cut around the sign; then glue/cement that to the building.

If I want to weather it a bit, drybrushing grey down it works good (although most signs are not all that weathered, as they are cleaned fairly recently; or, for example, billboards, which change so often they never really get that dirty).

 

[Fred_M]

Got any links to those sites?

http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=11826

 

[Eddie Landreth]

Got any links to those sites?

Here's one I like:

http://www.billboardsofthepast.com/index.html

 

[vanda32547]

Eddie,

That is a great site ...thanks for the link.

Regards,