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railtec-transfers

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    Manchester / Derbyshire

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    Railtec Transfers is an established producer of water-slide decals for all gauges and hobbies.

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    Decal/transfer manufacturer

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  1. The full range of Irish decals is gradually becoming available again, taking advantage of the later spot printed technology which means that there's no superfluous carrier film to cut out. More info on this here: https://www.railtec-models.com/railtec-benefits.php The 3d tech has also been leveraged to reproduce some of the NCC plates with very pleasing results. The "18" plates are 3d, just for clarity. The plates themselves are raised from the backing, with the border, mounting bolts and "18" text additionally raised, like the real things. (A shout out must go to Tony Mirolo for going above and beyond in helping with the NCC detail). There will also shortly be released a "201 loco number of your choice with matching 3d plates". Steve Railtec Transfers - See what sets Railtec apart! http://www.railtec-transfers.com/railtec-benefits.php Web: http://www.railtec-transfers.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RailtecTransfers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/railtectransfers/ Railtec are the only transfer supplier trusted and used by Pete Waterman OBE, and our products are used by thousands more including Bachmann Europe, Direct Rail Services, GBRf, Little Loco Company, the N Gauge Society, Silver Fox Models and Peco. Come and see us! We will be at: - MMRG, Derby Roundhouse, UK :: 09-10 May 2020 - Warley, Hall 5, Birmingham NEC, UK :: 28-29 Nov 2020
  2. Thanks popeye. The numerals in image 3 (pack 4mm-5635) are there for historical reasons as good as any - and there's no saying they are true to life. If memory serves numerals at that size must have been requested by at least one modeller to accompany the snails (for steam locos perhaps?), and so they have remained in the pack. If there is no need for them going forward and if they're little more than fictional then I can easily drop them in future print iterations. The "1", "2" and "3" class markings I think you are referring to appear in pack 4mm-5641, which is intended to suit the coaches. Btw I should have probably made explicitly clear in the post but the shade I have opted for (colour ref 216, further back) based on what _seems_ to be an overall opinion is the shade that is ex-works. Whether or not in the future I decide to make a parallel "worn" lighter shade remains to be seen, though hand on heart the consistent 80-90hr weeks year after year struggle to get through everything as it is, and quality of life has been taking a hammering . Still, I hope what's on offer will help folks get to where they need to be.
  3. At risk of dragging up an old thread, a couple of people had asked for the eau de nil lining to be recreated, which has now been done. The revamped lining includes the 6" stripe as well as the 3" stripe with accompanying pinstripes either side as shown in The Quiet Man film still. I believe I now have the EDN colour as close as anyone could probably hope to get it. To summarise the available 4mm packs: 4mm-5641, EDN lining 4mm-5635, EDN flying snails & large numbers 4mm-5641, CIE Stanier coach set (if this needs a better description, please let me know) These can be found at: http://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?type=5&gauge=4mm&region=2&livery=203 If there are gaps in the above range, feel free to let me know. I know there are gold-lined flying snails also discussed which I've partially tested, though what's stopping me from making these available is understanding what a suitable pack containing these should look like, particularly in terms of L/R facing, sizes (different sizes?), etc.
  4. popeye - the packs have evolved since that time, the colours have been refined and the technology has evolved considerably. I think this got raised/shown on the other thread with colour samples but I could be mistaken. The product is now spot printed so there's no superfluous carrier film. The print is crisp and suffers from zero fuzziness. There are eau de nil packs which contain ready-made carriage numbers which should remove the need to attempt to line up individual digits (life's too short, afterall). If it were the case that specific numbers were needed in addition to those already available, this is something I do every single day for the UK market particularly with loco numbers etc, with custom prices starting at £1.30. I'd need to check the artwork but the attached was what was used when revising the colour match, just to give an idea of the tiniest variations in hues that I was dealing with!
  5. Sounds like a plan. Shall we get the colour(s) nailed first and tackle the dimensions second? I was thinking about how tricky the lining would be to apply bearing in mind door handles and such. I'd make them so that they're sufficiently thin to bed in around recesses but in my experience door handles even on modern models can stand very prominent, possibly even out of scale, and even in the hands of a very accomplished modeller such prominent features can be a nightmare to work around. I'd envisage the best I could help is to just print sufficient lengths of lining (e.g. 260mm lengths for a 4mm coach) and leave the choice to the modeller whether to cut into smaller pieces or not.
  6. Thanks for the info. So am I correct in thinking, at least for this variety of passenger stock: - The snails need to be as close to 216 as I can make them, with a thin gold outline; - The numerals, upper body line and mid-body line (with accompanying pinstripes) need to be 14C35? Certainly in that last image, the snail appears to be of different colour (216) than the numerals and body stripes (14C35). If the general conclusion is as above, I'm happy to work with that and can make some more tests. Once we've got that nailed, we can move on to sizes and quantities. May as well go the whole hog and make sure everything is bang on.
  7. Thanks for the posts - this is really useful. So just to back up a sec and make sure I'm understanding this correctly: we're all talking about the colour of the transfers as opposed to the vehicle body? Just the comment re the buying of paint, i.e. obviously we don't want to make the transfers the same colour as the paint. The colour samples I showed above have white beneath. If they didn't those colour boxes would just disappear into the green and you wouldn't be able to see them at all. The printer looks like it came out of NASA and can do various forms of white beneath, with or overlay, but I won't bore anyone with all that! It could print a gold outline although I'd challenge anyone to be able to see it if printed at true scale. For it to perhaps be visible I'd need to thicken the outline which would, strictly speaking, make it incorrect if scaled up, but as is so often the case with this hobby, it's what looks right rather than what may be scale correctness. In the past few posts I'm seeing what I think may be 4 different shades of what I understand would be feasible for the transfers. What concerns me is that if 216 is the "standard", the images of the real-life examples seem to be quite different. 216 seems to be several shades darker.
  8. To my eye, the shade of the snail is quite different to that of the Quiet Man film photo. Which one is it we're trying to match?
  9. I've taken the opportunity to make a series of tests, and if it's ok with the moderator(s) and topic poster, invite feedback to hopefully help steer us all towards a majority verdict on what we think is the most suitable colour match for the transfers to suit this livery. As mentioned, there will be a minor variation in the way your own screens interpret the colours in the image vs the actual physical print I have in front of me, but hopefully this will get us pretty close to where we need to be. I've had to do some playing around with the RAW image to get the screen colours as good a match as I can to the physical print. The blocks of colours have been placed onto card which has been sprayed brunswick green, which should be a good match for the carriage. At least it should be sufficient enough to show the variations in colours for this exercise. Assuming the colour we're trying to match is the very pale green above the gentleman's cap in the Quiet Man film photo, I have a personal choice but am interested to hear others' thoughts...?
  10. A kind soul has just alerted me to this thread. The topic of eau de nil has certainly been an interesting one over the years. What I can tell you is: - Those decals on the coach a few posts back will have been made quite some time ago on the previous technology (quite possibly during a period when I was having multiple discussions with several modellers about what shade was correct). Even though the calibration of the camera's colours and graphics cards on everybody's devices will have an impact on how images on web pages are displayed, I agree that they look too turquoise in that image. However, everything has changed since, particularly with the upgrade to some colossal technology which: - Has more nuances of colour shade than any modeller would want. Just as an example, all colours in the attached image are different. It's one of several dozen test sheets that get used on a daily basis. - Prints true white rather than a paler shade of white. - Spot prints decals so that the carrier film is only present where it needs to be (or filmless in instances where there doesn't need to be any at all). Noted a comment further back regarding a question over Railtec colours for Irish decals. Would be interested to get a PM about this from the source. If this has been the case then it's much easier to resolve any issue if I know about it first-hand rather than wait for me to possibly see it on a forum (I can't monitor them all). If it was misunderstood out of context or the original comment was made for a different reason then all info welcomed. If something ever isn't right then I want to get it right for you. This is your hobby afterall. With specific regard to the coach, the product page below is perhaps about as accurate a representation that I can get to the eau de nil that I now make: http://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=1205 As for the sizes of markings, if memory serves I think they were originally taken from a Bachmann vehicle. If the numerals need to change then I'm all ears.
  11. This may help illustrate the difference between the old and new tech. I should have also added that it also provides the option to make certain elements completely filmless. In the example attached if I wanted to make just the name PERSEUS, there would be no need to have any carrier at all. In this example there's a small amount of carrier between the name PERSEUS and the small Tinsley diamond immediately above it so that the detail can be applied in one easy hit, but it's that thin it's scarcely noticeable. In fact this was a quick test I made on a completely unglossed model. I put quite a few examples (incl latest developments) up on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/railtectransfers/
  12. The lead time on new work really depends. I won't disappear down a loosely related rabbit hole but just to give some context, requests for simple bespoke numbering usually gets turned around within 24hrs. Orders for stock items (i.e. packs already available on the web site) typically go out same day. The lead time can really begin to elongate particularly when research is required, a new design of a logo or other pattern, and any subsequent testing (what might look great in artwork doesn't necessarily always roll off the printer as you might expect and may need a lot of counter-intuitive trial and error to get printed optimally). To answer your specific question about lined eau de nil snails, my gut says it would probably be pretty quick and easy as I already have the artwork and all I'd need to do is outline it, and then make a test print. There would be no minimum order qty. Where I'd need your guidance is on what size you would need and what you understand as "gold" - as many modellers' interpretation of golds, yellows and straws tend to vary. Thanks, Steve Hiya Noel, they still have a very light film but in the example of a string of numbers "12345", it would only be present between those numbers and nowhere outside of that. Before, the carrier film was the size of the entire sheet meaning that people had to cut as close to the print as possible in order to minimise the carrier - but this is no longer the case. If you've used Fox it's the same concept, though they use a completely different process and I'm not sure if they can print as little as 1% carrier like the Railtec new tech can.
  13. Thanks Robert. Indeed there are some eau de nil spot printed options on the Railtec web site, as well as a large variety of other areas of potential interest. As Robert mentions, since approx the past 18 months, Railtec product is all spot printed, meaning there's no superfluous carrier film to deal with. The colours are more vibrant, the white is "whiter", the transfers have perfect print registration, the print now withstands regular handling and is also compatible with enamels - so numerous benefits over what was used before. It was an absolute colossal investment in state-of-the-art tech and the difference has been described as "night and day". Re the point somebody made on small transfers being outlined - the new tech can handle this no problem. In fact it can print so fine that a magnifying glass would be required. As for distressed transfers, it's a nice idea and something which Railtec already makes for very limited segments of the British market such as faded EWS numbers, but the biggest hurdle here is that no matter how many variants of distressing we make, it's unlikely that it will ever be quite uniform with the remainder of the weathering that the modeller has applied. From exhibiting at shows for a number of years, I would say that 99% of modellers prefer to apply a pristine transfer and then weather the model as a whole, resulting in a uniform finish.
  14. As many have noticed, George Dent has indeed used Grand Hibernian decals for the Model Rail article. They take advantage of the 3D technology which gives the correct relief both on the coach nameplates, Celtic knots as well as traditional nameplates on 216 (as opposed to flat 2D transfers which would only mimic the effect). We are just awaiting the official ok from Belmond as there are trademark and IP issues at play here before we can reproduce at large. We already have an agreement in place with them for the UK bits so hopefully the addendum for the Grand Hibernian shouldn't take too much longer. Some of you will already know that since we made a colossal investment in new technology last summer, Railtec product is now spot printed - so no superfluous carrier film. Additionally it is scratch resistant, has no halftoning and is compatible with enamels as well as acrylics. Particularly the 3D transfers are proving immensely popular, one such example seen below on one of Pete Waterman's locos on his iconic 7mm Leamington Spa layout: The 3D transfers are much easier to use than etched, require no filing off any sprue, require no painting of course, and a lot less expensive!
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