Page 21 - NMRA Roundhouse May-June 2019

The second bugbear of loco painting is the supply of decals.Again the supply
is limited with the demise of Champ and Microscale don’t do the range that Champ once did, particularly for the smaller roads in steam days. Richard Maxwell asked me to paint a Western Maryland 2-10-0 photo at right but the decals supplied (Champ) proved to be very fragile and floated into a thousand pieces when soaked in water.This is
a common problem with old decals, particularly Champ. I now spray any old decals in satin varnish before use and this usually solves the problem.Trying
to get a supply of the smaller “West- ern Maryland” for the tender proved impossible until Richard was then told
to have a look at the WM Diesel sheet from Microscale (sheet 87-1005) and this proved to be the solution.The lettering is fractionally smaller than the steam version but I defy anyone to notice the discrepancy. So if you are struggling to find the correct decals for steam, have a look at the transition era diesel sheets as the lettering may be the same.
Because of the problems with decals I will no longer paint and weather if the correct decals are not supplied and if the loco is not black I will have to find the closest match from the precision range and agree this with the customer.
David Clarke
B&O E27, painted lettered and given a light weathering
June 2019 - ROUNDHOUSE 21