# Decals & Shells



## Mainliner (Dec 26, 2012)

Are there generic vanilla Locomotive carbodies (shells) in black?

Can you purchase decals for a locomotive? 

I want to display a Northern Pacific SD45 and a BN SD45 (pre-merger and post merger), not having much luck finding anything NP except on eBay, and most of that stuff is someone else' junk.


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Yes, Atlas especially, but there are others including the old Athearn Blue Box line that there are still plenty of.


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## Hold'ErNewt (Nov 27, 2012)

...and, depending how ambitious you are, it's not hard to strip the paint off any locomotive and respray with an airbrush or rattle can. Decals can be purchased or printed on your home computer using your own artwork.


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## thetramp (Dec 14, 2012)

What program would you use to print your own decals? Also, what size print would work for HO?


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## Steve S (Jan 7, 2012)

Inkscape is great for decal artwork. Best of all, it's free.

http://inkscape.org/

Size depends on how big you want it on your model. You can set up the grid in Inkscape to mark off inches (or centimeters if you prefer.) Load in a side-view drawing of the engine (or freight car) you want and use the grid to size it appropriately. Then adjust the font size to your liking.

Steve S


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## Steve S (Jan 7, 2012)

Here's an example. The grid spacing was set up for centimeters. I copied a drawing of a 50' boxcar, which should be about 17.5 cm in HO scale. I pasted the drawing into Inkscape and adjusted its size until it was 17.5 cm long. Then you create whatever artwork you want and size it appropriately.

With Inkscape, you can do things like have the text wrap around a circle.










Steve S


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## thetramp (Dec 14, 2012)

Where do you get the paper to print the decals on?


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