From modelling in OO scale, some years ago I changed O scale. Initially my interest was East Anglia, and the period 1951 to 1961. This included a lot of former Great Eastern Railway rolling stock at the beginning, and covered the transformation to an almost entirely diesel operation at the end. However, as time went on, a previous desire to model some pre-grouping rolling stock emerged. Initially I built some coaches which were to be liveried as M&GN, but the HMRS transfers were really the wrong lettering style for the period I was modelling. After discussing the lack of suitable transfers with my oldest son, the next Christmas his presents to me included some transfer paper. So after some time I started to think about how to produce some transfers. What follows are the methods I tried and their results.

The initial attempt involved using clear transfer paper for multi-colour letters and numbers.

I had a copy of the M&GN Circle’s booklet on liveries that includes details of the lettering. The next step was to select the nearest font in my computer's 'Word' programme to that used by the M&GN. The letters and numbers that I wanted were then printed on to plain paper. That sheet was then scanned into the computer as a JPEG (picture) file. The JPEG file was opened using the 'Paint' programme. By using 'Paint' it is possible to enlarge each letter in turn to a pixel level, and using the tools in paint alter the letter one pixel at a time if needed. The brush tool used for drawing lines can be set between 1, and 4 pixels wide. Some areas of the font were altered to make the letters more like those used by the M&GN. Then the various shading colours were added to the letters, and numbers. Picture 1 shows an individual letter with the pixels, and shading. The second useful tool in ‘Paint’ is the ability to select an area of either one letter, or several, and resize, or alter the width to height ratio. This enables different size lettering to be produced easily, and also the letters to be made narrower, or wider as required. A word of warning is needed here as the programme seems to attempt to optimise the pixels when the above is done, so some redrawing can be needed after resizing the letters.

The results were then opened as a picture, and printed onto plain paper to check the size. This revealed another problem. The letters when printed with the file opened as a picture are a different size to when they are opened with ‘Paint’ at a magnification of 100%. As a result I needed to resize the letters so that when printed they were the correct size for 7mm scale.

All the transfer papers I used needed spraying with varnish after printing to produce the transfers. They also need to be individually cut out from the sheet to minimise the transfer film area. I then placed the transfers onto the coaches using normal waterslide techniques. The transfer paper that I was using was quite thin, and the glue dried relatively quickly, which did not give much time for repositioning letters.

The next problem was that with no white ink in domestic printers the light colours came out translucent, and looked the wrong colour. On the coach transfers the black and dark blue were the right colour, but the gold, and light blue were translucent with the 'teak' showing through. I overcame this by over painting the gold with Humbrol brass colour, and the light blue with the nearest available enamel using a fine brush. Picture 2 shows the result on an ex GN brake third as used by the M&GN. The lining was by bow pen tidied up with a fine brush, using methods described in Ian Rathbone’s book on painting models.

I purchased a Connoisseur LNER bulk grain wagon for use with my 1951 to 1961 period. This expensive, but excellent kit went together extremely well, but I then had to source some transfers. Most of the lettering and numbers etc. were applied using Fox Transfer products. However there was a prominent notice in black on white lettering about shutting the doors before shunting that was not available.

To produce the 'Shut doors before shunting' lettering I used the methods described above, but without the need to alter the font, or provide shading. ‘Word’ has a facility to produce white on black lettering which I used. The patch on the wagon behind the lettering was painted white. The transfer which had a black background, and clear lettering was then applied over the white patch. The white showed through the clear lettering giving the same result as a transfer printed with white lettering. The clear letters made the transfers very flimsy, and I wasted two transfers due to them breaking up as I tried to apply them. So it is important to print more than is needed. Picture 3 shows the result.

I had built two Slaters Midland three plank open wagons in slightly modified form to represent M&GN wagons. The previous M&GN wagon I had built had been hand lettered, but it was difficult to get consistent results. So I tried producing lettering using the same method as for the grain wagon, but with a red brown background to match the wagon body colour. The clear lettering has no ink on it so is very thin. The larger wagon side lettering resulted in the transfers produced being to flimsy, and they just wrinkled, and tore when they were applied.

After some bad language, and thinking about hand lettering the wagons for a couple of days, I noticed for the first time quite by chance that white transfer paper was available. The transfers were reprinted onto the white transfer paper. The white transfer paper is relatively thick, and needed to be bent into a curve before my printer would accept it without declaring a paper jam.

The transfers were then applied in the normal waterslide way. The surround to the lettering did not quite match the wagon colour, so it had to be blended in using the wagon colour. The other issue is that the transfer paper is relatively thick so the edges show. My wagons are weathered using some of the techniques in Martyn Welch’s book, although the results are no match for his. This includes using emery paper to produce wood grain, and scratching on the wagon sides. This technique was used to help chamfer the edges of the transfer paper.

The edges of the transfer paper, and the colour difference of the letter surrounds are still visible in some lighting conditions, so perhaps this method is not 100% successful. Picture 5 shows the result.

If transfers are available commercially I will be inclined to use them as the ease of use is greater. For items that are not available commercially then I would use the above methods again. Future experiments may include sending my art work to a commercial transfer producer to see how much they would charge to convert the art work into transfers. Also if my CAD skills can be improved this will allow use of a silhouette cutter to produce white lettering from white transfer paper without any surround colour.