Niles Project ~ Slappin' Some Decals onto #105

Applying Decals to Niles Combination Car# 105

The last we left off, #105 has been painted and then a layer of Floquil Hi-Gloss applied to where the decals are going to be applied.


Fortunately there isn't any white or silver lettering involved, so I was able to print the decals with my home printer. My printer is an ink jet, so I purchased some decal paper specifically for ink jet printers.

These Niles cars are a little different from the Birney car in that these cars have "wood" slats. The decal doesn't want to settle down into all the grooves. It did in the groove to the left of the "0" (above photo) but that's about it. Eventually (as I understand it) the decal over those grooves will dry up and flake off. The only solution I could think of is to coat the decal with Micro Sol and used a tiny screwdriver to stretch the decal into the grooves. but I could only work the decal for a short time before it gets damaged. 

 This method proved to be somewhat successful, but only to a degree.The decal is conforming to the groves a little better, but a lot of air is still trapped in there. So I contacted my friend Don Ball for his advise...

Don Ball would know what to do, he is modeling the 1895 Stockton & Copperopolis Railroad which is stocked full of finely pinstriped and scroll lettered locomotives and wooden passenger cars. He recommended that instead of cutting the decal as one large piece, rather, cut the decals closer to the pinstripes and lettering and add them separately so that the air is better able to escape out from underneath the decals.  So its too late for #105, but not for #107 which is next in line for decals.

Not bad overall though. A downright fancy looking 1908 streetcar. After the decals are good and dry, I'll spray the car with a good coat of Testors Dullcote. Not only does this seal the decals, but it readies the car for weathering. So tune in in two weeks and we'll get this car good and dirty. Yes sir! Good and dirty!

Dandy

4th Dandiversary ~ 101 Posts!

The Dan D. Sparks Land Development and Transportation Co.

Board of Directors Meeting 22nd September 2010

8:00 AM San Dollar, California.

 Board Members:

 Present:

President: Dan D. Sparks

Chairman: Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager: Robin DeRail
Finance Manager: Pastor Buck

Director of Development: Arnie Clever
General Manager: David Lyman

Quorum present? Probably not.

Others Present:

Various Company Minions

Absent:

Slacker Sam

Proceedings:
· Meeting called to order at 8:01 a.m. by Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malone
· Last year's meeting minutes were marveled at and approved.

· Traffic Managers Report:
- Last weeks post "Niles Project ~ I Cal, You Cal, We All Cal For Decals" brings this blogs total posts to 100! The board broke out the champagne and proceeded to congratulate themselves.
- An Australian reader of this blog, Bill Bolton, forwarded a rare document to the company containing invaluable information about the San Diego Niles cars not seen before by this committee. The committee broke out in a chorus of "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow!" and drank a toast honoring Mr. Bolton.
- Average daily readership of this blog is 5.57 readers. Up from 4.12 daily readers last year. The board commenced to congratulate themselves again and drank more champagne.
- Most hits received in one day was during the U.S. Senate hearings with Daniel Sparks of Goldman Sachs. The board once again congratulated themselves, this time because there was no relation to Dan D. Sparks, so this company isn't being investigated. I'll drink to that!
- Blog post most read: Birney Project~Fresh Homemade Decals with 305 pageviews. No congratulations since the post is over a year old but the sipping of champagne continued.
- In fact, no posts from this year even made the top ten posts read according to Google Analytics. Board members giggled over the offhand joke "well, you wouldn't have analytics without there being anal".

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair, Pastor Buck:
- Revenue from this blog is now averaging $0.01 a day, up from $0.005 last year. That means a whopping $3.65 a year earnings! At this rate we should make our first million in 273972.6 years! The committee proceeded to hide the expensive champagne.
- That brings this blogs all time estimated total earning from the last 4 years to: $19.11. Committee members sent out for coffee.

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair, Arnie Clever:
-Despite this blog being rather insignificant and having a tiny readership, Clever recommended continuing the blog for another year since the numbers are continuously improving. MOTION to continue this blog for another year; seconded and passed with a "...ah, what the hell, why not."
- Clever suggested to the Board that actions can be taken to improve this blog such as adding some how-to videos. MOTION to add how-to videos; seconded and passed.

-And Clever strongly suggested we finish building these damn Niles cars soon and get to building the layout and run some trolleys! MOTION seconded and passed with a resounding "Huzzah!".

· Assessment of the Meeting:
- General Manager David Lyman noted that this meeting was pretty much a huge waste of time, time that could have better been spent actually building models. He reminded members that the focus of this blog is to chronicle the construction of the layout and was never intended to make anyone rich. Unfortunately, the board was too hung over to pay any attention and the meeting was adjourned.

· Meeting adjourned at 10:30 p.m.
· Minutes submitted by Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.

Niles Project ~ I Cal. You Cal. We All Cal for Decals!

Creating decals for #105.

Voilà! Pretty much used the same technique that I used for the Birney car to make these decals for the Niles car. See my post: Birney Project~ Fresh Homemade Decals.

My model of #105 is based on the history of #101. So I used this photo as reference for the font style and the locations of the lettering and pin-striping.

The earliest surviving SDERy streetcar is car #54 of 1895 (rebuilt 1901) vintage. It ran until it was retired in 1913. So it was around at the same time as the Niles cars. #54 sports red 3D lettering with drop shadows. Looking at the b&w photo of #101, this seems to be of the same color scheme. So I went with that. SDERy seemed to have used either red, silver, or brown for lettering, so I'm pretty confident this is the correct color scheme.

Here is a nice clear closeup of #101 that I used for the destination sign. ( I deduced that the sign on the other end of the car read "To San Diego"). Its' also the only photo that I have come across that clearly shows the "garnish" in the corners of the pin-striping. Is that supposed to be a rose? My simplified version looks like an ant! Either way, it doesn't matter. It's really minuscule on the model.

#105 has been sprayed with a layer of Floquil Hi Gloss necessary for applying decals to surfaces painted with Floquil paints. Once its dry we can apply the decals. Decals really make a model, I can't wait to see what 'ol #105 is going to look like with decals. Exciting isn't it? Yes sir! Very exciting indeed!

Dandy