I am the owner of Microscale Industries. I'm looking for help from modelers on how we can help promote modeling. We are inserting a sample decal sheet in the April issue of Model Railroader, and are attempting to set up demonstrations on modeling at a few shops. If these are successful we will look at doing this on a larger scale. Any ideas would be much appriciated.
------------------ Dave W.
Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :
Dear Dave,
Nice to meet you. I am James Mitich. I have a small custom model train painting business called Mitich Rail Limited and I would like to thank you for the quality and varity of railroad decals that you offer.
As for Ideas as to what you propose. I think its a great idea. I would try what I would call a "Prototype Modeling Approach." I would take a Painted and unletterd car (either factory available or prepped before hand) and demonstrate The use of your products. What would really go over well I would think, is set up a booth and provide a free painted car thats mostly assembeld (minust trucks and couplers mostly) and a decal set.(Maybe nearby Athearn and their Ready to Roll line could be of assistance?) In the process describe what model railroading is about and how decals can be used to achieve a unique custom car. I would also include a photograph of the real car you are trying to get them to make. With your ability to produce decals I think sets made to match the photo and do just that could fairly easily be done. I dont know how much of a chore it is to set up new decal sets the way you guys do it. But since I am thinking on roadnames that you already have sets for, if you guys use a computer type set up. You culd just dial up some UP lettering for example and make the set out of fonts already in inventory.
One complaint I hear often from first time decalers is they are often intimidated by small lettering. I am thinking on these new sets for the project of maybe combining all the small lettering that goes in one area of a car onto one piece of film. This would make the first timers less intimidated and more apt to try this great part of model railroading. Though I do recognize that hiding the decal film cold pose some problems
This could also open a new seris of decals for Microscale. With ground being lost to factory painted equipment every day. You can use these new sets in a "First timers Project" kind of line aimed especially at model railroaders doing their first custom car. The kind of projects I am thinking of are maybe something that could be done in about 15 to 20 minuts. (with the possibility of not using your setting solutions for time reasons) I think doing it that way would be a good way to get new people into model railroading.
If you would like some photos for Ideas for cars that I think would make good first time projects. Let me know. I will send you some from my collection. I will let you use them for no charge as long as you credit Mitich Rail Limited for the source.
I am glad I could be of assistance.
Sincerely
James Mitich.
Posted by David Williams (Member # 2327) on :
James, Thank you for the suggestions! We are forulating a five year plan and your suggestions will be reviewed at our next staff meeting. Best Regards, Dave
Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :
Hi Dave.
Way Cool. Its nice to know I have contribted in some small part.
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
Hi Dave: Is it possible to make a decal wide enough to cover older decals? I'd like to change my superliner fleet to the phase IVb paint scheme, but sanding off the Walthers "superliner" decals/paint would be difficult. (I have fat fingers, combined with minor authritis)
I also have phase III Althern P-42's that I'd like to change.
Thanks for posting here.
Posted by David Williams (Member # 2327) on :
Mike, It's hard to match the spacing on exact lettering to cover up existing lettering. We have a bunch of custom modelers who do work for us and all say it is better to overspay and re-decal than try to decal over the existing letering. Dave
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
Darn.......
I have 2 P42's and 11 Superliners....
Looks like I need to set up a minor assembly line one of these weekends. :-)
I'll assume Microscale is coming out with the phase IVb paint scheme decals sometime in the future..
(Also, I won't quibble about the $4.00.... A couple of years ago, your Italian friends convinced me that the discounted $3.98 isn't worth the hassle:-)
Thanks, Dave
Posted by conrailkid (Member # 1898) on :
hey dave! first, let me tell you as a long time microscale user, your decals are top notch. the variety of decals you offer is incredible. one fault that i see and i think might be a niche that you could capitolize on is older fallen flag roads. most of the rtr manufacturers have the basics down, that is, everything comes in csx, up, bn/sf, and ns. what about all of those predisessor roads? i'd love to see in depth offerings for these long past companies...the likes of wm, prr, pc, lv, cnj, rdg, nh... you see where i'm going? just because the roads don't exist anymore doesn't mean that modelers can't use their magic and imagination to have fleets of equipment based on today's rolling stock. trouble is, not too much fallen flag decals are out there. personally, i'd like to see penn central style letters and numbers only, in black and white...i'd clean you out of those!
Posted by David Williams (Member # 2327) on :
Thanks for the input and the kind words!! We attended a model train show this weekend in California and this topic came up a number of times! We will be working with two long time modelers to take a look into the past and set a program for release. We try to pre plan our new releases about 6 months in advance so it may be a while until we get these out to the public. As we make our choices I will post them here and get a little feedback prior to printing. Regards, Dave
Posted by Fumes5 (Member # 1437) on :
Hi,
I tend to model amtrak westcoast trains, I feel a much needed addtion to your already massive fleet of amtrak decals (thank gosh) would be the Amtrak California/Surfliner decals, and some Phase IVb for superliners. Thanks.
Posted by BIG SARGE (Member # 2328) on :
Hello Dave Let me first echo the sentiment of how top notch your company is. Two examples: 1- I model a VERY hard to find fallen flag; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis- The Big Four(prior to NYC takeover). Just finding prototype info for this road is nearly impossible! But sure enough, you guys have a decal set for it! 2- The fact that you are here on this forum posing this question speaks volumes!! Bravo!! My obscure road situation not withstanding- I agree that a niche that your company could easily fill is the fallen flag arena. An idea might be to challenge modelers to the first punch. If they send in artwork of stock and/or lettering that you do not have in your library and it is a viable example for your company to set type from, that modeler gets x amount of the decals for free. This could drastically increase your library of those Fallen Flags. You could even charge a bit more of a premium price for them to recoup the expense. The modeler who has been looking EVERYWHERE for that equipment for his seldom modeled road will not think twice about a few extra bucks. The only drawback may be the flood of mail that you will receive-especially if you advertise it in one of the national magazines. Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :
Hi Dave,
I follow in Big Sarge's Sentaments on Fallen flags. There are several railroads that had colorful and distinctive equipment that I would like to run in through service on my model rialroad, but cant find anyone that makes it. Or if they do, It costs a god awful amount. In my prevous posting i mentioned I to own a model train company. (Although on a much smaller scale that yours) Over the years I have collected a large number of photographs. In the hope that I might be able to further assist your efforts, I make it available for your use. I am in the process of digitising all the images and puting them on line. When I get that done, I will post the link here.
Some of my pictures can be found at http://w3.trib.com/~mrljim That is the website I am buidling for my company. To hold some of the links until I get the actual pages built. I have posted some of my photographs.
[This message has been edited by Challenger (edited 03-06-2003).]
Posted by Russ Bellinis (Member # 2377) on :
I was at my local hobby shop today visiting with a friend who works there. He began building kits, and decalling right at the counter when things were slow. One thing he discovered was that when customers came in and watched him building things, they saw that it wasn't nearly as hard as they thought it would be. A bunch of his customers who used to buy exclusively predecorated ready to run equipment, are now trying model kits and doing painting or decalling, adding details, etc. You or some of your employees might go to an occasional train show and set up a table where you can do some basic modeling, and demonstrate decalling procedures. If you had people taking turns doing modeling and decalling throughout the weekend, the model railroaders working for you, would have a chance to get some modeling done, and people would have an opportunity to see how easy it can be to put on decals.
Posted by David Williams (Member # 2327) on :
Russ, Thanks for the input!! Building a model from scratch can be imtimadating, we know how tough it is to buy even to most basic tools until you've had a chance to learn a few skills. We are currently building a team to give demos and training. We are hopeing to send them to at least 3 train shows, and will be attempting to set up weekend demos at 5-10 train stores across the country. Best regards, Dave
Posted by jebradley (Member # 606) on :
Dear Mr. Williams: I'm glad to see your replies. My problem with Microscale is that in general I only model single cars and not entire trains; also, it's annoying to want (for example) a Bay Line box car, buy the decals from their only source, and then be stuck with the two other roads on that sheet. Your 'Mini-cals' are the ticket, but ALL your decals should be available on that basis! Also, your catalog should show the DECAL LETTERING COLOR and, for clarity, the car or loco background color; Walthers has done this for many years (alas, they have cut their variety recently). I am now stuck with D&H black decals when I needed blue (found the car lettered in blue at a train meet, fortunately), and will have to do another car or give away the set (with 2 other unwanted roads on it.) On the positive side, we DO appreciate the great variety available from you; but your catalog doesn't contain an order blank nor indicate if the items have a s&h charge or are postpaid. Showing the colors and postage charges would appear to be just common sense! Thanks for your time ! James E. Bradley Thanks for your ti
Posted by conrailkid (Member # 1898) on :
hey dave, mr. bradley has a good point. while your decals are the best, the catalog, is, shall we say, not good. pictures of the decals, or at least close color matches of the decals would be helpful. i am fortunate in my area that i have mb. klien hobbies nearby and can view your entire line. but if he's closed, or closes, the black and white catalog just doesn't cut it.
Posted by Russ Bellinis (Member # 2377) on :
Microscale has a web page www.microscale.com. An additional advantage with using the online catalog for reference is that it is constantly updated as new decal sheets are produced. If you go there, the catalog is online, and you can go through the index and select any decal sheet, the page for that sheet will have a description of the sheet and a thumbnail pic of the sheet. If you click on the thumbnail you get a full screen color pic of the decal sheet that should answer any questions you might have regarding what is on the sheet. The problem with doing everything in "mini cals" is that for every modeler who wants to do one car only in a particular scheme, there is someone else who wants to model a cut of them with different road numbers. I think it is much more economical for Microscale to do the decals as they do them now. If I only need the material for one car or locomotive, the sheets are not that expensive that I wouldn't get it anyway. I might use more of it in the future. If I need to buy a separate sheet to do say five Santa Fe cars with different numbers, that would get very expensive, and a mini cal might not have enough number selections to do five cars. I would vote to keep the decals as they are.
[This message has been edited by Russ Bellinis (edited 03-20-2003).]
Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :
On the discussion of decal sheet format. I agree with Russ on the number of Decals per sheet. As I have mentioned before, I have a custom paint shop. I am frequently called upon to do whole rosters of equipment. If each sheet did only one car or locomotive my expenses I would have to charge would be unreasonable to most people. A stardard decal sheet goes of $5.00 and I can get up to 5 or 6 locos or cars from 1 sheet. While a Mini-Cal sheet goes for $3.50 and at most can only do two cars or locos. So my vote is do keep doing the line of larger decal sheets. Makes my life easier.
Thanks Again,
James
Posted by David Williams (Member # 2327) on :
Thanks for all the imput!! We are currently are revamping our web site. It is a long and costly process, but should help with identifing all decals in our line. We will be creating a new position here at Microscale which will be in charge of all new releases and handel our demo team. The person we but in this position would have to be an active modeler with good communication skills. If you know of any one that would be interested in this position they can send a resume to Rod Pick via fax 714 593-1432 or email to rodpick@microscale.com Regards, Dave
Posted by conrailkid (Member # 1898) on :
thank you for the direction, russ! i didn't know about microscale's website...(duh, should have figured it was that easy!)
Posted by jebradley (Member # 606) on :
I didn't mean to disadvantage those who want to decal a string of cars - maybe the answer is to make decals available both ways, as singles or in sheets; my problem was more that the sheets have unrelated roads on them. I agree that the 'fallen flag' roads are most appealing and hard to get. Microscale certainly does a good job covering the more modern road names, transit authorities, etc. Forgot about the website - it's good, and does show most of the decals with color and styles. Also, catalog obviously should include ordering info - prices, s&h, any applicable taxes. Thanks. James E. Bradley Hawk Mountain Chapter NRHS
Posted by conrailkid (Member # 1898) on :
hey dave, i guess that you can tell by the number of responses that your forum has should tell you how popular the product that you make is. now let's see how good you are, can you have this done by tomorrow? but it is a good sign from a company that the big cheese is willing to stick his/her neck out to the vultures, and you certainly have my respect for stepping up to the plate. i hope this is the beginning of a wonderful new world for you and microscale. thanks and good luck!
