Detailing Kato N-scale NYC smoothside passenger cars

I'd like to detail N-scale Kato NYC passenger cars ala the 20th Century Limited and I'm looking for decals with the NYC car names, like the "River", "Bay", "Creek" cars, and the 20th Century drumhead (or any NYC drumhead). It looks like Microscale has only generic NYC passenger car decals, and I've done google searches galore and have come up empty. Anybody know if someone makes these decals?

Also, I may replace the NYC lettering on the cars with Microscale decals as I think they're a little crisper, any advice for removing the original lettering? I usually use rubbing alcohol on a q-tip, but would appreciate any guidance before I attempt this and end up stripping off paint along with the lettering.

Thanks, Bill8106

I'm sorry I can't offer any help with finding the NYC decals, but I can offer a word of advice on removing lettering.

One effective method I've found is to brush some Microsol onto the lettering, and let it sit for about a minute. Then use a pencil eraser (the plain white rubber ones) and rub the lettering firmly, but still carefully. Repeat this process until the lettering is removed. Be careful to keep an eye on the progress, as you can end up removing paint as well if you're not careful. I have had good success with this method on a few manufacturers products, but as always, I would urge you to be careful. This method will also work without the Microsol, but it takes a long time. With Microsol, I've found I can remove a single logo in under 5 minutes.

The folks over at the YahooGroup "N Scale Varnish" might be able to help with your decal question. Some of the members know about small quantity decal sets that don't otherwise get any publicity.

This link should get you there:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/N-scaleVarnish

how do you feel about dry transfers?
Terry Link at TMR hobbies has a stock of CDS transfers for NYC cars,
the sheets include a variety of car names.
http://www.canadasouthern.com/tmr/CDS-MZ.htm

another long out-of-production item to search for is NorthEast Decals sets.
These sets had the 20th century drumhead.


call Russ at Tucker hobbies , he might be able to come up with some old stock.
A word of caution, if you do find old North East decals, they MUST be treated with liquid decal film before wetting, they are extremely brittle.

Thanks for the info, guys. It's slightly strange and disappointing that nobody (especially Microscale) makes these decals. I thought that with the popularity of the Kato sets over the 10+ years since their release that there would be a market for them. I did find "Pullman" decals on the Microscale website but these don't have the car names either.

I've never used dry transfers. Are they as crisp as the better-made decals?

Thanks again.

After a year of searching on and off, I found the set of NYC passenger car decals by Northeast. They are old but look in pretty good shape. I have my Microscale liquid decal film and I'm ready to go, but I feel that I have one shot to get this right, so I'd appreciate any further advice on the subject. I'm an experienced modeller but always had the safety net that I could buy more decals if I screwed up.

Thanks

call Russ at Tucker hobbies

The Tucker's Hobbies website indicates they are still open, but with the passing of owner Bob Buck last fall, they may not be for long. It would be wise to call them soon. Website and contact info here: http://www.tuckershobbies.com/store/pages/main.htm