Model Train Journal

I just spent about ten minutes composing a nice note about decals, and must have hit a "delete all" key, because all that was left was the last word.

It was all about how nice it is to be able to create decals, now that Champ and MicroGraphics seem to have dropped out. I will try again.

Art Hayes and I have been lusting for a set of Mobilgas decals to attach to Lobaugh tank cars. Such things are available in silver with black outline from Walthers, and in white without outline from Champ. But availability is sketchy. And anyway, the Lobaugh tank was done in white with black outline.

Why, you might ask, would we care about such a minor detail? It has to be less to fret over than an Egolf lead truck?

Well, I had a "catalog" Lobaugh tank - photo in a minute - that Art talked me out of. I never sell anything, so you know he did some fast talking. It was one of my favorites. It only had decals on one side - after all, if you are taking catalog photos, you cannot see the dark side. So Art wants to decal the dark side, and I, having at least one prewar Lobaugh tank kit, want to duplicate said car.

The post that disappeared had a lot of newsy information about decals I have had done for me - I shall attempt to type that up later. For now, let me share the Lobaugh photos. In the next post, so I do not again lose all my typing in the computer abyss.

So, two photos. The first is the catalog Lobaugh, now in Art's collection. The second is a postwar Lobaugh tank using Walthers decals. I admit to not duplicating the Scarlet really well, but I think I have discovered the correct color - a darker color used on old Volkswagen Vans from the 1960s. Anyway, I can see another of these fine cars in my future! And that is why it is a happy day!

And I got the photos reversed. the lower one is the prewar Lobaugh "catalog" car. Note the rivets on the tank. What you cannot see is the bronze end castings that hold the trucks and couplers - classic Lobaugh! And a reason for collecting the prewar cars.

The follow-on story is the La Belle story. I will get to that later - suffice to say that La Belle has been providing me custom decals for about two decades, and has files of all my work, available to any customer. Salient among my files is an SP Steam file done for Stevenson Preservation Models. I do not know how all that is going, but I believe all of these files are preserved. Jim Wilhite (RIP) was able to create decals from a photo of an HO model. For instance, below is my Carnation Milk car, done by Jim, and on file at LaBelle. It was done from a photo of an HO Varney car! It is perfect!

https://www.protocraft.com/category.cfm ... egoryid=22

Jay

Yes, Jay, those more precisely match the Lobaugh. But they are silver, not white, and it would not be fair to copy Protocraft's artwork. I actually like the silver, but that is not the point.

Bob,

I didn't say you should copy them. My thought was you should buy some.

Jay

Yes, I should. He doesn't sell them in white. I checked. His products are spectacular!

Last time I checked MICROSCALE was still making stuff.

http://www.microscale.com/

They have O scale stuff and do custom runs which I am guessing might be pricey

These are kind of special - as far as I can tell, the Mobilgas tanks all had silver letters. We are just duplicating a model of historic interest to the two of us - nothing more.

I suppose Champ made white decals, but not sure they are accurate:



Note my affinity for tank cars. Mobilgas here is a post war Lobaugh tank, done with a riveted wrapper. A nice model, but not as historically significant as the much heavier prewar tanks. There were, to my knowledge, three very different Lobaugh tank models of the standard 8000 gal tank, and two of the J&L.

Bob this is Champs