leadlight glazing..... maybe I'm cheating but.....

[tramcar trev]

I've been going on about reproducing leadlight glazing in Clerestory windows and sidelights.... Lots of elderly railway carriages have this feature....
I was fiddling around with the idea of drafting them up in Design cad, tinting the various colours in and then making them into DIY Decals.... I made a few up and they looked well a tad "hows your father".....
Then it struck me that I was wasting my time.....
Simple ( and Ross would be pleased with my solution) I Googled "stained glass window designs"..... Of course there are designs for every purpose available and most of them have full colour pictures....
Yes well this is where it gets really devious and underhand, some may say despicable - simply download the pictures of the ones you desire and photo shop them to the size you need "resize image" to what you need and wow all to simple to print as Decals and affix to the glass.... the results are "awesome", trully amazing.... I'll post pictures when affixed
but this is what I'm blithering about

Those are in Adelaide A and B type trams​

​

 

[trammayo]

When you say decals Trev, will they be translucent?

 

[tramcar trev]

absolutley, the light can be seen through them.... I use the clear material

 

[Philbahn]

Good cheat Trev. Might have a go myself as the church needs reglazing

 

[tramcar trev]

try some of these trully inspirational designs LOL

http://downeaststainedglass.com/churchpanels.html

 

[tramcar trev]

Here is my effort in an enclosed bachmann car.....
I gave up using the cheats and drafted up my own.... The result is OK BUT I will have to replace my photo printer as I now have to use an old Canon s330....And its print quality with things of this size where you can see a difference.....
There is just enough obscurity in the decal film to create textured clear glass....

 

[trammayo]

It must be my eyesight! Just had another look at your tram couplers posting AND I can see the leaded lights (but didn't first time). They look very good and I can tell you are perfectionist but ONLY you know if there are any printer problems. I think its a great effort.

Are you worried about bleed problems? Here in the west of Ireland, humidity is very high (80%) and inkjet printing for models sometimes blurs after a while despite sealing with varnish.

 

[KeithT]

Good cheat Trev. Might have a go myself as the church needs reglazing

Don't get too ambitious Phil.

Remember you have a bridge to finish.

I have used the coloured translucent film sold for DIY leaded lights although, it would be a bit wasteful if bought just for a couple of carriages.

 

[tramcar trev]

It must be my eyesight! Just had another look at your tram couplers posting AND I can see the leaded lights (but didn't first time). They look very good and I can tell you are perfectionist but ONLY you know if there are any printer problems. I think its a great effort.

Are you worried about bleed problems? Here in the west of Ireland, humidity is very high (80%) and inkjet printing for models sometimes blurs after a while despite sealing with varnish.

I don't think I'm a perfectionist, more a realist.... Usually I dont concern myself with the intimate detail instead preffering to provide eye catching detail just enough to draw the rivet counters eyes away from the glaring deficiencies..... In this case the disc wheels and other minor things. But I do draw your attention to the fact that these models do benifit immensly from a bit of tweaking, simply replacing the bumpers with those more prototypical makes an amazing difference....
Its the resolution of the printer that was concerning me, the one I'm now forced to use is only 3 colour + black, the photo printer I had with 6 colours gave vastly superior results..... I feel the problem I will have in due course is that the inks will fade.... I must find a printer that uses pigmented inks rather than dye.
The results however are quite acceptable and the decals can be replaced if they fade, peel or fall off....

 

[trammayo]

I think you are quite right about the benefits of tweeking the trams - as your work proves! I just don't always have the courage to get busy with the razor saw!

One of the best printers (of its time) I had - my own opinion mind - was the HP 1150C Officejet. Now I use a little Epson D68 or a HP F2180 (the latter for scanning mainly). I did wonder about a Laser printer although cartridge cost is high and I can't really afford (or justify) such a purchase

 

[tramcar trev]

From what I understand colour laser printers are not so flash unless you pay big money where as black laser printers can be got for less than the price of a set of colour inkjet cartridges and give quite astounding results in B&W....I have a laser for printing of documents etc and its brilliant and fast....

 

[vasim]

In the past I have taken a photo of what In wanted with colour transparency film. It was trial and error and a lot of film was wasted but results were good. However, this method is limited to the size of the transparency. Another method is freehand drawing with translucent inks available from craft shops and are waterproof when dry.

 

[trammayo]

From what I understand colour laser printers are not so flash unless you pay big money where as black laser printers can be got for less than the price of a set of colour inkjet cartridges and give quite astounding results in B&W....I have a laser for printing of documents etc and its brilliant and fast....

Yes true - my brother has one of each laser but reverts to the inkjet when printing photos - I just wondered if producing graphics rather than photos might be better?