Stripes, paint or decal for NKP switcher

[btrain]

Hey Everyone,

I'm starting to model the Nickel Plate Road of the 1950s in Bellevue, Ohio. One of the common sights at the time in the big yard was FM H-10-44 switching hot mile a minute freights. While these engines are not commercially available, I have seen the shapeways version that fits over an Atlas VO-1000. That brings me to two questions:

1. Is the shapeways H-10-44 a good model?
2. There are no decals in N scale that I have looked for that represent the 9" stripes found on the ends of NKP switchers. Are there comerically available decal stripes that I could affix, or would it be better to mask off areas and airbrush it?

Below is a photo of what I hope to model. Thank you everyone in advance for your help! 

[Missaberoad]

When ordered in FXD the H-10-44 is very much an acceptable shell. It fits on the VO1000 mechanism perfectly.
No where near injection molded quality but for a layout model it works all day long... 

Here's some shots of mine after cleaning and primer...





and the 10x size shot to show all the warts. 

[bman]

Microscale makes striping in various widths. Either in scale inches in HO and N, or actual inches.   If I read my Evergreen conversion chart correctly, 1/16th of an inch is 9 5/8 inches in N scale.  They make stripes in 4" and 6" scale inches for N and HO and if you used the HO 4" strip that might be a little less than 9".  I'm not quite sure what color that is but their yellow striping not quite the same.  I've used their striping before and I was pleased with the outcome.  The stripes down the loco sides and on the rear are from their N scale sized stripes in yellow.  Had to be a little patient but it was not as hard as I thought it would.  Hope this helps.

[nickelplate759]

Hey, I'm trying to figure out the same thing for the same prototype!  I'm just starting.
The shell is pretty nice.  Spend the extra $$ for the FXD version, and expect to do some cleanup.
Unfortunately, none of the Microscale striping is right - unless you are modeling in HO.  I've been wondering if I could cut-down their HO NKP switcher stripes, but I'm skeptical.     The alternative may be masking and painting the stripes.   That would be a beast.

George

[nkalanaga]

Actually, 1/16 inch is exactly 10 inches in N scale.  Evergreens strip is 0.060, slightly less than 1/16, so measures 9.6 inches, or 9 5/8 in fractions.

That's why I've never bought a scale ruler, after over 45 years.  Fractions work just as well, and since 1/64 inch is 2.5 scale inches, actually have smaller division than most scale rules.

Back to the question:  If I couldn't find printed decals, I'd probably buy a sheet of black "Trim Film" from Microscale, and cut my own.  It wouldn't be any more work than cutting masking tape into strips, and with my painting skills, would look a lot better.  All trim film is is a solid color decal sheet, so if you only need a little, you could spray paint a piece of blank decal sheet, but the trim film would probably be neater.