Olympian Hiawatha Erie Builts

[jdg]

Anyone know where to get some decals for the Milwaukee Rd Olympian Hiawatha (silver grill) paintscheme as applied to their FM Erie Builts? If not available, does anyone have any accurate drawings showing the nose artwork and I could create some decals. Thanks for any responses.

[Jim Starbuck]

Streamstyle Graphics is the only one that I'm aware of that produced these but he's presumably out of business. There has been more than one thread covering that topic.
I did a couple Erie builts several years ago and made my own decals from measurements taken directly from the shell.
Are you using LifeLike or V-Line shells?

[jdg]

Hey Jim,

I spoke with Todd out at Streamstyle and he is no longer producing the decals. It's a shame because it looked like he had some very nice stuff.

I have 2 LL locos I wanted to paint up. So about the decals you made up. Can we discuss that further?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Jim Starbuck]

Hi Jeff,

Sure. PM me

[jdg]

Hey Jim,

PM sent. Thanks.

[sd45elect2000]

I did ALL of the Milw Erie built engines, this one is a lifelike shell. The only chrome nose engine of this style was the 9A and 9C . The other 8 engines (5-8) were the low window version. I have JnJ shells for those.

These are the Streamstyle decals.

Randy

[jdg]

Randy - very nice looking unit.  That's what I'm going for. Any chance you have some extra decals laying around?

Also the Milwaukee Maroon - what color did you use (brand, etc.) and does it match the deal well enough?

Thanks.

Jeff

[altohorn25]

Just remember guys - the stainless steel on the nose should not be a decal if you are doing it correctly.  Best way to handle it is to get some Evergreen styrene car fluting and use that, then paint it chrome.  You can hodge-podge the decals from the Micro Scale Milwaukee E unit set with the exception of the "Olympian Hiawatha" lettering in the maroon section.  When I get home, I can post a photo of the unit I did a while back of a casting I got from Joe Valario.

For Milw maroon - I use model flex - it has the nice red tint to it that looks about correct to my eye.

[altohorn25]

Hey Jim,

I spoke with Todd out at Streamstyle and he is no longer producing the decals. It's a shame because it looked like he had some very nice stuff.

I have 2 LL locos I wanted to paint up. So about the decals you made up. Can we discuss that further?

Thanks,
Jeff

That is a shame about Todd as he still owes me for around $150.00 worth of decals that I never received and paid for up front....very poor business practice in my opinion.  At least he could take his website down so people don't keep sending him money expecting product.

[Jim Starbuck]

Here's my feeble attempt from 16-17 years ago.
There's plenty wrong with it I know but this was before the LifeLikes even came out.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
I've since done another modified V-Line that's a bit better. Still need to finish it up.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[altohorn25]

Here's mine: [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[jdg]

Did some work on the decals this past weekend with the help of Jim.  Think we are almost there.

[peteski]

Did some work on the decals this past weekend with the help of Jim.  Think we are almost there.

That PDF has bitmap artwork - you would get much better quality doing it in vector format.  Or if you work with bitmaps, it is the best to do the artwork at the printer's maximum native dpi setting and no anti-aliasing. That way the edges won't be fuzzy like what I see in that PDF.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[jdg]

Peteski - the PDF was exported out of Corel that way.  You can't post a CDR file here for others to view.   Corel of course allows for the vectorized artwork.  Everything is good.

[peteski]

Peteski - the PDF was exported out of Corel that way.  You can't post a CDR file here for others to view.   Corel of course allows for the vectorized artwork.  Everything is good.

Hmm... I use Corel 10 and 12. When I export vector-based artwork from a CDR drawing it shows up as vectors in a PDF (since PDF also handles vector graphics).  I'm not sure then why your vector-based drawing ended up as bitmaps in that PDF.    Maybe you just don't realize that  Corel Draw allows for both bitmaps and vector graphics to exist in a CDR drawings).  I looked at the "Publish to PDF" menu in my Corel Draw and there is not even an option to convert curves to bitmaps while creating a PDF.  Maybe your version of Corel has that option. If not, then you are using bitmaps as artwork.