Hey guys, Here’s a project I’ve been working on at the same time as my HyCube. I thought you might want to see it. I doubt USA will do this car so I did it myself. Enjoy!
Nice!
Where did you get the decals?
Ray,
I drew them up and printed them on my ALPS printer.
As with the other car Brian: all I can say is fantastic!
Beautiful looking freightcar… 
Brian Briggs said:
Ray,I drew them up and printed them on my ALPS printer.
Are those Alps printers still hanging around? I know that they aren’t sold in the US anymore, but I thought I remember reading that they are still available in Europe? What happens when you run out of ink, etc?..
I’m really surprised that no manufacturer has developed a white ink printer…
Craig
Craig. I was going to ask him if he does decals on the side…
What do we know that needs white?
Brain
What a fine job your’e doing in that paint shop!
Sean
Thanks guys,
Craig,
ALPS printers still show up on Evilbay occasionally. I bought mine off there a few years ago. Mine is the first model they made (MD-1000) last produced in 1997 or 98. Stan uses the latest model (MD-5500) which is still made in Japan and available thru someone in Austrailia I believe. They don’t use ink, they use ribbon cartridges as they are laser-jet printers, not ink-jet printers. As long as they still are made in Japan then the white cartridges should still be available.
No, I don’t do decals on the side, I bought my ALPS so I could do my decals…Stan has a fine decal service available.
Brian,
I’ll have to start looking around for a used Alps then! They seem like a popular printer, yet no one else has developed something to compete with the Alps. I just find that interesting.
Craig
Cool deal! first time I have looked at one of those printers. There is a MD5500 on ebay right now for around 800 bucks or so.
Guys,
A word (or two) of warning. The older models like mine were last designed to work on Windows 95/98…fortunately someone hacked a driver that works on Windows XP. I don’t want to say the printers are fragile but they need to be shipped correctly or damage can be done. I don’t know how they work on Macs as I don’t have that. There is an ALPS decal Yahoo group as well as an ALPS Yahoo group that I learned all that I know about these printers. You may want to sift thru some info on there before you run out and buy one. Many people have thiers hooked up to a dedicated older computer just for printing on the ALPS. I keep mine stored away and only break it out to do printing when necessary…it’s like a ritual to pray that all will go well each time I use it. The thing that goes bad on the printers is the print head which is thermal (heat transfering the ribbon onto the paper). If they break it’s all but impossible to find someone to fix them.
That wraps up about all I know about these printers.
It’s worth researching before you spend a lot of bucks.
I don’t think I would jump into buying one without the looking well into the cost, problems etc, but I know now that it’s worth researching because the Alps still are around to buy second hand.
Thanks for the info though. It would be interesting to see what Stan has to say about the Alps. He certainly seems to have a lot of experience with them.
Craig
Every time this comes up I wonder if the decal medium used in the Alps would work in an Gerber Edge printer. Edge was a popular printing process for vinyl before solvent ink printers became popular. The Edge uses a transfer film (like a ribbon) that is fused onto the medium with heat (like a laser printer). It will print white. I have one sitting across from my desk at work that rarely gets used. It also ruins only on Windows 95/98.
ALPS printers are in a class called “dye sublimation” printers, which use heat to transfer ink from a ribbon to a medium. Its not an ink jet, since they don’t spray wet ink, nor are they really a laser printer, since they don’t fuse dry powder into letters/pictures. They’re REALLY good at color duplication. I have one, and I also have a large-format AGFA Sherpa 24m, which I use to full-size 1:20 drawings with. If it’d take single feed decal sheets, Id use that for decals, since I cant get the ALPS to work through any of the USB adapters Ive found for printers. ARGH!
Brian,
Any photos of your layout posted? Or is that a diarama? Would really like to see more. LOOKS great!!
Phil, There’s not too much to it. Here’s a drawing I did that shows the layout and dimensions
(http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b450/DTI973/DTI%20Basement%20Layout/Basement_G_Layout_DWG.jpg)
And here’s a few pictures that show the whole thing overall…the bridge in the opening is removeable/lift-out
(http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b450/DTI973/DTI%20Basement%20Layout/LookingWest.jpg)
(http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b450/DTI973/DTI%20Basement%20Layout/LookingEastNorthEast.jpg)
(http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b450/DTI973/DTI%20Basement%20Layout/LookingEastSouthEast.jpg)
That’s about it.
Brian Briggs said:
Phil,(http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/b450/DTI973/DTI%20Basement%20Layout/LookingEastNorthEast.jpg)
Brian, That building looks exactly like those Plastruct HO scale warehouse buildings! The same color too. How long have you been working on your layout? BTW those silo’s look great too. Did you scratch build them? Craig
Craig, Kinda hard to say how long I’ve been working on the layout. I built it for my “O” scale layout and when I switched to 1/29 (2006) I started to convert it. The building is scratchbuilt and was for my “O” scale and was supposed to be an auto plant…now in the larger scale it has shrunk to more like a smaller industrial factory (Its 6 feet long and 14" tall). The grain bin and silo are both toys, available commercially.
(https://www.campbellsupply.net/shop/images/items/9357705803-source.jpg)
Nice layout!