lettering....

[lynn's engraving]

i've seen many mods with lettering or artwork on the side of a case, yet can't seem to find how it's done in the worklog.

how is the lettering/art done? are they stickers of some kind, then clearcoated? how are the stickers made? (i have a process i could use as it's a part of my trophy business, but it doesn't print white.) is a stencil made and painted on, somewhat like screenprinting?

[slaveofconvention]

There are dozens of ways to do lettering - it depends to a degree on what you have access to. The most common 5 that I know of are....

1. Freehand - kinds speaks for itself and depends utterly on your own skill
2. Hand Cut Stickers - again, speaks for itself but it will leave the letters proud of the surface unless you clearcoat over them several times, lightly sanding the letters each time until it's flat - make sure the clear you use wont eat the stickers though.
3. Machine cut stickers - as 2 except get the made by a sign-writing company or similar.
4. Hard cut stencils - then paint. Again there's a small matter of the extra paint leaving it proud but again, rectifiable with clear.
5. Machine cut stencils - as 4 with a bit of 3

If you're using stencils, make sure the material isn't sticky enough to damage the underlying surface - Frisk film is the best option I know of although there are bound to be alternatives....

That lot should keep you busy for a while till you find what works best for you...

[lynn's engraving]

thanks, slave. i've wondered how the lettering was flush with the surface. i'll have to check out that frisk film, thanks for the tip.

i take from context that 'proud' means raised. obviously i'm not a painter, lol. funny, though, i *used* to paint those little 25mm (?) die cast fantasy figures really well when i was about 14 or 15 and they were popular. different than this, though.

in all, i think stencil is the way to go for my personality. if there's no white involved, i could get my wife to make up some of those kinds of 'stickers' that comes with cheap models you soak in water to activate (the system we use, magictouch, is more for printing (we went with an oki printer) on a different paper and heat pressing onto metal, basically a transfer system). the problem with the water based system is it doesn't do white, as mentioned, and there's an outline left over from where you cut the image out, so you can see it on close inspection (you can really see it in a photo).

anyway, thanks again.

[slaveofconvention]

Basically, you end up with more clear AROUND the lettering than on top of it. You don't so much make the lettering level with the surface, as raise the surface to line up with the lettering....

And yes, by proud I meant raised

[lynn's engraving]

ah, gotcha. that makes better sense. well, the last thing i painted was a plain white tee-shirt with a bunch of stencils i cut out of bettie page using black acrylic. about as low-tech as it can possibly be. other than for some minour bleeding and a little fading after washing it a lot, it actually still doesn't look too bad.

hmm, a bettie page mod....