Japanese advertising signs for Buildings in N Scale.

[gavino200]

8 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Gavin,

 

seller says it will print with both inkjet and laserprint. You can also use regular printer papers and mount wirh glues if you want to be sure they stay in place, elsewise a shot with dull coat can lock stickers pretty well in place and seal them.

 

btw if you find any of the paper or sticker print outs are too thick you can also sand down paper much thinner with increasing fine grit sand papers. Takes a little practice to get it even, but you can make them really thin this way.

 

jeff

 

I only have a black'n'white printer, so I'll be taking this to Kinko's anyway. Which is best inkjet or laser?

 

Also, for the large building adds like Sascha posted, I'm guessing that's printed onto or stuck onto card to give the impression of a thick billboard.

[cteno4]

Both work. Current inkjet inks are pretty stable. Laser toner is a bit stabler. Inkjet sprays ink so paper needs to have some clay in it to not bleed. Toner will sit on the surface and can be a bit shiny, but dull coat will fix that.

 

might be cheaper to pick up a cheap inkjet printer, they are $50'or less and lets you play more. I expect a few trips to kinks may run up a bill for full page color printing. Only issue with inkjets is you need to do a small print thru them like every week or two or their heads can dry up and clog.

 

jeff

[Pashina12]

This reminded me to look around for Japanese adverts from the late 1960s... been finding a bunch, including Expo 70 posters - I'd totally forgotten about that was a thing, but seeing it reminded me that as a kid I had a little transistor radio with the Expo 70 logo on! I'm going to totally make sure to have at least one such poster somewhere.

[gavino200]

On 8/19/2016 at 9:25 PM, cteno4 said:

You can correct this in graphics software to try and force them back flat and head on. It won't get the parallax perfect, but usually close enough and it will degrade the image a tad, but if big enough a photo and you can reduce it after straightening and sharpen it a tad you can bring it out pretty well. It takes some fiddling in the software, but not horrid and just takes a little practice. There is great free bit map software out there called GIMP. It has the tools to straighten out, sharpen, brighten and contrast edit digital Picts.

 

 

I downloaded this program and had a look at it. It seems extremely complicated. What was your learning curve like on this? Did you use YouTube tutorials on it or something? 

[cteno4]

I use photoshop mainly but have used gimp, just takes a little side training to figure out how gimp does the similar things. But I’ve used a lot of graphics programs over the years, so am good at fiddling with them. Gimp I recommended as its free and has more advanced features than some of the simple paint programs do.

 

for this sort of thing you want the tool that lets you select a trapezoid and the move each corner to bring it back into a rectangle. Doesn’t always get things perfect and sometimes you have to tweek a corner a bit more and then clip it down to a rectangle. Things are not perfect but for smaller ones it’s fine as you never see them perfectly head on really close up.

 

Jeff

[gavino200]

I think I'll play around with it. I was having a hard time getting a lot of "billboard type" ads with a google image search. But I just discovered that Pinterest is a real gold mine. 

[JR 500系]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

I think I'll play around with it. I was having a hard time getting a lot of "billboard type" ads with a google image search. But I just discovered that Pinterest is a real gold mine. 

 

if you wish to get Japanese store interiors, you could maybe try to do a goggle image search using Japanese words, like 日本の店内

 

I think the images come up pretty well with some huge potentials for interior images for the buildings!  🙂

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=日本の店内&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibrZ-JsonbAhWKpY8KHQpaBC0Q_AUICigB&biw=1280&bih=603

[gavino200]

3 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

 

if you wish to get Japanese store interiors, you could maybe try to do a goggle image search using Japanese words, like 日本の店内

 

I think the images come up pretty well with some huge potentials for interior images for the buildings!  🙂

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=日本の店内&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibrZ-JsonbAhWKpY8KHQpaBC0Q_AUICigB&biw=1280&bih=603

 

Thanks JR. Searching in Japanese will probably get much better results. 

[gavino200]

I had my paper and my file already today. Searching, on google Japan definitely made gave better search results. Unfortunately, my local FedEx/copy shop refused to print the images as they were copyrighted. I may try some other places, or see if anyone at work has a color printer.

 

I'd prefer not to buy an inkjet printer. There's no way I'll regularly use it every week to keep it working right. 

[cteno4]

That is an issue! I’ve ruined like half a dozen inkjet printers in the last couple of decades by not using them regularly to keep the jets from clogging!

 

color laser printers are now pretty cheap, it’s the toner cartridges that cost you! But they can sit and not have issues. My last Ricoh did great for like 7 years of intermittent use. Fused roller finally went and probably due to half the stuff I did was on cardstock or thick coated stocks which usually I turned up the fused roll temp and it just finally fried the surface.

 

happy to print it for you and pop it back in the mail, it’s less than a buck to ship and few cardstock sheets! 

 

Jeff

[gavino200]

11 hours ago, cteno4 said:

That is an issue! I’ve ruined like half a dozen inkjet printers in the last couple of decades by not using them regularly to keep the jets from clogging!

 

color laser printers are now pretty cheap, it’s the toner cartridges that cost you! But they can sit and not have issues. My last Ricoh did great for like 7 years of intermittent use. Fused roller finally went and probably due to half the stuff I did was on cardstock or thick coated stocks which usually I turned up the fused roll temp and it just finally fried the surface.

 

happy to print it for you and pop it back in the mail, it’s less than a buck to ship and few cardstock sheets! 

 

Jeff

 

Thanks for the offer. Much appreciated. Fortunately, there's a color printer at work. I did some practice with an extra Tomytec billboard sign. The stickers aren't perfectly applied. They curl up, so it's difficult to judge. I'll have to work on a technique. 

 

The toughest part is getting the sizes exactly right. It's hard to do that precisely with MS word. Also, It would be nice to stretch or shrink the pictures very slightly in one dimension to get a better fit. If only done very slightly I think it wouldn't be obvious. Cropping is fine, but many ads are already very finely cropped. Does that program (was is called 'GIMP') have those capabilities?. If so, I think I'll play with it. 

 

I also printed out some floors for a Senkei building I'm working on.

 

 

[JR 500系]

11 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Thanks for the offer. Much appreciated. Fortunately, there's a color printer at work. I did some practice with an extra Tomytec billboard sign. The stickers aren't perfectly applied. They curl up, so it's difficult to judge. I'll have to work on a technique. 

 

The toughest part is getting the sizes exactly right. It's hard to do that precisely with MS word. Also, It would be nice to stretch or shrink the pictures very slightly in one dimension to get a better fit. If only done very slightly I think it wouldn't be obvious. Cropping is fine, but many ads are already very finely cropped. Does that program (was is called 'GIMP') have those capabilities?. If so, I think I'll play with it. 

 

I also printed out some floors for a Senkei building I'm working on.

 

 

 

 

Haha you used the same advert (the one with the waves ad the lady) as mine on the same billboard sign!

 

on MS Words, simply use the 'size and position' function, and under size, use the 'absolute' function instead of the relative. Absolute means the size will come out as per dimensions you place, such as 3cm by 2.1cm etc. so it should be pretty straight forward; just need to measure the surface area that the decal will cover...

 

you're right about cropping... some of the images we got off the net are already crop or resized, so resolution suffers. When being resized even smaller, details tend to be lost out.. But it's a cool way to turn some of the nice buildings into real life Japanese ones! 

[chadbag]

You guys need to get "Arashi" billboards and signs.   (Band -- most popular in the Universe if you are a Japanese female of any age).  They (the members) are on about 1/2 of all ads and billboards and TV ads in Japan it seems.

 

 

[gavino200]

4 minutes ago, chadbag said:

You guys need to get "Arashi" billboards and signs.   (Band -- most popular in the Universe if you are a Japanese female of any age).  They (the members) are on about 1/2 of all ads and billboards and TV ads in Japan it seems.

 

 

 

Yeah, I don't really want boy band ads on my layout. I do have a Babymetal ad ready to go up somewhere around town though.

[cteno4]

They look good! Glad you found a printer!

 

word is the most worst (yes I had to use both) program to work on images! Sorry it’s been my bane for a couple of decades getting images from clients shoved into word and then sometime manipulated. Getting things cleanly out is always a crap shoot. Word is like it’s name, designed for words, not dots! 😜

 

A coat of clear coat will help seal it up and keep the edges from curling.

 

brurnishers are nice to help press edges and bits in recesses down flat. Detail set cheap on ebay

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5Pcs-set-2-Way-Wooden-Nail-Art-Dotting-Dot-Pen-Marbleizing-Manicure-Tool-DIY-Kit/112712598626?hash=item1a3e31c462:g:sPkAAOSwDkVaBSRd

 

yep gimp will be a much better tool to do cropping and precise/fine image size manipulation. It’s really worth your time to get to know how to do the basic image cleanup stuff in gimp (or any other real graphics program, there are lots of them, gimp is just free and pretty powerful) as it will be useful in a lot of modeling stuff now and later. There are tutorials on the gimp site and also on YouTube that may help.

 

Take notes as this sort of software stuff is easy to loose a few important steps if you don’t use it for a few months and aggrivate you not being able to do something you know you were able to easily do before! But with a little cheat sheet written up right after you master something it will really be a huge help when you come back on the next project. I won’t do any software support anymore in my business as I saw how powerful doing some note taking couldmbe for clients, but most refused to do it and just every time they did it was disaster down the road (all very smart and accomplished people they just seem to think they will retain everything but they almost never do...)

 

sorry to sound so forceful, just been around this tree sooooo many times with many differnet folks! It was wonderful to see folks years later that took good notes and them say how good they felt to keep at the task and be able to do stuff they thought was too techie and get good at it and learn more on their own.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[chadbag]

7 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Yeah, I don't really want boy band ads on my layout. I do have a Babymetal ad ready to go up somewhere around town though.

 

It doesn't have to be the Band's ads itself -- just the dudes in it.   They really are in a very high percentage of ads for every conceivable product from cooking oil to cars, beer to cell phones, to mobile games, to whatever else.

 

I am not really pushing it -- just saying that to be accurate 🙂

 

Babymetal would be a fun ad to put up.  (Btw, they have a LINE channel and push stuff regularly to it)

 

[gavino200]

10 hours ago, cteno4 said:

 

sorry to sound so forceful, just been around this tree sooooo many times with many differnet folks! It was wonderful to see folks years later that took good notes and them say how good they felt to keep at the task and be able to do stuff they thought was too techie and get good at it and learn more on their own.

 

 

This is actually a bit of a hobby horse for me. I use quite a few different computer systems. I know for a fact that I don't take very detailed notes during "training sessions" or when someone shows me a pathway, that I will retain nothing. Really nothing. The next time I use it, which might be in a few weeks, it'll be like the first time again. So I slow them down and write every single step down (including sometimes where on the screen I find things). This irritates a lot of people, but I don't care. I transcribe everything into Evernote, so that the next time, I can just take out my phone and follow the path. 

 

I'm amazed how much resistance I get when I do this.

 

Thanks for the tip about the burnishers. I ordered a set. 

[cteno4]

Gavin,

 

you are are my Hero! You don’t know the number of people I have had practically scream at me when I keep encouraging and taking breaks for them to take notes! I’ll remeber it! Yeah right! When the call back weeks later after they have forgotten something, they are pissed at me (of course it was my fault), pissed at themselves, frustrated, but humiliated but defensive about it (I never do the i told you so, just sigh and be patient). I was requiring folks take notes at the end and lots of resistance and I finally stopped doing anything that required any amount of training to use. I would provide written instructions and some tech support but no more training because of this one little loop... writing tech docs is really tedious and not fun and slow, but beat fighting about taking notes and dealing with the angry call backs.

 

brunishing the edges well will help them both look nicer and stick better in long run as once that edge starts to lift it seems like the air gets in there and they start to lift faster. I think he clear coat mainly just seals that edge well and attaches it to the surface well.

 

Jeff

[Drunkenclam]

Did anyone doing this have a preference as what may be the best material to print on.

I'm using a colour laser printer, not sure if to print to card, sticker or waterslide decal paper. I guess, each has its advantages.

I guess it seems strange to print to paper and then stick it on to a piece of card.

[JR 500系]

I just print mine on normal decal paper.. so far, so good for me... it even sticks on longer than the Tomytec ones who seem to peel quite often..

[Pauljag900]

6 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

I just print mine on normal decal paper.. so far, so good for me... it even sticks on longer than the Tomytec ones who seem to peel quite often..

Where possible I ve now found if you just clear coat over any sticker or decal it helps protect it from peeling offf again..👍👍😀

[Pauljag900]

3 hours ago, Drunkenclam said:

Did anyone doing this have a preference as what may be the best material to print on.

I'm using a colour laser printer, not sure if to print to card, sticker or waterslide decal paper. I guess, each has its advantages.

I guess it seems strange to print to paper and then stick it on to a piece of card.

Hi clam,

wot I do is print onto normal paper,or if it’s a transfer that comes with a kit(I do nt find them very sticky to be hones,remembering that mine is in a shed so it s quite damp in there) the I glue them to a piece of clear acetate then clear coat it and when dry cut it out just slightly bigger than the actual sign,about 1mm.works for me anyway mate👍👍

[Drunkenclam]

Well.I brought some white 200 GSM card as well as some A4 sticker sheets. I'll guess I'll have a play. I already had plain paper 🙂

 

Now to get the question from Mrs Clam about why I'm downloading images of pretty ladies holding bars of chocolate and cup noodles 

[Sascha]

I print mine on Photo paper and use regular glue.

[Hayashi]

If you are trying to do your cropping work in Word, try PowerPoint instead if you have the whole Microsoft Office Suite. PowerPoint is much easier to use for "artistic" work than Word. It also has more creative capabilities than Word. It's a decent replacement for Photoshop or similar programs if you don't want to spend the money to buy those programs or spend the time learning to use them. I use Photoshop CC (v20), but it's an expensive program and takes a while to learn. Overkill for signs and interiors unless you want to create something wonderful from scratch.