[nh63879]

Does anybody know how to create a custom road sign from scratch. I don't mean the road signs but the direction type signs. I don't know how to do it. Can anybody help me out.

 

[John Webb]

I can only suggest you use a desk-top publishing program (DTP) on a computer to make up the signs and then print out (with any necessary reduction in size) and cut out. If old signs black and white printing may be ok, but for more recently-based layouts you will need to print in colour of some sort. "The Highway Code" has examples of direction signs in for the various grades of road which can be used as a guide.

If using an ink-jet printer, allow the ink to dry for a couple of days and then seal over with a varnish.

Hope this is of help,

Regards,
John Webb

 

[sambwoy]

Also, you can download fonts of the UK motorway and road sign lettering for free. The latter is called Transport Font or something like that. Just punch this into your search engine.

 

[SRman]

You can use text boxes in MS Word to good effect. By turning off the repel function you can overlap text boxes to position text or symbols - set these to white, or any other colour that suits your purposes - where you want them over a "bottom" text box filled with the base colour (essentially, what I'm trying to say is that you build the signs up in layers).

Having done all that and saved them, you should print on glossy photo paper to simulate the enamel signs. Print the coloured backgrounds oversize if the colour extends to the edges, otherwise leave a white border (unprinted). If the colour extends to the edges of the signs, after you cut them out, colour in the edges with a matching felt-tip pen or paint.

I have made early BR enamel station signs in this manner and would deem them a success.

Above all, don't be afraid to experiment, you hve nothing to lose by trying out different techniques, except time.

 

[alastairq]

I have created waterslide transfers for models [a van or two]...by extracting images off sites on the net.....messing around with sizes/scales....and then printing onto transfer paper........[new BT logo, for example]

 

[alastairq]

Using SRman's technique of 'layering'....could be a way of creating panelled coach sides?.......

 

[Madkitten]

i make all my road signs for both my modern image and old styled layouts by copying roadsign pictures of the net scaling them in photoshop and printing onto thick photopaper. When they are stuck to the sign post and the backs painted (light grey for modern signs and black backed for older signs ) they look far better than any you can buy. If you need any extra help just email me etc as i think i might have a full set of road sign sheets ready to print on my computer somewhere.

Nikki