bootneck Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 I am building up a fair collection of Land Rover kits, plus other postwar soft skin vehicles. I have a problem in that the number plate decals which come with the kit don't match the units that I want to represent. Does anyone know if there is some form of template, something that we could insert our own numbers and make a decal? If nothing like that is available, can anyone recommend a site that would provide the sizes of the front and rear plates for a Land Rover during the period 1950 - 1970? Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niall Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 Home made transfers on white inkjet(or laser printer) transfer film would be one solution. Alternatively make a PE stencil, which would cost about £30. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted June 19 Author Share Posted June 19 My understanding is that a PE stencil would be a single, or set, of definitive numbers that cannot be changed, or have I got that wrong? I am considering making my own tranfers/decals, if there's no other way, but I sent out the query just in case there was a program, sorry App (must keep up to date), that would allow me to type and change the numbers as required. I have seen some downloadable card models, for railway modelling, where you can type in the station name before printing. If it can be done for station signs then I'm hoping there's something out there for number plates. cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcrfan Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 I simply print the required plate on colour printer then seal the plate with matt spray before cutting out and gluing on with white glue. There is a plate of a heavily modified Rhodesian Tusker Land Rover 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted June 19 Author Share Posted June 19 19 minutes ago, Black Knight said: For what you are wanting; I use an old Desk Top Publishing program Its very old, from about 1996. Its not supposed to run on my current lap top but it does. I can't show you what I can do with it as you'd need the same program. But basically, I draw a box and then type into the box. I can copy & paste that box with its writing several times. I can resize the writing (from a tiny 6 point to a very giant size) and the font (I have hundreds available to me), or change the colour of the letters, or the colour of the background I don't know if any DTP program can be bought anymore. I'm sure it can be Hi Fred, It is possible to do that in the freely available Inkscape program. I've done it before to make decals for all the markings and windows of this Air China Boing 737. I could do something similar for the number plates if I knew the dimensions and font for 1:35 scale. This is the sort of method that I'm trying to learn about, it shows various signs and they allow the user to type in the specific station name of their choice. It would be great if I could find out if there is a method to do similar for number plates. cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natter Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 Anything here of use, at 1/35 scale? https://motobitz.uk/general-decals.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 18 minutes ago, bootneck said: This is the sort of method that I'm trying to learn about, it shows various signs and they allow the user to type in the specific station name of their choice. It would be great if I could find out if there is a method to do similar for number plates. cheers, Mike That's a fillable PDF form. I can have a poke around and see what software you might be able to use, or create a sample or two for you if it would help you decide? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted June 19 Author Share Posted June 19 17 minutes ago, Natter said: Anything here of use, at 1/35 scale? https://motobitz.uk/general-decals.html Hi Dave, that is interesting and I'm presuming that, being silver letters, that would be correct for British vehicles of the 1950s and 1960s? 1 minute ago, John Laidlaw said: That's a fillable PDF form. I can have a poke around and see what software you might be able to use, or create a sample or two for you if it would help you decide? John, that would be really helpful and probably just what I am looking for. I would be very grateful if you advise me on software, especially not too expensive, and also if you could do a sample idea for me please. cheers, Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 10 minutes ago, bootneck said: John, that would be really helpful and probably just what I am looking for. I would be very grateful if you advise me on software, especially not too expensive, and also if you could do a sample idea for me please. Not a problem - I'll get to it after work today. I'll keep you posted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natter Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 13 minutes ago, bootneck said: correct for British vehicles of the 1950s and 1960s Yes, that's right. I used them on the Opel GT I built a while back - they look like this when they're used. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted June 19 Author Share Posted June 19 Yep, that look the biz. Thanks for the link Dave. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tapsell Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 I'm not sure when it was introduced (I suspect it might be later than your timeframe), but the current font for UK civilian and military plates is called 'Mandatory'. You can download it freely as a TTF (True Type Font) from several sites - just search for Mandatory TTF. Then you can upload to your computer as a standard font (just like any other font that you use in MS Office or Open Office for example). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 I did it the other way around and created some black squares / rectangles etc on ms publisher, then put the registration number in using white text (downloaded the correct font). I then printed on white decal paper and it worked a treat. Standard UK number plate sizes for both square and rectangle plates can be found on the internet, then I resized these for the scale I needed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 Right, cutting out the middle man (the PDF), I recommend going with LibreOffice (open source, https://www.libreoffice.org/). When you have it installed, open LibreOffice Draw. Select the Rectangle tool from the icon bar on the left, then click and drag out a rectangle of the size that you want. You can adjust the size using the width and height fields in the Position & Size properties dialogue on the right. Set the background colour and border colour (if any) using the Area properties dialogue on the right. Double-click within the rectangle to switch to the type tool, then select the font you want from the Character properties dialogue on the right. You can also set the font size and other properties in the same dialogue. Once you've got however many styles and colours of reg plates you want, save the document. You can come back to it and edit the registrations whenever you need different ones. Hope that's of help - shout if something isn't clear. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted June 19 Author Share Posted June 19 That looks very useful, and even understandable, thank you John. I've been CADing all day so I'll install it and give it a test run tomorrow. Best Wishes, Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted June 19 Share Posted June 19 2 minutes ago, bootneck said: I've been CADing all day I know that feeling 😁. Good luck when you try it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingsman Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 The current mandated official font for ERMs (and civilian VRMs) is called, surprisingly, Mandatory. I believe that the previous font was called Charles Wright. Both are available from places that offer font downloads, although there may be a fee. ERMs p;ainted directly onto vehicles rather than stamped onto metal plates might be locally repainted when vehicles were repainted. But I assume that stencils would have been available through the supply system. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted June 22 Author Share Posted June 22 I used the Mandatory font for the test below. The numbers look fine but the letters appear smaller. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 6 hours ago, bootneck said: I used the Mandatory font for the test below. The numbers look fine but the letters appear smaller. Try typing the letters in upper case - that'll make them the same size as the numbers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted June 22 Author Share Posted June 22 DOH! Thanks for that John, that works fine. I now feel more stupid than I normally do. cheers, Mike 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 No need for that - the font doesn't give you any hints when that happens 😁. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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