Model railway posters - what paper?

[Autocar Publicity]

I am looking to produce some model railway pictures and posters for my business using my photos and a couple of artists' pictures. I am not 100% sure about the material to print onto - this will also depend on what the printer says... and thought I'd like to do a little informal market research. (I plan to do 4mm and 7mm to start, other scales depends on demand and cost).

Would you like to have self-adhesive labels or prefer plain paper? If I used [photo]paper the paper is so thick (even thin photopaper) that in OO it looks like you have a thick board behind the poster. If you have a good brush and a very steady hand, you could paint the edges of the poster a dark brown (or appropriate company colours), but that might pall after the fourth or fifth poster... For pictures that isn't a problem, I'd just put a 'frame' round the edge, but posters may look a bit thick - and I don't fancy 'printing' a board round the poster - I'd get comments like "I'd like one of those, but with GWR boards (or BR, or ...)" and you'd still have the issue of a white edge. For these reasons, I was leaning towards printing onto labels, but you are the customer (maybe!), what would you like?

Answers on a postcard will be welcome, but I was thinking about either a post on here or a pm. Thankyou.

Simon

[52D]

Simon a good tip from the scalescenes man is to go round the edges with marker pen.
Ive done that to a coronation poster and my hand slipped slightly over the poster and it just looks as though the poster has been torn slightly and the black board is showing through.

[Autocar Publicity]

Yes, I do that with the Metcalfe modelling I do (for Metcalfes and others) - though with crayons rather than a marker pen. Artists' watercolour pencils give you a good range of colours and shades, but they are a bit pricey...

BTW, 52D, after my hand slipped a couple of times, I started colouring the edges at an angle and from the reverse, so any slips didn't affect the 'top' surface - though I can imagine that if you want that effect, a torn poster would add to the atmosphere of a layout. It sounds a little like a technique I discovered by accident of how to model cracks in concrete... (another post!)

From the posts/level of experience/expertise shown on here, I guess most members would be happy to do this if necessary, as whatever format the posters are printed in the customer would almost certainly have to cut the posters/pictures out themselves - leaving that white edge... though, for the more fastidious, colour matching might be an issue...?

Anyhow, if members have any comments or suggestions, I'd like to hear them. If I'm running material off my own printer, I can adapt to individual requirements/requests fairly easily, but if I'm going to a commercial printer, then that's not easy...or cheap...

[52D]

The posters which gave me the idea at first were thumbnails of a contact sheet but these actually work out overscale on 4mm. The Coronation poster was landscape and slightly larger so i mounted it on a goods shed end and it looks quite effective.
Have you any idea of the original poster dimensions? for fitting to station billboards.

[Autocar Publicity]

Bit of a piece of string question I think - looking at old and reproduction posters they seem to vary quite a bit in size. I did some for my own layout and a couple of friends a while ago and posted on another thread about posters when I saw it. I did those originals to fit my Wills 4mm boards, the friends both glued theirs straight onto (Metcalfe) platform walls.

In terms of 'proper' sizes, they seem to vary (mostly between A2 and A1). If I get permission to reproduce original posters, then they will be to scale. At the moment I am looking to use my own photos and possibly some artwork I have permission to use as the basis for [serious but fictious] posters. I think 52D's just given me another question...what size? If I print them myself, then they can be to a suitable size and scale for the relevant company. If I print them onto labels or through a printer onto specialist paper/labels, then I could do them to fit Wills boards, or any other company depending on demand and any comments you guys make.

At the moment, I'm inclined to think in terms of printing them myself and therefore being able to adapt to different requirements without carrying umpteen different options in stock. But any comments and/or suggestions welcome...

[giner]

Hi AP,

Your printer should have no trouble producing a 'base' for the background on your posters, then adding the headings LNER, GWR, etc. from different layers. Likewise, adding the appropriate poster content would be held on additional layers, all within his software.

Re. the question of paper sizes, the original posters would have been produced long before ISO paper sizes came into general usage in the UK. Wikipedia has a section on 'old' paper sizes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size

Also, it's worth remembering that the final printed posters would have been trimmed to fit the board sizes, which must have been many and varied. Given the ease with which computers can scale things down, it shouldn't be too difficult to get to an accurate sizing. Good luck in your venture.

[Autocar Publicity]

Thanks giner. I've used Publisher so far, which does have a background and foreground. Useful reference re paper sizes, I did have my suspicions, likewise your comments corroborate my thoughts about trimming and different board sizes...

Certainly if customers are happy to trim and glue posters themselves, I can produce them myself and that gives me much more flexibility and the customer more choice.