Decal Source K4 Supply

I've used his decals also with good success.  He is based in Ohio.

I had moderate success with such decals from Jim Wilhite.  Bob Anson uses slightly more rugged base material, making the job way easier.

It appears as though if you have artwork you can have quality decals.

I've also used K4's decals. reasonably priced, good quality, and interesting selection.

for custom decals I've used Highball Graphics. another great source.

With the K4 decals you really do need to slide them off the paper on to the model.  They really want to stick to themselves too so sliding them off the paper really helps avoid that.

His Frisco decals seem to be a little too yellow and light colored.  I'm going to make this one a sun faded geep.

I have used Decal Source K4 Supply decals with good success, he offers road names, alphabet, numbers and stripe decals at reasonable prices, good quality and quick delivery. Decals are carefully packed to prevent shipment damage. 

Anyone else think their white decals are kind of fuzzy and rather translucent? Albeit my experience with them is in N scale, but it seems like their contrast is not great

I used them for some Gons in O scale and they worked great.    I can't say they were fuzzy, but just a bit faded maybe.    Once coated with dullcoat, they looked just right.

I got some decals from him for my ACL USRA Mike #7227, only set I could find that had the decals for the steam chest.  I like them:

Very fond of K4 Pacific's products, I like them more than Microscale. I just finished applying some of their white New Haven decals to my latest 3D printed custom locomotive a few minutes ago. They go on nice with a little Microsol!

I have not had a transparency issue with white K4 Decals. All of the below done within the last year or so.

~Chris

I like the variety of decals. I do have a couple issues with those decals. One is the crummy plastic bag he uses to contain the decal sheet.  The bag will sometimes adhere to the decal sheet and will leave distortions in the decal itself. This problem may be caused by hot humid air exposure during shipping as well.

The other issue that I have is that I contacted him about this problem and there was no response.  Not the greatest customer service.

Thank you to all posters of this thread.

I recently purchased K4’s California Zephyr decal sets in both O & S scales.  

To get all of the CZ car names within each scale, you have to buy both CZ Set 1 & CZ Set 2.  

I have not used these decals.  It will be at least a year before I use them.  

I have 15” (60’ Scale) 18” (70’ scale) aluminum CZ cars from Lionel, K-Line, MTH, Williams, & Weaver.  I plan to redecal my duplicate models to other prototypical CZ Silver Names.

The K-Line 15” & MTH 18” CZ cars have larger lettering than the Lionel, Williams, & Weaver 15” CZ cars.  Therefore, I purchased the CZ decal sets in both O scale & S scale in the hope of having font size consistent with the current font size on the models from each manufacturer.  

Thanks for sharing your experiences with application of these details.  I will refer to this thread when I redecal my CZ cars.

Steven Michael, I agree with your assessment.  This is a first generation MTH RK Mohawk that I converted from ATSF to NYC.  These are K4 Decals.

Apparently the decal film was softer than others because I couldn't move them as much with the tip of a fine paint brush as I had other decals in the past and under magnification I feel color saturation could have been a little better but the look fine to the naked eye.  They fit the bill for what I wanted to do with this engine perfectly.

I've purchased a few of the Grand Trunk Western 86 ft hi cube sets from K-4 Decals, and they looked okay to me.   Now. since they specialize in fallen flags, maybe the lettering is to look faded for a reason?  I don't know, but my GTW sets looked good.   He used to have some nice sets for Southern, and N & W 86 ft cars as well, but did not see them in my latest search on his website.

Another satisfied customer.

Pete

@swrr posted:

I like the variety of decals. I do have a couple issues with those decals. One is the crummy plastic bag he uses to contain the decal sheet.  The bag will sometimes adhere to the decal sheet and will leave distortions in the decal itself. This problem may be caused by hot humid air exposure during shipping as well.

The other issue that I have is that I contacted him about this problem and there was no response.  Not the greatest customer service.

I noticed the same 'sticky' bag issue as rec'd in the mail.  Can't say I saw any residual witness in the decals after removing the decals from the plastic bag, though.

More importantly...IMHO, of course...is the excellent quality of the same decals after application/sealing to the model.  Again, no perceptible flimsy bag witness where it counts.

Since the K4 plastic bag is not resealable, I always transfer the remaining decal sheet to a freezer-type, sealable, 'zip-loc' bag for storage.  The K4 bag in question is filed in the round (more rectangular, I suppose!) open-top container in the workshop.  It'll keep the other discards company in the notorious landfill.

On a more positive note, I appreciate the paint color recommendation and decal placement schematics.  While I may double check them against my own books, photos, articles, whatever, I've found them to be quite accurate.

Never had any issues with Mikes decals. Good as Microscales, Circus City and Highball Graphics.

If you were not satisfied with the results, it’s not the decals. Might need to experiment or modify your standard approach?

These help me offer my ebay customers schemes that the OEM’s continue to ignore in O.

I, too, have had good luck using these decals. JohnA

Never had an issue using K4 decals. Their early alphabet decals had a tendency to be a bit “thin” and not really opaque.

I have used over 100 of their o scale sets and they are great. They do have a tendency to fold, but a bit of water and a fine brush fixes that. The packaging was never an issue for me. The plastic does stick to the decal sheet, but it isn’t a problem. Usually it more static than moisture.

Like SIRT says, good results are often based the user’s technique.

My results are not as great as SIRT’s work with the beautiful weathering, but they work well for my projects…

Tom

Nice modeling work gentlemen !

If you're concerned with decals being too thin and delicate you can spray the decal sheet with clear gloss spray paint from krylon it will give decals a bit more thickness and strength . Also a good trick for older decals as it will keep them from crumbling apart in the water. I tape the sheets down to an old tablet back and lightly spray them ,let them dry overnight and you're good to go!

Depending on the printing procedure some decals will be less opaque than others. That can be cured with putting a second decal over top the first one to deepen the color . 

@coach joe posted:

Steven Michael, I agree with your assessment.  This is a first generation MTH RK Mohawk that I converted from ATSF to NYC.  These are K4 Decals.

Apparently the decal film was softer than others because I couldn't move them as much with the tip of a fine paint brush as I had other decals in the past and under magnification I feel color saturation could have been a little better but the look fine to the naked eye.  They fit the bill for what I wanted to do with this engine perfectly.

That’s exactly what mine looked like! Obviously in N scale it’s even worse with them being so small. Glad to see I’m not the only one with this issue.  I’m giving K4 another shot so I will report back.

-

And no, I will not be taking a “different approach”. I know how to use decals.  The edges were visibly fuzzy before I even cut them out of the sheet. I stripped them off and replaced them with Microscale and Highball equivalents and they were fine.

Depending on the printing procedure some decals will be less opaque than others. That can be cured with putting a second decal over top the first one to deepen the color .

Maybe just better quality decals would be a cure.

Sometimes easier said than accomplished with current supply chain issues.

I sympathize with anyone who's had issues with K4, they can be tricky,  but I don't agree with most any of the negative issues asserted regarding them outside of maybe some minor scale fidelity, which candidly I have not encountered, though given their HUGE catalog might lurk out there based on a statistical probability.

Virtually any issue I had with these was regarding my having to adapt my own technique away from a decades long process for Champs, Walthers and Microscale and variety of custom printed sets, learned the hard way.

These are great decals.