Dapol OO Esso tank wagon kits

[GeoffreyN]

I have never tried these kits before but I have built a Ratio Trackside Oil depot and the Dapol tanks look mighty similar.

My question is, because I want more than one tank wagon, do Dapol supply in their decal papers alternative wagon running numbers? If they do great. If not then has anyone here any guidance on the fonts used and sizes so I could make my own. Printing white on a black background is not so hard even with my imperfect HP inkjet.

[Dad-1]

Hi There Geoff,

I have made quite a few and although it's a while back I believe they give you 4 running numbers.
In addition by cutting up numbers into individual items you can make many more.
Remember the kits are strictly speaking the Black 'B' tanks for heavier oils. Depending just how pedantic
you are about absolute accuracy they can be painted with red solebars and light grey tanks to represent
the 'A' class vehicles.. The chassis use in prototypes were the same, the difference being that the literally
'Light' distillates had slightly longer tanks to keep to the same GLW.





For grey tanks I did print the running number decals on my Inkjet printer.
Hope that helps - You can find the range of applicable numbers (on line ?) If not ask as I know I saw/had the
information somewhere.

Geoff T.

[6C]

I believe both Cambridge Custom Transfers and Modelmaster supply suitable waterslide decals - the CCT ones providing lots of separate numbers - for a longer rake.

[Mike Parkes]

The CCT transfers also include a lot of details missing from the Dapol sheet;
"Sheet BL9 - Transfers for the ESSO 35Tglw Class B tank wagon, which is available as the Airfix / Dapol kit. Full markings for four tank wagons, including solebar load, tare and wheelbase lettering, (which were omitted from the original kit transfers)." https://www.cctrans.org.uk/products.htm

RT Models make a detailing sheet offering etched, rather than kits chunky, ladders and walkways https://www.rtmodels.co.uk/rt_models_035.htm

[Bufferstop]

@ Dad:- 1
Like the inverted logic there Geoff, and there was me thinking they made the heavy oil tanks shorter to keep them down to the same weight

John W

[GeoffreyN]

It seems Dapol supply just the same number in their decals for each wagon kit.

CCT looks fine but so pricey!! £8,50 or 10€ (as I am in the EU) for a set of 4.

I think I shall try my luck with a home brew Word .doc and make my own. Just surprised that such .docx or .pdf files cant be found on the web.

[Bufferstop]

There are a strictly limited number of letterings running numbers etc. that can usefully be printed at home, the limitation is the number of them that can be printed in black! A few years ago there was one small printer that could print in white, but it was discontinued, probably because printing in white is difficulr.
You can buy white fibre tip markers (as erasers), there are x/y plotters that have adapters to hold marker pens which can draw quite small typefaces. Oh that someone would put the two together so that we could draw and label with marker pens of different widths and coloured inks including white. Round about 1986 our college was given a rather expensive flatbed plotter, the little pens it used were darned expensive so it didn't take us long to work out how to use empty ones to take ordinary markers, my assistant who was a university student on secondment soon worked out how to print white window frames on clear acetate sheets. It was a bit to big to tuck under my arm when I left.