Small letters: scribe or decals?

Arklan · Post by **Arklan** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:34 pm

ok, so i'm working on a "cryptex" right now, and am having trouble with one particaular aspect of it. basically, i need letters. really small letters.

i've got cylinders about a centimeter thick and 2 centimeters diameter, and i want to put the entire alphabet going around the circumference. i'm just not sure the best way to do it.

now, clearly, decals could work fine, but i have no experience with them as of yet. i haven't built any kits in AGES, and only just started scratchbuilding last year, and i havent dont anything beyond construction and priming, as of yet. so, yea. decals make me nervous. that and i have no idea where i would get ones the right size.

alternatively, i was thinking i could scribe them on, but this has complications as well, since these letters would be pretty small. scribing anything freehand is basically out of the question, i think. so, templates then. any suggestions?

if i were to scribe it in, i'd like for it to be decently moldable, but i'm modling on the cheap and using aves to make my mold, so i dont really know how well it would deal iwth that fine of detail.

perhaps i should just buckle down, buy some decal paper, print out some letters and get to work with a few practice runs, eh?

so, any recomendations?

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Tue May 30, 2006 5:19 pm

26 letters, 2 cm diameter â€“ that gives 6.28 centimeters in circumference â€“ divided by 26 is 0.2415 cm (about 1/10" of an inch) That's pretty small, considering the letters are to have some separation, that's 8-point size type. That's small. Really small. If I had to do it, I'd look for some old-style printing company, the ones that still use movable type. I know of just a few here in Rio, mostly shops that specialize in wedding invitations (as it is usually a small-run deal, it's not economically viable for them to print offset). Check to see if there is one near you, and if they'll let you either borrow a set (of one each letter, just the 26 you need) of make a mold of them (in their shop) so you can "build" yourself a set of punches with resin â€“ get a silicone/RTV mold then cast each type. Sweet talking is a must.

Post by **TER-OR** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:14 pm

Get thee to a railroad hobby shop and look through the HO scale aftermarket stuff. Also, there are dry-transfer letters out there.

Don't scribe, you'll be disappointed, and if you make a mistake you'll have to work hard to cover the scribes.

Arklan · Post by **Arklan** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:39 pm

ok. scribing's out. just seems to problematic...

and i hadn't calcuated out the math of how small these things would be. 8 point font? wow. ...i could always reduce the number of letters. i dont <i>need</i> 26, but it was desired. this is seeming more trouble then its worth, though. right. railroad hobby supplies. that i can do.

after a quick serach, i found these woodcrafting punches.

spring loaded:
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=3595

regular:
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=3773

the spring loaded ones say the letters are a mere 4mm tall and 3.5 wide. this seems too small, though it would be closer to getting all 26 letters on there. but, yea. too small, i think.

the regular punches are listed as 1/4 inch tall, which the site says is comparable to the 4mm ones... but 4mm is just 0.16 of an inch. so, by that math, the 1/4" guys should be bigger, and closer to what i'm after... maybe. either way ,the price on these isn't so steep that i'm opposed to them if they are a fair size.

what you guys think?

...this project is becoming far to involved. i'm leaning more and more towards the decal method.

Shinnentai · Post by **Shinnentai** » Tue May 30, 2006 8:47 pm

I's say go with the 4mm. If they end up too small, you can always fudge some appropriate looking spacers between them. If the 1/4 ends up too big though, you'll end up altering/compromising the total design to accomidate.

Since this is a working puzzle which will need to stand up to some good handling (read: more than you expect, no matter what you're expecting), I'd recommend against decals or dry transfers. Decals or transfers will rub or scrape off with time and hadling, but relief letters will just get dusty and shmutzy (which'll add to the "antique" look). Plus, relief lettering will look more consistant with a period device anyway.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Wed May 31, 2006 2:07 pm

I believe both are the same size. The 1/4" probably refers to the width of the "shaft" (6.35mm), and the letters are 4mm tall. At 4mm, however, they won't fit all 26 on your 20mm Ã˜ ring. (4mm, with an extra milimeter of separation will give a diameter of 41mm)

Arklan · Post by **Arklan** » Wed May 31, 2006 9:56 pm

yea, i'm sorta resolved to having less then 26 letters at this point. oh well.

thanks for the help guys. much apreciated.

Arklan · Post by **Arklan** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:06 am

then again, i could be simply clueless...

turns out i goofed rather significantly when relaying the measurements. its a 2 centimeter radius, not diameter. after sanding, the (nearly) finished peice comes in at just about dead on 39 milimeters, or 1mm shy of 4 centimeters.

i KNEW something sounded off. sigh.

either way. i thin i'm going to give decals a try and see how it goes, then pick up the punches if need be. thanks guys.

Paulbo · Post by **Paulbo** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:38 pm

Too bad you already have the parts molded - you could have ...

* Popped down to Staples, picked up a cheap customizable stamp kit.
* Pulled your pieces out of the mold before they'd quite set.
* Stamp them with the letter of your choice.

Ah, well.

karim · Post by **karim** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:29 pm

Harbor Freight has a set of 1/8" and 1/16" letter punches for pretty cheap.

Arklan · Post by **Arklan** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 7:51 pm

actually paulbo, i haven't molded the parts yet. just a styrene master so far.

customizable stamps eh? this require investigation. thanks.