In 2010, Protocraft Decals was established to supplement and finally replace the old Champ and Walthers Line, which by today’s standards are on a thick stock with a too thick clear, and sometimes created with inaccurate or generic lettering. Many artists have contributed to the decal line such as Rick Leach, Ted Culotta, Greg Komar, Bill Schneider, Bruce Blalock and James Hickey to name a few.
Much of the decal line art work is created in Protocraft’s shops in Sonoma, California having its own extensive research library, drawn in vector art using Adobe Illustrator, and employing hundreds of original railroad mechanical department arrangement drawings, supplied by the Pullman Library in Illinois and the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri (AC&F), the Barriger Railroad Library at the University of Missouri, and over 5,000, 8x10 photographs, many supplied by the National Archives of Canada and the Smithsonian Museum’s railroad department. Today the Protocraft Decal line has over 650+ individual and extensively researched decal sets for all major and many branch line railroads in the U.S. and Canada, with limited decals in HO scale. At Protocraft Decals all artwork is arranged on a sheet and printed by Microscale Industries in Southern California using the finest decal paper. Each set is finished with 5 extremely thin layer’s of clear that is feathered at the edge of each block of lettering or artwork. The decal line is constantly being added to as well as providing accurate decals for Protocraft’s brass models.
While mostly dealing in freight cars, the decal line is expanding to include passenger trains, both heavyweight and streamline lightweight cars; as well as some steam engines: Santa Fe and Western Pacific to date.
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