Engraving plates

That's what I do--just drop down th elocal trophy shop and get one--a lot of times he'll just do it right there as I wait--doesn't take but a minute or two!

I don't know if I'd invest in one though...seems unnecessarily steep of an investment--I mean, how many dios do you really think you're going to build a year? Then there's the cost of ink, plates, etc...

I get my name plates at about $4 a pop which covers the plate, engraving and self adhessive tape backing. I can e-mail an order in on Monday and pick i tup on Friday.

If you have access to the raw material, i.e. plates and you have good penmanship, you could get an inexpensive engraving pen

I make mine up on the printer and laminate them... That way I can add all kinds of stuff to the plate... I like to do modern stuff on a Woodland camo background, or WW2 German on a Feldgrau background, WW2 US Army on OD, etc... The colors make the dio "jump out" at ya...

I can use different fonts as well, to "match" the nationality, and complimentary colors, yellow on OD, White on Feldgrau, etc...  I  only use plastic photo box-frames for dio bases, so the laminated stuff looks good on it... 

Laminating costs about a nickle...

The pic in my siggy is the generic CAF background I use now, when I build one of the CAF birds... I put the name of the dio in the white area, aircraft in red.  The actual label is 1x3"

doc-hm3 wrote:

Could you guys show some sample plates that you have had made up, possibly some close-ups? I would like to have some made up, and would value your experience in deciding on a design. Thanks

Doc, They're not close up's, but here you go.

I get my plates from a local trophy/engraving store.  I STRONGLY recommend getting the letters darkened, otherwise the engraving can be extremely difficult to read in various types of lighting (see the 3rd pic). Hope this helps!

OUTSTANDING work on "Willie & Joe"... 

I'm working this one right now..

"Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient."

doc-hm3 wrote:

Could you guys show some sample plates that you have had made up, possibly some close-ups? I would like to have some made up, and would value your experience in deciding on a design. Thanks

Hans von Hammer wrote:

OUTSTANDING work on "Willie & Joe"...  I'm working this one right now.. "Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient."

That one is one of my favorites! Here's my version of it!

senojrn wrote:

Hans von Hammer wrote: OUTSTANDING work on "Willie & Joe"...  I'm working this one right now.. "Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient."     That one is one of my favorites! Here's my version of it!

Is this a vignette?

Will, 

From the shows/competitions that I've been to, it just depends.  Sometimes there are limits, for example: 3 or more figures + vehicle = diorama, while 3 figures or less = vignette; other shows it's any figure + a vehicle = a diorama, or even some places it's storyline = diorama.  Basically, as I understand it, (and as Hans noted) storyline + action = diorama.  Vignette (in my opinion) is just a smaller version of a diorama.