Stickers on your trains - yes/no?

[ignacj]

Just wondering how many of you apply stickers that come with any given train model? Stickers limit rebuilding usefulness of a brick once it is sticker-branded. Then there is that something special about a clean generic brick and creative possibilities that it presents. Thoughts?

ig

[WesternOutlaw]

Interesting topic Ignacj, and applicable to other themes as well.

I never use stickers, unless I make them myself with photo paper. When I use to have a functioning scanner, I would copy set stickers for an extra useable set - at least I did this with the My Own Train steam engine. They weren't as dark/black, but it worked. Now I just tuck the sticker sheets away in the instructions.

It is kind of fun to make your own decals for custom creations. Here's a few:

I use regular photo paper with scotch tape, but they are still sometimes hard to get off. This is one of the reasons I don't like to use set stickers, and that they will get sloppy in time.

[lightningtiger]

Well everyone in the town forum knows my custom stickered creations, if you were simply doing Legotown trains - NO, to stickers.

But to recreate real life trains, etc., YES, it adds that bling, the numbers, names, etc., it speaks what you have made like a real model train etc., detail and more detail !

Plus making them can be fun too !

So have ago and as usual.....I'm a conformist! !

Edited July 14, 2010 by lightningtiger

[greenmtvince]

Just wondering how many of you apply stickers that come with any given train model? Stickers limit rebuilding usefulness of a brick once it is sticker-branded. Then there is that something special about a clean generic brick and creative possibilities that it presents. Thoughts?

ig

Stickers on. It makes the model look as intended, and in many cases adds an element of realism like many rolling stock brandished with railway logos and identification numbers. I tend to collect TLC designed models and like to complete them as designed and buy seperate parts for MOCs which I also decorate. If I really need that part for something else later I can usually flip brick around or put the sticker back on the transfer sheet at some loss of quality.

Slightly off topic, one of the things I never understood about many AFOLs is their insistance on more printed parts and that stickers were this horrible thing that lego is doing to jip the consumer out of a quality product. I think printed parts are terrible and truly limit rebuilding and resale possibilities. I don't ever shop in the decorated categories on bricklink. My latest printed part gripe: The dark green 2x4 curved slopes on the emerald night. They would've made great parts I could use countless other places and would've justified buying a parts only EN if it weren't for that gold trim on the side. I say more stickers, save the printing for the minifigs!

[legotrainfan]

I try to use as few stickers as possible. Applied stickers make a disassembly of engines and waggons difficult. If they are applied, you cannot wash the bricks on which there are stickers. But some train stuff doesn't look good without stickers. So my Super Chief has all the stickers it came with on it. The same is true for my BNSF engine. When I was a child, I used to apply all stickers anyway. So the sets I got in my childhood have all stickers applied.

[hoeij]

Just wondering how many of you apply stickers that come with any given train model? Stickers limit rebuilding usefulness of a brick once it is sticker-branded. Then there is that something special about a clean generic brick and creative possibilities that it presents. Thoughts?

ig

Without stickers I don't know how to make this:

(a minor modification of 10183 hobby train).

[greg3]

Personally I don't apply stickers to any Lego sets... I'd only get them wonky and that'd bug me far more than not having them there in the first place! Although having said that I'm working on a train moc that'll have custom stickers!! (just waiting for printer ink)

[SavaTheAggie]

Yes. Stickerless trains look dull and boring. Of course for me I hardly ever disassemble any of my trains, so I consider my stickers to be permanent additions to my MOCs.

--Tony

[peterab]

I rarely apply stickers to my train sets, mostly because I view them as parts for Mocs. On the other hand I think good stickers can enhance a Moc greatly, because the resolution of stickers is finer than bricks.

[legoboy3998]

YES, and no, I used stickers on my GP38s and MP15 for logos and loco numbers and the big one to cover the PF battery box on my 6 wide American diesels.

You can see pics on My Flickr, as well as pics of my Kadee Knuckle couplers on LEGO trains (more pics to come on those).

Sal

WFB, WI

[dr_spock]

I think trains look better with stickers. Trains in real life usually have letterings, markings, etc.

[andythenorth]

Sometimes :)

I don't plan to rebuild the trains I have (neither the TLG ones nor the MOCs). Whether they get rebuilt by a child is another story

I haven't got around to making stickers for MOCS, they might improve the appearance. Some of the TLG designs look much better with stickers on to my eye, but some of the stickers are unnecessary.

Same goes for Technic - some of my models are highly stickered (including MOCs - using sticker sheets from Bricklink). Others have none. The right sticker can be a nice finishing touch. As other posters have said, I generally don't like decorated bricks, apart from tiles for gauges etc.

[CarrollFilms]

If you were simply doing Legotown trains - NO, to stickers.

But to recreate real life trains, etc., YES, it adds that bling, the numbers, names, etc., it speaks what you have made like a real model train etc., detail and more detail !

Plus making them can be fun too !

So have ago and as usual.....I'm a conformist! !

I do the same, only for diesel's and steam trains I put the stickers on because it add's that "BLING' and feel. It doesn't matter, as long as it's cool looking.