Having trouble sourcing realistic vinyl overlays since the demise of Electra Graphics, of both ilks.

Can anyone recommend a suitable supplier for NMT graphics to apply to Dapol Mk3 pantograph car?

GE

Vinyls would be rubbish on a Dapol mk3 anyway, too much relief on the body side. Paint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Quote from: njee20 on July 25, 2026, 08:10:20 PMVinyls would be rubbish on a Dapol mk3 anyway, too much relief on the body side. Paint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Thank you, nice to know.

GE

Quote from: njee20 on July 25, 2026, 08:10:20 PMVinyls would be rubbish on a Dapol mk3 anyway, too much relief on the body side. Paint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Agreed - they vinyls were designed for the Graham Farish smooth-sided Mk3 coaches. They could be used on the Dapol Mk3s also but did not look as a good.

Quote from: GlenEglise on July 25, 2026, 07:59:58 PMCan anyone recommend a suitable supplier for NMT graphics to apply to Dapol Mk3 pantograph car?

Dapol don't make a Mk3 pantograph car. You'll need to modify the roof to include the pantograph well (and source a pantograph). 977993 is the pantograph car - plenty of photos on Flickr and Departmentals.com.

Quote from: njee20 on July 25, 2026, 08:10:20 PMPaint it and apply Railtec decals, IIRC they do new and old NMT logos.

Agree - don't bother applying vinyls to Dapol Mk3. Either use Farish Mk3 for the vinyl (if you can find them), or rework a Dapol Mk3. I would however add one step - Strip it, then paint it.

You'll get a better finish if you remove the factory applied livery first. Phoenix Super Strip is my go-to paint stripper as it doesn't affect the plastic.

Whilst it's stripped you'll be able to fill in any windows that don't exist on the prototype you're replicating.

Phoenix Paints will also sell you network rail yellow in tinlets or aerosol

If you do need vinyl style sides for old coaches and are willing to draw up your own loads of online and local printshops can do vinyl cut stickers with transparency these days and usually with really quite good alignment (you still fill the uncut window bits with the window frame colour and extend the colour out a bit past all the cut points)

So if you are ok with some drawing tools it's quite possible to do without actually owning any machinery.