WELCOME to the Steamplates website

Not the cheapest, perhaps the most expensive, probably the best.

Your Miniature Steam Engine represents a huge investment of time and money. The Name and Works Plates you fit give onlookers an important first impression. Same As All the Rest? If you build an established design you could buy hot-pressed or stamped plates along with the castings for very little money, although your engine will be named just like many others. That doesn't suit many builders, it detracts from all their hard work. If, on the other hand, you built your own freelance design or used works drawings, the plates have to be right to do justice to your efforts. In either case, only individually made plates will do. How are you going to get bespoke plates made? Castings You could spend a long time making up a pattern, and even longer trying to find a Foundry still in business. If you're in luck they might take on a small job. Your cast plates will then need fettling, polishing and painting. Mounting Letters on a Backplate If you want to avoid all the effort of pattern making, you could spend ages cutting Brass letters out from the flat. Alternatively, you could have letters cut out by Laser cutting, Water cutting or CNC milling. In any of case you will have all the 'fun' of trying to solder or otherwise fix the letters to the back plate. Hopefully they will all be in line, standing up straight with equal spacing. You might choose to avoid all the above problems by getting someone to mill out the lettering relief for you as a 'job on the side', although compromises on lettering style and layout are likely. Whichever method you choose, and having got this far, you'll need to fettle the plates, polish the upper and side faces, then enjoy the challenge of painting the relief. Getting some paint in the wrong place at this point is guaranteed to bring a smile to one's lips.... Etching You could avoid all the above difficulty and save many hours (or weeks) of your time by spending more money to get your plates etched. This is a good solution, although in the larger scales etching can never achieve a truly authentic depth of relief. Etched plates can be good although you still have to put a lot of work into them. You may have to cut the beautifully etched but unpainted plates out from a sheet, then finish the edges without damaging the faces. Etched plates can be quite expensive but too shallow for any scale over 3.5" gauge. Or you could simply forget all the above! You could relax or do something more rewarding whilst STEAMPLATES research, design, produce, polish, enamel and deliver fully finished World class plates to your door. The choice is yours….. For the time being, we are concentrating on scales from 5" to 15" gauge for Railway Locomotives and 2" to 6" scale for Road Locomotives. Stationary Engine or Steam Boat Plates of similar size are also welcome! Hard Brass is the traditional choice although Gunmetal, Cast Iron and other metals can be catered for. Later, we will be producing plates (and reproduction plates) right through to full size. E Mail us and send dimensions or a drawing for an estimate. We guarantee you'll get a reply! Office 01905 759874 (Often not attended) Mobile 07811 269186 (You can text even when this phone is off)

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