So from the start!

First I am Garza owner and creator of ScaleSigns.com. I will be the one to write this story. It's a long one so this is going to take some time! In this story you will see how my life jobs all came together to make this company! 

The Story!! (Rough Draft)

It all started in the 80's and I was going to the Lansing Model Railroad Club to help out and play trains.

Puzzle Piece Number One - Colors and Printing

At the time I was working at a place call Bezil Dezign. There we did screen printing on t-shirts for collages and also custom shirts. This is where I started to understand about setting up 6 color screen presses. This had to be done prefect so all the colors lined up. I worked there for 5 years and learned ALOT about printing!

The 80s

So it was the late 80's and I was also getting into computers. I started out with a MS DOS Windows 3.1 system. Some of you will know the name and the younger ones won't. I played with corral draw and learned about how to create art on the computer. So I was getting familiar about some computer art work. Plus how to set up color presses for print.

The 90s

So in the 90's there was a guy name Bill R. that also came out to the Lansing Model Railroad Club. He owned and company call Electrograghic. This was an "electronic pre-press out-put bureau". Yes I know it's a long name. So what did they do there?

Let's say you have a grocery store that makes an ad every month. You need your ad in color. Black and white doesn't sell strawberry. So you make your ad on a computer with color pictures. To print this ad in a new paper or mailer you need your computer file sent to a "electronic pre-press out-put bureau" there they make your ad into 4 pieces of film. That film is for four color Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK). You should know a little about this. Because it's what's in your small printer at home. These color when put together with very small dots. Will make all the colors you need to make a color ad on paper. Ok you got it.

One day at the club I was talking to Bill about what I do at Bezil Dezign and the computers work I was doing on the side for art work. He tells me that he's looking for someone that has the experience of both color set up and computer knowledge to work with art. So he offers me a job position there. I didn't waste any time and I told him "I am in!" that night.

Puzzle Piece Number Two - Computer Graphics

So now I am working for Electroghraghics. I was in computer haven because all they had where Apple OS! We are talking about high end MacII and Power Macs. At the time I thought that computer graphic was the best on a Windows PC. I was wrong and very quickly I found out that PhotoShop on a Mac was a better program than Correll Draw on Windows PC.

One of the many jobs I had to do was color proofing film. We had a 3M proofing system that would take the four pieces of film for a job and made a CMYK proof so that the customer could check if the colors were correct. This process ended up being the one thing that was going to make everything come together. I just didn't know it it the time.

Puzzle Piece Number Three - The layout

So my friend Kenny C. was making a huge layout in he basement and there where some places that had some scenery. One night I was looking at how we could make this layout look more real. You know we all do it. For some reason I was looking at some of the roads he had and it. . .

IT HIT ME! SIGNS!!!

I knew that at the time HO scale signs were all made of paper and that didn't look real! At work I had a system that could print out signs that had a glossy front and was thick enough that I could spay silver paint in the back to make it look like aluminum. Now I had to test out the systems and see if i could get it all to work.

When I got to work I talked to Bill about it. He let me use the company computers and proofing system to see if I could get it to work. Thank God Bill loved trains too. 

Over the next few months I stayed after work. Working on the art work for my new idea. It started out bad but I was making progress. I was costing some money to make the proofs but I could see I was getting there.

In 1995 I made my first parts list. When I started the company it was called Mid-Michigan Scale Signs.



From here I start to take my signs to hobby shop here in Lansing. In the mid 90's there was 6 hobby shops in Lansing. As of today hobby shop are hard to find. Here in Lansing we now have NONE. I am still into trains and need my fix. So I have to drive one hour to the closest hobby shop. This is why I try to support hobby shops now. By the middle of 1995 I had hundreds of signs and made a new catalog.



I was have a great response with my signs and start going to train show in the Michigan area. By the end of 1996 I had over 500 sign packs and the catalog was getting bigger.



After that I just went crazy trying to make every signs I could find. I searched the internet day and night looking for new signs. I wanted to have the biggest HO scale sign collection. I have done a lot of reading about signs. We take signs for granite but there is a lot of information and standards about them. I know way too much about them now. 

By the 2000's I was up to 10,000 pack and over 4000 signs. It was my biggest catalog!

September 11, 2001

This day hit me hard. I was ready to join the military service after that day. I was married and had 2 daughters and the wife with a great job. Then 6 months later things had changed in my life. So I went to a recruiter I joined the National Guard in Grand Ledge, MI on April 24 2002. I had to wait nine month before I headed off to basic training. I was going to be a 15D Prop and Rotor for Army helicopters.

Off to 10 weeks of basic training in January in 2003 and 22 weeks of AIT ( Advance Individual Training ). While I was in AIT I was loving the Army life. I didn't want to do this for one weekend a month. I wanted to do this for life. I asked my wife if she was cool with that and she said yes. So when I was done with AIT and back home I went straight to the Army recruiter and told them a wanted to do this for a living. 

The 2003 catalog was the last catalog for
Mid Michigan Scale Signs.



Off to war I went! My first duty station was Fort Hood, TX. I was there for 3 weeks and off I went straight to Iraq. 



Iraq OIFII            2004 - 2005 (12 month tour) D Troop 1/7th Cavalry.
Iraq                       2006 - 2008 (15 month tour) D Co 1-227 ASB 
Iraq                       2009 - 2010 (12 month tour) D Co 1-227 ASB
Afghanistan      2011 - 2012 (12 month tour) D Co 1-227 ASB
South Korea     2014 - 2015 (   9 month tour) D Troop 2/6th Cavalry


My Awards for being away from my family for 5+ years!

Yup 51 months of combat.
I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world!
Go Army!

So you can see that I was a little busy to keep
Mid-Michigan Scale Signs going. 

In 2014 I left Fort Hood for my new duty station. Don't hate me . .  it was Hawaii. I know I had some help and some luck! Thank you SFC Garney!

While I was there in Hawaii. I did try to bring it back my small company but as soon as I get to Hawaii and got orders for a 9 month tour to South Korea. So off I went again.



The catalog cover above is the Lansing Model Railroad Clue. Some of the signs in the city are mine. As of right now the signs have been there for over 30 years! ScaleSigns do hold up to time.

While I was in South Korea I did buy the domain name ScaleSigns.com. I couldn't believe no one had it. I knew one day I was going to bring my signs back! I started working on a new catalog thinking I could start this in Hawaii. 

ScaleSigns.com is coming 

In 2017 I was medically retired from the Army. This was bad news I didn't want to get out. So I guess it's time to go home back to home in Michigan.

In 2019 computer and printers for the home were doing great thing for art. Plus home printers were printing a whole lot better.

I went to the hour away hobby shop to see what my competition looked like. It has been 15 years today's technology had to make them better. To my surprise all the HO scale signs where the same one when I went into the Army.  What was going on how had time stopped. Come on it's 2019 not the 2000

Now after I looked on the internet I did fine a few companies that had improved the quality of scale signs. They were very nice but had a few things missing. They only had a few items no more the 30 different pack. At one point Mid-Michigan Scale signs had 10,000 packs.

So I started to remake all the art work for the signs again. It when a lot faster this time because I knew what I was doing. Thanks to the new Photoshop I was making great timing. Working the new art I knew we needed bolts, rust, and weathering. Later I added bullet holes to the deer signs.  

For the next year I spent every day in the basement working on new art, website, part numbers, paper work, and how to start the company over and better! I had no summer but in the end its all wroth it.

By the end of 2019 it was time for the Lansing Model railroad Club yearly trains show. It was now my come back. I got two tables and set up what I had. There wasn't much come paired to now. It was a great show for me. There were people so happy to see me back. I was gone for about 15 years and people stilled remembered me and my signs.

Not having a website yet I put my signs on eBay. Holy crap here was a place that worked very well for me in the beginning. Still have some stuff on there. It was to have a website of my own is what was needed. Making a website is a whole other story! 

On January 2020 I started the new web site. Using Shopify was the best choice. If you want to start a business website that is easy they are the one.

It's been a crazy ride with over 10K of item sold on the ScaleSigns.com and 1,000s eBay. Selling to country's over seas like Europe and Australia. Plus can't forgot our neighbor to the north Canada!

Now 2024 we are on our third website theme. With more signs and ever 3D printed items. We will never stop working! Our goal is to bring to our customers the best scale signs the today's technology can bring. As technology changes so will we and our products. It might look great today. I will look better in the future also.

If there is any questions about this story you would like to know more just send me a e-mail by filling out the information below. I will call you so leave a phone number.