Very late to this discussion and I've been away from casting for a long time now, too, but just in case the following info helps someone on a budget:
For block letters a half inch or more in height, I simply printed them out on paper, pasted that to cereal box cardboard, and cut them out with scissors and X-acto knife. Then pasted the cardboard letters in place on the pattern. A few coats of sanding sealer added a slight drafted radius to the bosses, and they worked fine. You can also laminate duplicates of the letters if more height is wanted.
For smaller simple straight lettering needs, I just used to make them with a cheap plastic Dymo label-maker -- the type that embosses a sticky backed plastic strip tape. I left excess and rounded the ends to look more like a traditional metal pattern strip and stuck that to the pattern.
Rounded plastic model letters, for railroading I believe, come in scaled strips. A little pricey, but they do look nice. I have some, but haven't used them yet.
For block letters a half inch or more in height, I simply printed them out on paper, pasted that to cereal box cardboard, and cut them out with scissors and X-acto knife. Then pasted the cardboard letters in place on the pattern. A few coats of sanding sealer added a slight drafted radius to the bosses, and they worked fine. You can also laminate duplicates of the letters if more height is wanted.
For smaller simple straight lettering needs, I just used to make them with a cheap plastic Dymo label-maker -- the type that embosses a sticky backed plastic strip tape. I left excess and rounded the ends to look more like a traditional metal pattern strip and stuck that to the pattern.
Rounded plastic model letters, for railroading I believe, come in scaled strips. A little pricey, but they do look nice. I have some, but haven't used them yet.