N Scale Coca-Cola Signs

Common, round Coca-Cola sign

Coca-Cola has been a cultural icon in the United States and around the world for many decades. Coca-Cola advertising, especially in the 1940s and 1950s, was a regular fixture on the streets of every major city and most small towns.

One of the most common Coca-Cola signs has been a round placard added to the signage of businesses that serve the beverages. These were (and often still are) found on small grocery stores, delis and pharmacies.

These signs carried different designs depending on the time period.  For example, a plain red circle with the words “Drink Coca-Cola in Bottles” (or similar slogan) would have been used in the 1940s while signs featuring the famous Coca-Cola bottle would have been used in later decades. Some used no slogan at all and some where alternative colors (like the ones in these prototype photos).

After doing some research on eBay and Coca-Cola collector sites, it seems that the signs used on storefronts were typically 36″ across. They were made of metal and featured a rounded face.

Bright Idea!

If a prototype reference photo includes this style of Coca-Cola sign, use its size to help measure the rest of the building. Since we know that this style of sign is normally 36″ wide, it can be used with other standard-sized elements like doors to get a close size approximation on other parts of the building.

Coca-Cola sign on grocery storefront

Prototype photos by Flickr member, afiler.

Building N Scale Versions of Coca-Cola Storefront Signs

I decided to model the Coca-Cola signs without the rounded front — just as flat signs.  At this scale, a flat sign should still give the correct illusion. Creating these as flat signs in N scale is surprisingly simple.

The first thing I did was create the design for these signs in Adobe Photoshop.  I downloaded the sign I was looking for from the Internet and modified it to remove the round edge. That is, I expanded the photo’s edges into a square so I would have additional color around the words so I wouldn’t need to cut these out perfectly. I duplicated the resulting sign multiple times and printed it on glossy photo paper using a photo printer.

N scale Coca-Cola signs. Left-click to enlarge this design, then right-click on the enlarged version and select "Save As".

As I mentioned, these prototype signs were usually 36″ across. Surprisingly, a standard paper hole punch cuts a 40″ N scale hole — close enough to look like a perfect scale version. I used the hole punch to cut out all of the Coca-Cola signs while being sure to center the name “Coca-Cola” in the punch each time. The punched piece will become the sign.

Using a hole punch to cut out individual signs.

It’s nearly impossible to cut these out perfectly, so once I had all of them cut out, I sorted through them to find the few that looked properly centered. Keep in mind that you’ll probably throw away 90% of these signs, but you should have no problem finding many good cut-outs in the pile.

The edges of the cut out pieces will have white edges which you should hide before using them on a layout. To do this, simply use a red Sharpie to color the edges all the way around. Once completed, they can be glued in place wherever you’d like to use them.

N scale Coca-Cola sign added to a structure (structure in progress).

I will be using these small signs on a structure in the very near future (sneak preview photo above).

• N Scale Storefront Signs: Pharmacy (6)
• Scratch Building Neon Signs (8)
• Printable Details: Assorted Neon Signs (7)
• N Scale Wall Ad: Camel Cigarettes (8)
• More N Scale Neon Signs (0)

About the Author

Frank Giacobbe — Co-founder of N Scale Limited, Frank has been building models since childhood and modeling in N scale since 2oo3. He is the former author of the blog, N Scale Modeling and a member of the Riverside Historic Society in Riverside, NJ. Frank has a passion for big city modeling, the 1940s and the Pennsylvania Railroad.