Great weathering! Nice photo, too. :thumbs_up: How will you know what is on the other side? (I just make it up or find another car.) What is the Microsol? Is there another, similar product? [edit] Nevermind. I just read the other thread. Good stuff.
Thanks Flash, Over the past few years I've been leaving the other side of my rolling stock as factory finish cos it gives me a comparison when I weather the opposite / ends / roof. As my layout is around the walls, this works well for me and lets me do more cars than if I weathered both sides.....the old adage of "if you can't see it why model it" The only time this becomes a problem is if I run a train on the local club layout, one side I have pristine rolling stock rolleyes: Am thinking of going back one day & testing some new techniques on the other sides of my rolling stock, but for now this works for me
Large N Scale Decals I'm working on detailing my grain mill and lettering the silos. I just make decal letters on my black and white laser printer and put them on. Or so I thought. Didn't work as I cut each of the letters right at the edge of the black color. That caused the one inch high letters to curl everywhere there was a corner to the decal paper. So I did it again cutting each letter from a circle of decal paper as best as I could. I didn't create any corners and it worked fine after that. I put the small flashlight there to show the scale. This was something I did not know. Maybe it is a tip for those making large decals. At least large for N scale. [edit] 05Sep2010 Decals all done.
Here are a few Conrail X72 boxcars. These cars will appear in a future issue of the Conrail Historical Society. Don't mind the fuzz. I forgot to dust these cars before shooting them (its Siberian Husky shedding time!) The car on the left is waiting for weathering. The car on the right has a full coat of fade and grime.
This was my first attempt on a fade mixture. It came out too granular in my opinion. These FGE cars faded considerably faster than some of their other cars (the waffles tend to do this too). This was a proof of concept and I wanted a very heavy fade. You can find the fade recipe here: Fading fast... Moderate fade using the new mixture. Grime is done with thinned acrylics and chalks. The car appears much darker in person. Heavy fade with the new mix... no more speckles!
Southern cars faded, rusted and crumbled fast. This car was faded a bit more and rest spots much more prominent. I didn't like how this FGE car turned out. Conrail used these for paper service and they were often seen with the Canadan Newsprint cars.
Okay, how about some covered hoppers! The Boston Line saw a lot of two bay hoppers in cement service and I always liked the CSX and Chessie System cars. Acrylic grime wash, fade, weathering chalk and flat finish. I think it came out well. This is probably my favorite car of the group. I tried to add some horizontal scrapes and rust from brushing against trees and debris. I really like the galvanized roofwalk. Southdown hopper with thinned acrylic surface rust, weathering chalks and a heavy fade. I wanted a cement or sand service car past its prime but I think I went WAY overboard one the fade and rust. It just doesn't look natural. Too bad it was on a $20 Athearn car and not a $10 IM kit.
You may not like it, but I think it is very good and not excessive at all. Maybe you consider it past the prime, but how would anyone tell that except you? It's a real good car and a great weathering job. Just for the heck of it, check this car. It is in regular service. Who is to say it is too much? Another. Notice roof walk.
Construction of Vehicle Road Crossing The wooden ties are the "old" tracks and the pavement is where the two new yard tracks were added. At least that is my story. Next to paint the paved portion and somehow blend it in with the older highway area.
I have somethin' new on my workbench, and n scale steamers who know which engines and wheel arrangements have been neglected by manufacturers will LOVE this: an n scale SP T-31 #2353 4-6-0! I built it from a Bachmann 2-8-0. Enjoy! Here's the real thing:
Latest building for Rosenberg modules I am working on the old Gulf bulk station along the tracks in Rosenberg. Of course back in 1951 when I model, it was not Chevron yet.
The old timers tell me that back in the 50's that there was a loading platform along the rail siding. So I dreamed something up. Now on to the storage tanks.
Thrall trilevel auto rack Did not know what to do with the extra set of FVM 28" wheels. Plus, wanted some variety.
Reassembling and detailing FVM CP GEVO #8702, finding nitpicky details to add as I go based on proto photos: replaced plastic cut levers with BLMA, front and rear, removed front medium shank MTL coupler, replaced with short shank (Z-905 didn't like it there), added double air hoses as per proto, BLMA MU hoses, added plow grabs, extra decals on pilot, paint and weathering, cab drilled for detail parts (will be a combination of BLMA and bent .008 wire), extra cab decals added, numberboards will be replaced with larger ones as per proto, cab interior painted with window gaskets added side and rear as per spec, interior piece painted with crew added, body has vents silvered using decal stripes, extra body and sill decals added. Not shown are trucks, tank and under sill piece which are painted and weathered. Also not shown are front and rear handrails which were soda blasted to remove 3 layers! of paint (red, then black, then white on top of that!) then lightly sprayed white, resulting in marked reduction in handrail thickness. This is a fun project because: you don't have to strip the shell to detail, the drill locations are pre-marked, the front window gaskets are already there (a very difficult thing to do well otherwise), no need to shave off molded on details. I'm hoping to install the Digitrax SDN144K1E sound decoder as it has a GEVO sound profile installed. It doesn't fit the chassis without a bit of upper frame removal and the motor leads will have to be wired as the decoder and motor leads don't line up. The 13mm speaker fits in the rad. section but may not be stable there so may have to switch to the 10mm fit onto the rear frame. I will post completed photos hopefully in a week or so (I am notoriously bad at predicting my progress, so it may be longer).
