Hello all, my name is Gene. I've been lurking through the forums now for about a month and decided to drop a line or two. This site has been very helpful. I played with Nscale as a kid but didn't do any "modeling." My dad has a few old O-gauge trains from his youth, one of which stopped working just after Christmas so I decided to try and fix it for him. It's a Seaboard NW-2 from the 60's I believe, maybe earlier, so I knew find parts would be hard. I found a replacement battery holder on Ebay, the horn and associate wiring was suspect on the origional. Replaced it but still didn't totally fix it. It no longer shorts out, but all it will do is sit still buzz. Brushes maybe? not sure but in doing all the research for my dad's train got me wanting to play with my own again, and things are a bit different now to say the least. I've been especially interested in weathering, it really makes a model train a model. Some of the work you guys do is amazing. From lurking around here and a few other sites, I learned a thing or two and decided to try out a few techniques I read about. Not as easy as it looks, and the golden rule of "when you think you need another coat, it's time to stop" is a good one. If you take a look at my freshly started photo album you can see my first and second trys at weathering. You'll also find I didn't follow the golden rule on the first try. Let me know what you think. I'm very interested in how I can improve. I do well (i think) with pastels, OK with an aribrush (second try anyhow), but terrible with washes which also shows on the first (not enough paint in the wash?). I would also like to know how I can improve the look of a coal load. Right now it's only painted oily-black with a matte finnish. Thanks for reading and sorry about the spelling, grammar, wall-o-text... I'm a tradesman :tb-tongue: Here is my photo album: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/album.php?albumid=1278
Welcome Aboard TB... Coal loads look pretty darn good. Weathering looks good. Best part of weathering...I dont think 'weathering' can look wrong...lol .
Welcome to TrainBoard! The westhering job does not look bad at all. Practice makes perfect, so just keep at it. That "O" sounds like a Lionel diesel. The buzzing may be it's "E" (reversing) unit. Those can stick. If you can't get it working, it can be replaced. Boxcab E50
Thanks for the replys guys and next time I go to visit mom and dad, I'll be sure to check out that reversing unit on my dad's "O" which is in fact a diesel, thank you for the tip Boxcab I wanted to give grande man credit for the pastel weathering technique he posted here: http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5129 It has been by far the easiest to emulate. As far as airbrushing goes, I think it's only a matter of trial and error and I'll only get better at it. I'm using a Badger 350, which I like... cheap and easy to use, but I'm on propellant. As you use the airbrush, the bottle gets cold FAST which lowers the pressure in the bottle, making it very hard to be consistant. So I think a comperssor is in order. The washes are another story all together and I'm stuned by how hard it is to do right LOL. Maybe some of you know what I'm doing wrong and can steer me in the right dirrection. Thanks again guys
Reversing units usually come back to life with a good oiling, also make sure everything is tight, could be sticking, best of luck ! fatalxsunrider43
