To those of you who have had up close and personal experience with Milwaukee Road flatcars: From the photos I have I show reporting marks and numbers on the sill sides, but do not see any numbers or MILW on the ends of the flatcars. I want to confirm that the Milwaukee did NOT put these on the flat cars, unlike all other cars I have seen. Thanks, Mark
Mark, On all the flat cars I have seen personaly, I do not recall any markings on the ends of the cars!
I don't recall seeing any on the ends. But it's been a few years now. So memories have slightly faded... Boxcab E50
Veilen Dank! I'll be installing the handrails, touching up the paint and putting these on the rails. Thanks again, Mark
Post some pics..while, let me try Here is the one car I was asking this about. It started off as a $2 train show special. It did have good truck and Kadees, so it was worth the $2 for these items alone. Here's the link...I can't get the image to load. http://www.railimages.com/gallery/markallenwilliams/aaf
Here are some more links for various projects: Boxcab-here are those woodchip car shots I said I would place a year ago.....Kodak's been having problems The top image shows what I start with on the right: a cheapy car (in this case $1.95) or train show special. I then remove unwanted detail, grind and adjust the bolster height, add new trucks, weight and Kadee copulers (#4's if I am feeling truly masochostic). I drill mounting holes, add details and then get a batch of them done to paint "en mass". Then more detailing, decals, Dulcoat, weather and then release. Cement Hopper 99315 Eastern Valley kit I got for $1 at a train show. Another flat car. I haven't numbered it yet. Covered Gondola 98012 Another Eastern Valley $1 kit Athearn GP-9 http://www.railimages.com/albums/markallenwilliams/aaj.jpg My first attempt at kit bashing. Still "in progress" after 2 years [ February 01, 2006, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: cmstpmark ]
Let me try this: Nope...won't work. Darn Safari! If I were a Winders Slave I suppose this would be easy. Alas..... Check out the Railimages page, as that works fine. Thanks, Mark [ February 01, 2006, 10:59 AM: Message edited by: cmstpmark ]
Mark- I edited your link, so the photo would show. If you right mouse button click on the photo, you'll see what the address looks like. Boxcab E50
Si! 2x12" styrene strips mounted on brass angles via glue. The next one I do I plan on drilling holes and mounting NBW details. I was planning on doing it with this one, but after hand drilling the mounting holes for the handrails, I noticed that I did not have the accuaracy to do even a sub-par job. I now have a drill press and will be getting a cross slide vise to do drilling in a nice, straight line. Boxcab-thanks for fixing the link. I went in and did some more work. I think that it was a case of my account still being "new" when I tried to post the images. Maybe not. I'lll see what happens on the next run. But...I can now go visual I'll get some shots of the local NS freight that runs behind my hosue. I am also still trying to scan the Caspian Depot negs into my computer in order to post them. We bought a scanner, but it turned out not to work with OS 10.3. One final note-these are all in progress. The flat cars need detail painting, they all need weathering, and then they will be "complete" (as complete as any of these projects get.). I have found in the past two years of kit bashing that details are fine to work on one car at a time, but painting and weathering are best done in batches. [ February 01, 2006, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: cmstpmark ]
Ken, I tried to scan the negs using a scanner at work, but no luck. I'll see what else I can do to post those images, as well as the shots of a restored depot in Richland Center, WI. I am almost done decaling this batch...next is Dullcoat and on to weathering. I'll post 'em as I get 'em. Andy, nice work on the tunnel. Your clouds do look great. One method I have had good luck with in my acrylic landscapes and background work. I still use a cardboard cut out as you do, but I use a brush and white acrylic stencil paint. The brandname is Creamacoat and you can find it or similar paint in a craft store in the section that deals with transfers, stencils and iron-on applications for clothes. As the name suggests, the paint has a thicker, creamier conssitancy than normal liquid paint, but is not as stiff as tube paint. You also need a "filbert" brush made out of natural hair. They should have them in the same department at the craft store. You need one whose diameter ranges from your index finger to your thumb. And you need a wet rag, and a damp rag. Paint your base blue....then put some of the paint on a tray. Load up your brush with white paint. If you are using a cutout (I use them for larger sections of sky..say 6 inches or larger) place it against the wall...smaller sections just free hand it. Take your brush and start using a dabbing motion. The brush bristles will naturally want to, "spread out" as you push on the brush. Don't worry, that is what this type of brush is designed to do...you ain't hurtin' it. Do to the consistency of the paint, the areas where the bristles stop will leave a "ridge" of paint that is thicker than the rest of the paint. This effect, with a little practice, will allow you to get the lacey, gossamer tonal changes that give a 2D cloud 3D solidity. And if you don't like it, hit it with the wet rag and dry it with the damp one...problem erased. Once you get good at it...which is really easy (trust me)..you can knock out 4 ft. sections of background in under an hour. You also don't have to worry about aerosal overspray on the wall or your lungs. You can vary the inyensity of the cloud by varying the amount of paint you put on the brush (the more I work on a cloud, the more I use the "dry-brush" method). They also sell a drying retarder for these types of paints, so you can almost work them like oils. Now..on oils...I could really get into it...but the acrylics are safer, cheaper and don't smell the way oil/turpentine does. -Mark Learned to paint from Jan Van Eyck, Titian, Bosch and Vermeer....via books.
Mark, Thanks for the tips might have to try it! You have any tips on painting background hills, I am thinking I would like to try painting the backdrop instead of buying one. Any help would be great!
I'd heard they were doing this restoration. But have not seen much about it. Completed? Would love to see some pictures! Boxcab E50
Ken, It was fully retoed when I was there in September of 03 and it was gorgeous. They turned it into a Museum/welcome center. I couldn't go inside, but looked in. The wood flooring was restored, the fixtures were all restored...it looked like it had fallen out of 1908...except for the digital thermostat. Andy, That would be a long post. I recommend you look at work by some of the better landscape painter as a first place to start. That would include: Jan Van Eyck-his work is not lanscape centered, but if you look behind his subjetc, the landscapes are wonderful. Turner-rather abstarct, but excellent feel for color and depth. Pissarro-forgotten impressionist-wonderful landscapes of both sunshine and rain, urban and rural Gainesborough-more "realisitic" than Turner-same period Frederick Remington-Western landscapes Peter Bruegel-Late Medivel painter-a lot of landscapes Hudson River School there are thousands more, but these are a start. just Google the Images and spend some time looking at them. Just doing this will give you many good references. The one rule of thumb I can give is: Background objects are always fuzzier then close up objects. they also tend to look "bluer". This is because atmospheric haze softens detail, the further the way, the greater the effect. The haze also cause blue wavelength light to diffuse more readily than the other wavelengths (true all around-this is why the sky is "blue") and put a blue cast into the air. Again, the further an object is in the distance, the more pronounced the effect. Cloudy days are, "bluer" than sunny days.
