Man, you're on fire with all this new work! Do you recommend the salt technique? I haven't tried it yet. Cheers, Gary
I am very streaky with my work, I will go three months hot and then put it away for a while (I went ten months at one point with no train work!), I guess a lot of us are, but I am defintely loving the work lately and have been having at it! As for the salt method, I highly recommend it, it gives great results and is exceptionally easy. Paint an undercolor, dry, apply water, drop salt wherever you want the undercolor to stay (you can play with the salt shapes also), let the salt dry and paint your next color and re-apply salt if you want a third or more colors. Scrub off the salt when dry and your all set. I left a touch of a rough, painted salt on one side of the Conrail hopper because I wanted some texture to the cement residue (there was an MR article on weathering with real cement and water, a similar goal I suppose of a textured cement finish). Also if you look closely at the last photo, of the 2 SD40-2's on the snow module, the STLH loco had a salt treatment where the SOO line red is peeled near the rear of the unit. I also used it on the roof of that unit. I have been working on a CP GP38-2 with a heavy salt treatment as well, pictures when its done! my best, Jan
Exceptional work yet again. You're gonna be dangerous if you ever get any good at this! (and hopefully you know I'm kidding and only in awe of your superior modelling tallets). Thanks for sharing your results with the salt technique. I'm anxious to do some of that myself.
Excellent work. Was just watching a CP train going through Oneonta. Four GE's!!!!! 78 cars of mixed frieght, and a long string of well cars. Have fun. Frank
Been busy with work but I was able to finish this boxcar for the EEC: Working on this MRL hopper (not done yet) with paint peeling back to reveal a BN heritage and some hand-drawn graffiti: Started work on a new yard module also, hope to have done by June! my best, Jan
Not been up to much work lately, but here is a Norfolk Southern Atlas GP40 I just finished detailing. Additions are a plow I took from a Kato (a little big but does o.k.-- I had not realized before that Atlas did not have a plow on here), a sunshade on the engineer's side, sideview mirrors, and MU hoses from BLMA, and the red cable from Atlas. It got a light weathering fade- NS tends to keep their locals in South Eastern Pennsylvania pretty clean, and a dab of Conrail blue inside the horn, per-the prototype, and painted the end handrails yellow and gave it some mud/paint chip/ rust on the sill near the front truck:
Subtle but effective weathering. The fade and the grime are almost imperceptible, but would really stand out in a before & after comparison. Do the prototype units only have shades on one side? Best, Gary
I have not had much time for train activity lately, but I was able to get a light weathering job done on this MT CanCarb hopper from a proto photo of another unit: Gary, yes, NS 3021 seems to have a sunshade only on the enginners side of the cab: my best, Jan
I have recently been converting my old Ft. Lauderdale Yard modules (replaced by the "new and improved" Ft. Lauderdale yard modules) into a multi-use module for my CP D&H Division as a Taylor/Binghamton yard winter module. Work has been somewhat slow but I made a bit of progress yesterday on the west module: The left most track is the lead into the loco repair and maintenance shop which will be on the east module. It splits into two tracks near the edge of this west module. The track second from left will be a refueling and holding track. The two tracks in the middle are stub storage tracks. The track on the far right (with the NS coal train) is a passing/storage track and the track 2nd from the right is the mainline. The first two coats of snow are down, the backdrop has been started, some trees are in, some of the storage containers and an old boxcar used for storage are all in. This side of the yard still needs more trees, snow, the refueling facilities, more backdrop, and a couple of miscellaneous items. But, its on its way! Of course, its about 95 degrees outside right now....:mtongue: my best, Jan
Love the scenery! I've considered going for a similar approach when it comes to the point to add the scenery to my own layout. Usually when a winter scene is done on a layout it usually depicts heavy snowfall, but I find the "early/late winter" look to be very appealing. You have definitely pulled off a very realistic appearance with your scenic techniques. Maybe going for this look myself will help me forget that it's just shy of 100 degrees outside right now. Hmmm.
Its been one of those strange times lately- little going on and not many hours at work but no model train get up and go until recently! Well, I did finally get around to attacking a True Line Trains newsprint boxcar. This has been through the ringer. The ride height was god awful, so I took an old Roundhouse boxcar bottom and filed it down and replaced the bottom of the frame which lowered the car nicely. Than I attacked with fade coat after fade coat, white, yellow, and orange tints, rust, dark rust and finally graffiti, and here it is ready for extensive service on my D&H division (where you see a lot of these!): Still needs FVM wheels, but they are on the way! I worked off a picture of the real 402185 that I found and liked. have a good one everyone! Jan
Jan, just scrolled through your thread, some outstanding work! And the above boxcar is grimely perfect man!
Outstanding boxcar Jan. I might be tempted to hit the graffiti with a bit of a yellow fade to tone it down a smidge, but all in all, it looks great. The contrast between the C and the V in the logo is very effective. Do you have a track plan for your new D&H division? Cheers, Gary
Jan, nice! I want to model one of Norfolk Southern's high hood GP50's; I have some pics of one here in Aiken, but the only N scale models are Kato's 1980's run and the old bachmann Standard (aka POS) line. I'm thinking I could use maybe an Atlas GP40 or something, because the prototypes shared the same frame, use the pilots and modify them for a gP50, and rebuild the Bachmann shell, then drop it onto the Atlas drive. This project will require more planning though
Its been a while since I have worked on much rolling stock or motive power as I have been working on my newly modular layout (I have been converting four 4' modules to my updated leg system and converting an intermodal yard from an old layout to a general purpose yard and loco shop, and all modules to winter scenery, updates on that effort to follow!) But I did finish 7310, a CP GP38-2 that I will be using as my primary switcher on this new point to point switching layout: and I also finished this CSX hopper: Gary, thanks for the advice on the CV boxcar, I have since yellowed the brightness of the decals down and it looks much better, I'll see about getting some pictures up. As for a trackplan, I don't have one yet, but hopefully soon! my best everyone, Jan
I also started trying to convert my Atlas trucks to FVM wheels (I love the FVM wheels on my MT trucks). So I got a bunch of the FVM 36" wheels for Atlas and Rivarossi and only two cars out of 8 could use them, all the others would bind up, anyone else have this issue with FVM wheels?
