Philip asked if I posted about my chipped depot? I looked but couldn't find on this thread but it was on my blog, so I copied it and pasted it here. This depot will be used in my town of El Dorado. I started off with the Walthers Clarkesville depot, it's close enough for the look I was going for. I wanted it to look weather worn and dilapidated as in the first image. There are two separate sections that I'm working on using a couple different materials so I'll try to keep them separated. Here's an image of a Depot at Perry, AR on the Rock Island line I'm modeling (but not on my layout). This one also has a Hip roof and my model uses a Gabled roof, minor details...I'm going for the character here. I started with the roof. I had several thoughts as to what to do with it, but settled for now just to use the molded roof as is. Thought about printing off a textured pattern but decided to go with the stock one for now and see how it turns out, if I fail I can always add a printed one. It started out as a molded dark gray. I wanted it lighter and originally picked up some rusty red paint after seeing an image online, but then chose a roof with light gray shingles to keep things ordinary. While thinking about the chipping fluid on the structure, I decided to use AK's Worn Effect on the shingles for a worn look. We've all seen shingles that have the gravel worn off and curled. The Worn Effect easily gave me this effect. I started by spraying two coats of the AK Worn Effect on the stock molded roof, since it already dark, this should look OK as the paint gets worn off. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this stuff, it's designed to work similar to the "Hairspray" weathering technique. After the Worn Effect was dry, I shot the roof with a Vallejo Neutral Gray. Once dry, I started to scrub it with a medium stiff brush dipped in water. It didn't take too much to effort before some of the paint along the edges of the shingles started to flake off. Now the depot structure. The kit was white, so I primed it with a TCP light gray primer. Next I used a couple of different Vallejo Model Air colors that looked close to what I thought exposed wood should look like. A light gray and grayish beige. These I just slapped on the structure in a random pattern. After they were dry I shot two coats of the AK Heavy Chipping fluid over the structure and let everything dry before shooting a Vallejo Model Air white. Even before trying to activate the chipping fluid, you could see that a lot of the paint was crazed and cracked, too bad it was so small. So I started with the same brush I used on the roof and some water, and found out right away that the Chipping fluid was going to work, and worked a little too well actually! This was after applying some water and about 3 or 4 strokes of the brush! So I grabbed toothpick but that was too big as well. I grabbed my knife that had a sharp #11 blade recently inserted and started picking away with it and soon realized I really didn't even need any water. Without the water I found I had a little more control on how much came off and where I chose to take it from. Had this been a larger scale, a stiff brush or toothpick probably would have worked. Now I may have gone a little overboard with the chipped and peeling paint (my signature) but I wanted a look of little to no maintenance over the years. This was after picking at it. I did choose to seal it at this point for several reason: One to help lock some of the peeling paint in place, and two to seal it from the wash since the Chipping fluid worked so well. I shot on a coat of Semi Gloss clear because my Gloss was dried up. I was going to use a dark gray wash, but it just didn't show up very well, so I went with black. I used about a 1/2 teaspoon of alcohol and two drops of Vallejo black and brushed it on the roof and structure. Once it was dry I added a light dusting of a light brown Pan Pastel to both. I tried to keep most of the color and wash towards the bottom of the structure. I also added some Tamiya Black panel liner around the windows and doors and added a few spots of a Brown Panel liner in a few places, then dusted it with the same Pan Pastel. Like I said earlier, it might be a bit overdone? Once it's on the concrete base and I get some weeds and misc junk added around it like in the proto pic, I think it'll be OK? Though I doubt it'll win any awards?
Wow! That looks great Allen! Thanks for sharing how you did it and about the AK paints Worn Effects and Heavy Chipping Fluid. Both look worth trying out.
You're welcome! Before you invest in the AK chipping fluid, you might want to try just using hairspray, it works just as well. I've used it and it works fine, and much cheaper. The AK fluid, at the time was around $8 a bottle. I was just curious if it worked any better or not. There's a lot of videos on YouTube about it.
The first of the two GP40's is finished: #389 joins the fleet. The build process was the same as what I did on the previous GP7. (Again, not my photo, used for reference only. I don't know what I'd do if it weren't for all the folks who have posted images of any of the RR's from the past or present? It's been such a great help and am very thankful for their contributions)
That GP40 looks really nice Allen. The weathering seems just right for that unit. What did you use for the marker lights on the low nose and rear?
Last night I put the finishing touches on the last Red GP40: #4711 That's a lot of red when all three of them are together. It feels good to have more red units on the layout since they're are only three prototypical Red and Yellow units that were produced in N scale. That being the LifeLike GP18, Atlas/Kato U25B and the Kato U30C. I do have a couple more units that would be a quick job, but I really should to get back to the layout and work on the farm scene or maybe the bridge scene?
You did an outstanding job. The 3 engines look great! The red, yellow and white scheme is very attractive.
