Hmmm........:tb-err: I must be "old school." I prefer to scratchbuild, kitbash, cast, assemble, paint, decal and weather my equipment. In fact, with my equipment standards, even factory painted cars go through the "shops" and get lowered, body mounted couplers, low profile wheels, weight, weathering etc... before they even get run.
weathered Microtrains cars Hi I have been in N Scale for 39 years but I am new to posting to forums. I was a "collector" at one time and I guess I am now a "runner". I do read forums from time to time and on one of the other forums I read some people get very emotional very quicky. I hope that is not the case here. We can watch the current political debates and analysis if we want to see major misunderstandings over single words taken out of context. This is a hobby to enjoy. The answer to the simple posted question is complicated. So let me try. The value of a car is what people are prepared to pay for it. Weathering a rare Microtrains car will reduce its value to a collector. I have seen collectors pay hundreds of dollars for freight cars and passenger cars. They have to be pristine. Are they worth it? The collector thought so. Do they recover their money or even make a profit? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. They are taking a risk, but they see value in owning something that is different. In this respect, train collectors are no different to stamp collectors or vintage car collectors. As to runners, will it reduce the value of a car? Perhaps not if they like weathered cars, or if they think it is a good weathering job. We are usually talking about a lot less money paid for a car in this market. Many people do not like weathered cars, they want the shiny new look. In the same way the manufacturers were not able some years ago to sell many plain gray hopper cars with just reporting marks on. That was real, but not sellable at that time. Manufacturers reps told me at that time that people wanted shiny brightly colored cars. It looks as if that is now changing led by Atlas and Intermountain. With all these changing fads and fancies in n scale most of our manufacturers do a great job. I have always dullcoted cars. I have been weathering cars for some time with drybrushed acrylic paints and chalks. In the early days I would weather the Microtrains kit cars because I knew the collector cars usually had high value in their original boxes, factory air etc. In response to a comment on this thread about the L&N MT car, my general advice would be to check the value of an MT car produced in the early 70-80s before you weathered it. In the early 2000s I started putting graffiti on cars because the market was supplying decals to do that. Graffiti cars were fetching $60-$150 at that time. Not any more. Many runners do not want graffiti on their cars even though it is reality. I know railfans who are modellers who do not like graffiti on the prototype, far less on models. Lastly to be picky and to show where my preferences lie, the two weathered MT cars announced this week are not only weathered but they have some graffiti on as well. To the best of my knowledge graffiti moved from suburban city walls and trains to mainline freight cars in the early 90s. This was well after 40 foot boxcars with roofwalks disappeared from freight trains. Not prototypical. So I will not buy them even if they were my road or era. I realize MT probably did this because they had an excess of these cars. But I am fairly sure they will sell well at the excellent price offered and especially at discounted prices. Sorry to be long winded but I hope this helps Ian Millar
That concept has helped me keep perspective. It's just "a blob of plastic". Hmm, I can't get that blob this year? oh well, maybe they will have it next year but I have sooooo many of the blobs it just does not matter.
Um, I have prebuilt structures I bought in the 70s. Still love my little Bachman Freight station. Ya know, we can't even on what track or wheels to use. I would be amazed if we did not get a full bell curve representation of opinions on pre-weathered cars. When and if I get a budget to buy again I will not be purchasing pre weathered. Why? Cause I am an old fogey and like doing things like that myself.
Howdy, Just a point of clearification...the UP Car with the Roof Walk and the full height ladder and the early lettering is a car that was photographed in 1993 as shown. I know I've gotten a lot of emails regarding this, so I wanted to post that here as well. Again, these were done to test out some new processes, test my ability to weather in a production enviroment and to give folks something fun to run on their layouts. Quantities are very limited, so it wasn't a normal production run. As for future projects, as things settle down I'd like to do a few cars every now and then...I think it's good for the hobby and scale to do things out side the box every now and then. Cheers Joe MTL
weathered Microtrains cars Well Joe thanks for your reply. I was interested in your getting "out of the box" comment. I do not think any N Scale modeller who is interested in prototypical accuracy would ever accuse Microtrains of staying inside that particular "box". When these cars were released in March this year the write-up said the UP car was photographed in 1992 and the DRGW car in 1975. Both cars issued in March 2008 were in original road numbers and paint schemes. I would like to see the 1975 photograph with the graffiti on the DRGW car. For the information of newer N scale modellers reading this thread (one of whom started this thread) Microtrains has never had a heavy emphasis on the prototype and the collectors we discussed did not necessarily focus on prototypical accuracy. The cars were first produced in the 1970s and had fine painting, detailing and couplers that were revolutionary at that time and MTL were the only manufacturer doing this for many years. The MTL couplers/trucks are still the best on the market. Collectors are interested in short runs, errors in painting or lettering (spelling, different on each side etc etc) anything that makes the car unique. Many different road schemes were done on a limited number of body styles particularly for 40' boxcars. I used to buy and collect MTL cars but no longer. Being interested in the prototype, I now prefer manufacturers such as Atlas who are turning out modern car types such as tankcars and 4 Bay ACF Hoppers with variations in body style, topworks, hopper doors, hatches etc in high quality and at reasonable cost. Joe, one further comment on weathering cars for your marketing. Speaking generally, modellers or runners who weather cars are usually interested in the prototype. I share the concern of someone else on this thread about factory produced weathered cars. To look real, the weathering and graffiti has to be different on each car. I find if I weather too many cars at home at the same time they all start to look similar. So I prefer to weather and graffiti my own cars a few at a time from photographs. Many of the comments on this thread were similar. I wish you all the best with your project. Ian Millar
Ian, Thanks for the reply. First, the weathering and graffetti are different on both sides of each car, I agree,it's easy for stuff to look the same when it's done at the same time. I worked pretty hard to make them look different and hope I got there. As for being prototypical, I'm not sure I'm completely on board with the concept that we have never had a heavy emphasis on being protoypical. I think we have limitations on some body styles like the 20K and a few others where doors are different sizes. I give you that one...but generally we strive to get them right. I'm a prototype modeler, SP, 1960, Z scale so you can understand my frustrations as well. Not to many outside braced boxcars in that scale! So I have a sensitivity to what you are saying. I think we have to look at the hobby in it's broader sense and understand that those of us who are "prototypical" probably represent a small fraction of the community as a whole. Most folks I talk to are road focused first, and bolt counting (something I'm guilty of!) second. Frankly I have been model railroading for 20 years and it's only since I started here 7 years ago I really started to narrow my interest and "go without" or scratchbuild things I needed. I think the vast majority of model railroaders are semi-casual in their interest and model the things they see. These cars are meant to spark some interest, try out new processes and hopefully get a few more folks thinking about going the step further and weathering their cars too. Cheers Joe MTl
Joe,As I stated earlier I fully believe preweatering is the next step in RTR after this has been discuss locally-both HO and N scalers-and the majority stated they wouldn't mind seeing light weathering like Athearn uses but,graffiti should remain a modeler's choice since that varies with modeled eras as well as personal view points concerning modeling graffiti. At any rate every change in the "normalcy" of the hobby has meet resistence. I think preweathered cars is a excellent idea as long as its stays in the realm of believability.
Joe - I saw some close-ups of the weathered cars and I'm very impressed with the graffiti. Since you have indicated that this is your work, I wonder if you care to divulge your technique? Of course I understand if you prefer not to. Cheers, Gary
Joe, something I'd like to see is a run of weathered hoppers or ballast cars. Here's a good excuse to get them dirty/rusty etc. It would all depend on if you want the hopper loaded or empty. Perhaps the interior could be painted a different color from the body? Also, you could use a different color on the trucks/couplers to show rust? THis would be a great addition to the MOW sets.
Thanks! At the moment I can't go into the mechanical side of the operation, but the weathering and the graffiti is drawn in Corel Photo Paint and Corel Draw. Folks with Adobe Illustrator and others can do the same thing. I am also using a sketch pad and stylist (not for my hair!) to do the rendering. It's a ton of fun to do really...the trick is getting it on the car. Cheers Joe MTL
