Here is an old Arnold Rapido Pacific that I modified to look more like a Santa Fe locomotive. I made a long distance tender out of an old Bachmann Northern tender and added more detail to the boiler. ZOOM IN http://www.railimages.com/albums/russellstraw/avk.jpg
A small salute to Verne Niner's Arizona Divide: A brand new pair of SD7 tiger stripes grace the cut at Kendrick on a fine spring day in 1954.
Nice work Russ. I like the extra detailing on the boiler of that steamer.. Stay cool and run steam......
Steve: I like the look of the Arizona countryside. Those SD-7's are cool. Stay cool and run steam.....
Thanks Bob. The decals are different on each side. Oooops. What do you think of the silver paint job? The High and the Mighty is on AMC
I've probably posted this before. This is the second level, above the main yard and West harbor. This is meant to portray the Connecticut River valley tobacco/truck farms in Massachusetts. Four Kato RSC-2s lead a long mixed freight on the climb out of the valley into the Berkshires. At the left, a string of tank cars awaits a pickup on a siding. At the right, an RDC consist from Springfield will enter the main on the way to Boston. At the far, far right, a VO-1000 is backing a string of refrigerated reefers to Harrington Farms. The cliffs above and below the RSCs are photos of granite cliffs in Alaska, with Woodland Scenics foam glued on to represent bushes. The backdrop above the body of the train is a photo of the San Juan mountains in Colorado. The fields to the right of the tobacco barn were extended with Photoshop--otherwise, you'd be looking at ships in the harbor on the first level. That's the only software magic I used.
Heavy traffic entering the St. Albans Tunnel on the JJJ&E: The town of San Marino on the upper level of the JJJ&E: Both upper and lower levels: Stay cool and run steam.......
It is great to see the first WFF of the newly improved Trainboard is off to a great start! Russ Nice looking loco! Steve Great looking WP units! Keith Sweet looking steamer! How that get there I thought you were a diesel guy? Pete Great shot! Carl Neat looking photo! It sets a great mood! Bob Great shots! The amount of activity going on on the JJJ&E is awesome! Paul C Sweet looking locos! That blue MP scheme is growing on me.
SNFF 2006 4 16 Here's my shots for the week. Still working on the Kato Santa Fe freight F7s (smile): A pull-back of the previous shot: Happy Easter, all!
Nice Weathering? John Sing: What color are the trucks and pilot on the F7? Are they painted? Just weathered? Thanks.
Hi, Flash, The pilot / trucks / fuel tank on these Kato Santa Fe freight F7's are hand-brush painted with Pollyscale acrylic Grimy Black. I mask the part of the body shell that is below the yellow stripe (i.e. fuel tank cover and grab irons), and hand-brush them Grimy Black as well, so that they match with the trucks/fuel tank. Then, weathering is done with Bragdon Enterprises weathering system (his adhesive-impregnated weathering 'chalks'). I don't use the weathering chalks on the trucks, obviously, to avoid gumming them up. I do the weathering with the shell off to avoid gumming up the split-frame and motor for the same reason. FYI, the numberboards and kickplates on the cab doors are done the old fashioned way - cut out individual numbers and individual kickplate decals from MicroScale Decals number 60-793 'Data for EMD E and F units', and apply (patience is a virtue in this operation!). Getting the size of the numbers on the numberboard right was a multiple-LHS-visit exercise in trial and error with several different Micro-Scale decal sets, before I finally found/settled on the 60-793s. In the case of the number boards, once I got the numbers positioned properly and dry, I applied to the numberboards a coat of MicroScale Gloss to simulate the numberboard glass. In the case of the kickplates, I applied them carefully, then applied Microscale Sol to allow the decal to snuggle down over the 'bolt details', then applied MicroScale Flat over them to seal them on. The tiny little 'Fuel' decal I applied to the sideframe's fuel tank filler is sealed with a downward brush of Microsoft Gloss, using that Gloss to double as looking like spilled fuel. Naturally, the decals and Gloss/Flat sealing coats all go on first, then afterwards the weathering chalks are applied. Worked good enough! Thx for asking.
