Weekend Update - 3/8/2009

[JDouglasFisher]

Here's an old pic I found of the now long-gone bethlehem engine terminal.

WOWOWOW.. Looks pretty good.

When you say, "Long Gone" I have to ask, you meant the layout, right?

Why the change of locale/era/railroad?

J.

[justTRAINcRaZy]

The Ops Session Steve mentioned pretty much consumed my weekend, but at least it forced me to clean up a bit so I can maybe find stuff when I get back to work.

[lashedup]

Some great stuff as usual from everyone!

While I did work on some module structures, I finally got around to a paint/tint project that I got a bug to work on:





Not an original idea by any stretch, but I decided to try using Tamiya clear acrylics to tint the windows. I pulled the window glass out, masked off the front of the glass (and the dome cage on the domes) and then mixed up a batch of "tint" that was 75 drops X23 Clear Blue and 15 drops X24 Clear Yellow. This stuff will dry very quickly if you brush it on, so I recommend that you airbrush it. To airbrush it Tamiya says you have to use their thinner for this paint (X20A Acrylic Thinner) in a 50:50 mix (so I used 90 drops). This paint goes on a little bit like a gel, so it leaves the windows a little hazy, but not nearly as bad as I thought and not bad enough that I wouldn't use it again. Having said that though, I don't know if I would use it on a Super Dome where you want to see the interior detail more (unless you want to hide the interior detail that is!). The only other thing I did was paint the seats in the domes with Pollyscale Aged Concrete to try and knock down the dark yellowish-brown color that the stock interior comes with. The brown color of the stock dome seats makes the blue/green windows appear to change colors depending on the viewing angle. The mix of blue/green and brownish-yellow has an unwanted color mixing affect. So I used aged concrete color as it is brighter and more neutral (with a small bit of tan) and I think that made it look much better.

Pretty much transforms the look of the cars!

Now back to the modules...

- jamie

[up1950s]

Wow Jamie that turned out super .

[ryourstone]

Why the change of locale/era/railroad?

There's probably a half-dozen different locales I cycle interest between all the time. All involve RDG/CNJ/LV/PRR-PC and ideally I'd be building 6 different layouts  I kept the buildings in case I ever get back to modeling the Allentown/Bethlehem area again, but right now my focus is the the Corridor in the Elizabeth-Newark area with a secondary interest in the CNJ branchlines in Newark. I seem to end up moving every couple years so there's lots of "opportunity" to start over!

[Dave Schneider]

Jamie,
I agree with the Wow factor on the Zephyr car. That is an outstanding job. Man you do some really nice work.

Best wishes, Dave

[Scott Lupia]

Rich, nice shot of your Bethlehem facility.  I miss seeing your work.  Do you still have a website up with photos?

Scott Lupia

[N_DaveS]

Not much to report outside of slowly-progressing carpentry; details here: http://p4500.blogspot.com/2009/03/layout-update-2-one-piece-at-time.html. That is actually an update of the previous week's work, which should give you an idea of the pace of construction.

Once I find that box of spare time I'll post some pictures as well.

Dave S.

[TrainCat2]

Nice job Jamie.

Have you ever tried dipping the plastic into Ritz dye? Takes several dips, but allows control of the tint.

[Erik W]

Some great stuff as usual from everyone!

While I did work on some module structures, I finally got around to a paint/tint project that I got a bug to work on:





Not an original idea by any stretch, but I decided to try using Tamiya clear acrylics to tint the windows. I pulled the window glass out, masked off the front of the glass (and the dome cage on the domes) and then mixed up a batch of "tint" that was 75 drops X23 Clear Blue and 15 drops X24 Clear Yellow. This stuff will dry very quickly if you brush it on, so I recommend that you airbrush it. To airbrush it Tamiya says you have to use their thinner for this paint (X20A Acrylic Thinner) in a 50:50 mix (so I used 90 drops). This paint goes on a little bit like a gel, so it leaves the windows a little hazy, but not nearly as bad as I thought and not bad enough that I wouldn't use it again. Having said that though, I don't know if I would use it on a Super Dome where you want to see the interior detail more (unless you want to hide the interior detail that is!). The only other thing I did was paint the seats in the domes with Pollyscale Aged Concrete to try and knock down the dark yellowish-brown color that the stock interior comes with. The brown color of the stock dome seats makes the blue/green windows appear to change colors depending on the viewing angle. The mix of blue/green and brownish-yellow has an unwanted color mixing affect. So I used aged concrete color as it is brighter and more neutral (with a small bit of tan) and I think that made it look much better.

Pretty much transforms the look of the cars!

Now back to the modules...

- jamie

Jamie,

I like the results.  One question, is that the stock coupler on the non-tapered end of the car or is that some type of closer coupling one?

Thanks,
Erik

[chuck geiger]

Great work, need to get off my ars and do some work.

[Catt]

Ok,I'm a day late but our power went out yesterday and by the time it came back on I didn't care if I posted this thing anywhere.

This is my Z scale Big Blue CSX boxcar that would still be in the Mark 4 baggie if Shamoo 737 hadn't donated the decals for it,Thank you sir.

[lashedup]

Jamie,

I like the results.  One question, is that the stock coupler on the non-tapered end of the car or is that some type of closer coupling one?

Thanks,
Erik

It is the stock coupler. Close coupling these units either with replacement couplers or via diaphragms is something I'd like to do, but haven't had the inclination to tackle yet.

Nice job Jamie.

Have you ever tried dipping the plastic into Ritz dye? Takes several dips, but allows control of the tint.

So if I use Rit dye (I presume that's what you meant?), does it still leave the plastic surface of the windows shiney? Or does it dull them a bit? Early on I was using the Tamiya Green clear on some Burlington Northern bi-levels that I painted and pulled a bonehead move and painted both sides of the glass insert. When I went to slide it back in to reassemble the car, the glass insert scratched up pretty badly due to the paint. That's why I painted these only on the inside glass now.

I'll have to give it a try.

- jamie

[GaryHinshaw]

No pictures for me this week (my son went abroad with our only camera cable), but I did get a lot more basement renovation time in.  I pretty much finished installing the false ceiling supports, valences, and lighting in the back half of the 25' square basement.  Man what a difference good lighting makes!!  I've got nearly 800 watts of 5000 K, T8 florescent bulbs for the 12x25' space and they give a brilliant, but not harsh, white light, with very uniform illumination, very good color rendering, and almost no heat.  Models just pop under lights like this, especially small N scale models that need all the help they can get.  I'm sold!

-Gary

P.S. Fun fact - the bulbs I'm using give off 2950 lumens per 32 watt T8 bulb, compared to 1260 lumens for a 100 watt incandescent bulb (GE Reveal bulbs, at least): 7.3 times more visible light per watt.  So the lighting in place has a lumen equivalent of more than fifty 100 watt bulbs.     It doesn't seem that bright, but that's what the numbers indicate.

[Iain]

I could not get to the afore mentioned ops session due to participation in the New Bern, NC show.





I would like opinions on the weathering of the PRR gondola; I tried to follow Rich Yourstone's subtle weathering idea.