Weekend Update 3/28/2010

[Packer]

My other weekend project.  Andy remembered that he needed to work on his science project today.  Which was due Friday... :

He is comparing the strength of bridge designs.  So we came up with three designs, with the control being that they were all to span 12", and each design had to include at least 50 popsicle sticks.

We'll be setting each bridge onto abutments (or in the case of the arch, between them), then loading them with bricks.  We are theorizing that the arch will fail first, followed by the truss, and the girder probably won't fail.  But we'll see!

Lee

I did a project like that before. A lot more complicated then just popsicle sticks though, and I had to pick one design.

I'd say the it would go Arch, Truss, then Girder. Maybe there should be a bet...

[davefoxx]

That's funny, I was thinking truss, then arch, then girder (based upon how beefy that thing looks in the pictures, anyway).  PLACE YOUR BETS, FOLKS!   ;D

DFF

[ednadolski]

I spent the weekend in weathering school. Here's my first go with the help of both Tom Mann's and Pelle Soeborg's books. On the workbench I really like what I see – far better looking than the photos. I tinkered with the focus, details, and more, but I have no idea how to take the type of photographs that properly convey the details. Yet another skill to learn  :-\

Nice work Shawn!  I have a lot of difficulty with photography too (maybe someday I'll learn to do better but oh well...).  Say, what are those patches on the Seaboard boxcar?   Your wheel faces are looking really good.

I really like a lot of Pelle Soeborg's work tho I think he relies a bit too much on powders for some rust effects (streaks in particular).  It's a matter of goals -- he likes to weather a car in an hour or two, but really convincing rust effects can take a fair amount of time.

Ed

[Bob Bufkin]

Been redecaling some Kato and other passenger cars. Also working on a roof of a standard Walther's building changing how it looks:





The unit on the right is from a 1/35 scale M1A1 Abrams tank (the CPU unit), repainted.  Other parts are also from various military models.

[shawnleon]

Jsoflo, thanks for the photography tips. I am going to experiment with natural light on my deck. Not brave enough to haul a set up to the ground floor from my third story unit.

For techniques I tried various combinations just to understand them more. The rusted roof models relied heavily on the airbrushing of acrylics to start and finish, with lots of weathering powder. The two others were light airbrushing coupled with hand-applied  washes.

Take away from a first-time airbrusher: don't see how this would have been possible had I not gone this route.

--
Ed, I appreciate the kind words. On the Seaboard boxcar I couldn't find an exact prototype car to follow, so I worked from a few examples. I expanded minor overpaint areas I saw that I guess covered graffiti or something to help hide a man-made blemish or two.    The wheel faces were fun to see the results, but got a bit monotonous. Next time I am going to try another paint color formula for a less obvious impact and mix it up a bit. 

I agree Pelle Soeborg's techniques can be quick and easy - that's the reason I started with his concepts. I see them as a great way to get my baseline fleet moving forward - I have a lot of cars! Tom's rust is so realistic, I want to use it on the main players.

Shawn