Weathering with pan pastels per MR article by T. Koester

[strummer]

Welll, not always....   

Ed

I think that's a pretty nice job myself...

Mark in Oregon

[mcjaco]

So, is that the excuse or justification to do a sloppy job? Honestly, it doesn't take weeks of extra time to do it better, so why not shoot for quality versus time economy? Lose the stopwatch, and spend maybe a half-hour on a loco (is that too much time? Puh-lease) to achieve something that's not an embarrassment on the cover of MR.

David, since you seem the only one that's getting really worked up about this article....step back.  They're still toy trains. 


 

[DKS]

They're still toy trains.

[jimmo]

+1

[soo]

Thanks guys I needed a good laugh this morning.

  A wise man once told me that we use model railroading to cover up our real hobby,,, complaining and whinning.
While I am not a fan of TK,, me thinks he is an elitest snob. He could be a good guy who knows, the real point,,,,,
      WHO CARES!!!!

 I have not seen the article in question yet. Do I subscribe to MR,,no. Do I buy it frequently at a retailer,,yes. So as with any article, comment, you tube video,,, YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY. Maybe MR needs to have a disclaimer on the cover.

  " before reading this magazine, please digest multiple grains of salt"

  Wyatt

 

[mcjaco]

After two nights of dealing with the twins fighting through Hand, Foot and Mouth.....this was needed.

LOL.   

[robert3985]

Well, I've enjoyed this thread    I agree the cover engine/photo was atrocious, but frankly, most work that Cody Grivno does is atrocious.

Tony K made it very plain that he was after speed since he's got a big roster to weather up and he wasn't concerned if this technique was the best.  However, at least he used color photos of his Berkshires in service as a valid reference.

MR on the other hand puts a black and white photo of the engine Grivno sort of uses Koester's weathering/coloring technique on instead of a color photo.  That didn't make much logical sense.

I'd rate this article one tiny step ahead of the one on how to use caulk and rags to make a scenery base...all in the name of not making a mess.

Now, back to laying turnouts...

[Dave V]

I still think it's worth giving props to MR for pushing weathering as much as it has lately.

I agree with everything said about the quality of Cody's work versus Tony's, as well as the general consensus that time is a factor for some but not others.  Just think...  If MR were still under Terry Thompson, it'd all be about buying pre-weathered cars.

Anything that gets people to go beyond simply opening a box and running a choo-choo is model railroading to me.

[cnw mike]

I still think it's worth giving props to MR for pushing weathering as much as it has lately.

I agree with everything said about the quality of Cody's work versus Tony's, as well as the general consensus that time is a factor for some but not others.  Just think...  If MR were still under Terry Thompson, it'd all be about buying pre-weathered cars.

Anything that gets people to go beyond simply opening a box and running a choo-choo is model railroading to me.

This somewhat dovetails a hunch I got when I saw this. TK is being a bit sly here. Trick the box openers into doing a bit of modeling by using "instant weathering" as the hook, and before long Bubba's spent three hours perfecting one box car, because hey if seven minutes made it look better, what could I do in an hour?

[peteski]

I think that the express weathering article more than achieved its goal: to generate lots of buzz on TRW, including comments from people who have not even read it. 

[Bob Bufkin]

Well, I haven't read it and I have him beat.  I've weahered cars in under 2 minutes.  Not great but better than shiny.

[mmagliaro]

... including comments from people who have not even read it. 

Heh... that is the one reason I haven't chimed in on this.  This issue hasn't appeared in the stores near me yet,
but I'm running an errand tonight, so I may be able to finally get to read it.
There has been a subtle shift going on at MR, I *think*, nudging slightly away from ready-to-run
and 10,000-foot views on layouts, toward a bit more craftsmanship modeling.   They are nowhere near
Railroad Model Craftsman, but they do not serve the same purpose or audience.   One measuring stick
that made me notice this change is that I realized that I have bought more issues off the newsstand
in the past year than I used to, because they have had 1 or 2 pieces that interested me enough to buy.
That wasn't true 2 years ago.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.   I will stay more on-topic when I can get my hands on the issue.

[OldEastRR]

MR has done LOTS of weathering  articles recently ... and track detailing, and coupler adjusting, and tree-making articles .... surely there are other topics not covered?
As for the mag luckily my local library subscribes to it -- (in fact, since every library I've ever been to does I wouldn't be surprised if half their subscriber's list is librarians) I don't have to buy it to check it out.

[mmagliaro]

Okay, I would have just edited my previous post and added this on, but the controls to edit are gone.
Has anyone else noticed this problem?

So I have now read Tony Koester's article.
Sorry, I see nothing wrong with it.  The article and the opening editorial page of the magazine make it clear,
repeatedly, that this is a simple, imperfect, way to get some equipment much more presentable than it's new-box-shine
state, and they repeatedly say that there are better ways.
Not only that, but Koester's end result, I think, looks pretty good.  It's not great, but it's pretty good, and in fact,
is probably good enough that if the hoardes of readers who never tried weathering tried this, they would be
extremely happy with it and be encouraged to try more. 

I don't see it at all as a bad or shameful thing for MR to be promoting. 

As for the cover photo, well, I don't like the weathering job on the engine, but it was perfectly fine to have
somebody else use Koester's technique to try it out.  In fact, the editorial makes it clear that they were skeptical, so
they wanted somebody else to try it.

Ironically, I think the worst part of the cover engine is the brown drivers, and they were NOT done with the pastels.
Grivno airbrushed those!  So he added more complexity and time, and in my view, made the end result worse.

Anyhoo, there's my $.02.  I think it was a perfectly good and helpful article for MR to run.
 

[peteski]

Okay, I would have just edited my previous post and added this on, but the controls to edit are gone.
Has anyone else noticed this problem?

THREAD DRIFT
Yes, there is a  3-page thread on this.
I was the one who asked for keeping the ability to edit the posts for a longer time, but that is no longer possible because of few bad TRW apples.