Weekend Update 7/21/19

[bbussey]

Needs more Conrail.

Next year.

[Cajonpassfan]

I've got a new addition to the sub.  Thought about this one for quite a while.  At left in this shot is the last part to be added, and in the distance the new addition.  That valley just called to me...

"......

I can't believe how much pleasure these projects have given me.  Now on to the Briggs Coil Cars (when they get here!).

Jim, that’s quite nice, and yes, there is something special about building actual proto-based scenes.
Nicely done!
Otto

[mark dance]

Are these scratchbuilt?  How'd you do the shingles?

Everything "laser scratch" save chimneys. E.g. wndows are 6 separate layers to allow for crisp painting and depth.

Md

[Cajonpassfan]

Actually, nice work everyone, some spectacular modeling here, as usual.

A good friend and I got together to take some of the shine off our car fleets using my Q&D weathering method. Between the two of us, we did about forty cars in one morning, and had time to wrap up with pizza and beer for lunch. For “special” cars, I take my time, but to get the bulk of the 500 plus car fleet rolling, this will have to do for now.
I still need to do some of the trucks and wheels, but I’m pleased with the progress; here’s a few...
Otto K.

[Iain]

REALLY nice work on the handrails, Mairi, the corner radii look just right!

I found some .009" stainless in 6 foot lengths for similar needs.

What did you use for stanchions on the hood handrail?

I like the bronze because you can solder it, making for very strong handrails.

For the hood stanchions, I used etched eyes from the gold medal models steamdetail kit.  However, next time, I might just make the eyes from .008 wire like I did with the vertical stanchions as I feel I can make them smaller than what etching can do.

[Dave V]

RGS update time!

Started planting sagebrush around Ridgway and Placerville using a product for war dioramas called "Deadland Tufts" by The Army Painter.  They're spot-on colorwise and closer to the right texture as I've found or been able to do myself...



Finished the "Quality Store" at Ophir, bringing me a step closer to finishing the most unfinished part of the layout:



Built a Model Railroad General Store D&RGW long baggage car kit.  It's mostly laser-cut micro-ply and it's a fantastic kit!



I took a MicroTrains ( @Shipsure ) C&S steel-underframed gondola lettered for the Whit Pass & Yukon and converted it to RGS work gon 0620.  There are precious few photos of the real 0620...the last being taken near Durango in the 1930s...and she was rebuilt from a truss-rod boom car so the body style is all wrong.  That said I lettered her to match and she looks really good, breaking up the monotony of the two ubiquitous D&RGW gondola designs.



Here she is in consist at Placerville:



Then I finished the cosmetic restoration of RGS #20, an Erie Limited brass model I picked up cheap with a terrible weathering and paint job.  She has some lingering mechanical issues I'm working on but for now, she looks like she should again...sometime in the mid-1940s.



RGS #20 had a unique herald in the 1940s not used on any other locomotive.  The sunrise herald for 20 had thinner, sans-serif lettering.  Thinfilm is the only company I know that offers this unique herald in HO.  I spoke with the crew restoring 20 at the Colorado Railroad Museum (all the mechanical work was finished at Strasburg, PA this past Spring) and they said they had a stencil that matches this unique 1940s style.  Previously the Museum had used an incorrect version of the sunrise herald on the 20...it was the same one they'd used on caboose 0404 and loco #74 which is longer, thicker, and has serifs.  TL;DR, I used the correct, unique, thinner, and sans serif sunrise herald for #20.



Then I decided after she'd shat the bed some two months or more ago that K-27 #462 needed some love.  Thanks to Facebook I was able to obtain a replacement Tsunami K-27 board at no cost (a gentleman was upgrading his Blackstone fleet to Tsunami 2).  You can see on the old board on the left that a component in the upper right seems partially melted.  This is from where I assume the magic factory smoke escaped, rendering her a roundhouse queen for the past two months.  Anyway, quickest drop-in replacement I've ever done:



So no #462 is back in service, sporting a Tweetsie whistle for schnitzengiggles.



Lastly...can you imagine getting stopped at the crossing for a train that runs twice a week?

[rickb773]

PIOMIP Part III (Progress is Our Most Important Product!)

Gentlemen I realize my work can't hold a candle to the to the scenery geniuses who graciously display their work on these pages but this is (my) progress. (For proof see my weekend submissions on 3/10/19 and 5/12/19.)

Second scenery pass for the Brooklawn/Timber Creek area:

[altohorn25]

I weathered my Pecos River Brass Santa Fe class 3400 4-6-2.  I may still paint the decoder wires going from the tender to the engine.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Dave V]

Another one for me:

[Mike Madonna]

Actually, nice work everyone, some spectacular modeling here, as usual.

A good friend and I got together to take some of the shine off our car fleets using my Q&D weathering method. Between the two of us, we did about forty cars in one morning, and had time to wrap up with pizza and beer for lunch. For “special” cars, I take my time, but to get the bulk of the 500 plus car fleet rolling, this will have to do for now.
I still need to do some of the trucks and wheels, but I’m pleased with the progress; here’s a few...
Otto K.

Otto,
Nice work!

[Mike Madonna]

Worked on product photos and video this week.  This shot is outdoors on the @DKS "Somewhere in New Jersey" diorama.

Bryan,
Nice angle, great shot! Nothing like "natural" light 

[Ike the BN Freak]

It is now, Bruce, and thanks!  Caliente needs one also!  Can't believe I didn't think of that!

Woodland Scenics is doing a line of US flags in HO, a small, medium and large.  Not sure what those equal in real world measurements, but could be expanded to N

About halfway down on the MR NTS report, http://mrr.trains.com/news-reviews/new-products/2019/07/2019-national-train-show-report

[Skeebo]

I got my Broadway Limited Imports cryo tank cars today, 6 of them and they look incredible. Unfortunately the trucks are garbage. Two shake like Santa's belly, one the wheels keep falling out, and all six only couple if you force them together. A loco cannot do it. $40 per car, I expected better from BLI........

Jim  Semikoski

[Chris333]

I got my Broadway Limited Imports cryo tank cars today, 6 of them and they look incredible. Unfortunately the trucks are garbage. Two shake like Santa's belly, one the wheels keep falling out, and all six only couple if you force them together. A loco cannot do it. $40 per car, I expected better from BLI........

Jim  Semikoski

Sounds like the rest of BLI N scale rolling stock so far.

[learmoia]

Sounds like the rest of BLI N scale rolling stock so far.

Hazuuuu!

(Yes I know only the outside braced wood boxcars make sound.)

~Ian