How come Ed K. isn't dancing and shouting for joy on this?

[OldEastRR]

https://micro-trains.com/image/cache/data/product/2021/2105/2105-99305840-800x800-0.jpg

[Missaberoad]

Sploosh... 

[basementcalling]

He is busy making trees
 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

https://micro-trains.com/image/cache/data/product/2021/2105/2105-99305840-800x800-0.jpg

Oh, I am.

Those are amazing. @MTLJoe  @MTL_Brandon  you guys CRUSHED IT. Can't wait to get my hands on these.

[tom mann]

It’s their best work yet!

[Dave V]

It’s their best work yet!

100% agreed.  I can't finish my morning coffee until I can figure out how to pick my jaw up off the floor.

[Philip H]

I wasn't going to order any MTL cars this month . . . . . 

[Cajonpassfan]

Wow. That’s amazing. And SO PC!
Otto K.

[learmoia]

Except you mis-spelled "CR"     I've got mine ordered..

[CRL]

Dammit!

I bit on the 4-pack of weathered Rio Grande boxcars.

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[bbussey]

The month’s pair of PC boxcars is outstanding, but they still haven’t topped the Conrail ghost-EL Centerflow.

[learmoia]

The month’s pair of PC boxcars is outstanding, but they still haven’t topped the Conrail ghost-EL Centerflow.

I donno.. IMO that Southern Airslide last month may have outdone the CR/EL Centerflow.

I'm looking forward to MT's attempt at a PRR/NYC>PC>CR faded hopper.

~Ian

[peteski]

They are all excellent!  MTL has become "printed graffiti masters"!  I'm amazed how they do that.

I recall (in the '90s?) an article in N scale but a guy with a Hawaiian name on how to produce, from photos, a "decal wrap" for a BN caboose.  SInce  it was a photograph, it automatically included all the weathering.  I think of that as a "granddaddy" of what MTL does today:  ink-jet printing the "wrap" directly onto the model.

I would love to meet the graphic designer(s) at MTL who do all this magic, and see them in action.  I have a feeling that the artwork design is quite a painstaking process.

[MTL_Brandon]

Thanks for all the positive feedback! It was fun to do the artwork for these two, glad you all like them!

For those wondering how this is done from an artwork perspective, here's the gist of it (very simplified). Once we have chosen a prototype photo with weathering we like (usually discovered by Joe, our expert researcher), it is passed on to the art department. We try to analyze and replicate, by hand in Photoshop, step by step, exactly what's going on in the photo.

There are many factors at play. Paint fade, bleedthrough of previous schemes, paint out patches, etc. For example, a really beat up car will often have rust on top of the original paint scheme, receive service and paint out patches and new data, then more years in service and some rust/fade on the patches, road grime/dirt on top of everything, etc. An average weathered car can easily have dozens of separate layers in the artwork, basically built from the bottom up, just as the car would have acquired its weathering in real life. It is quite a process even for moderately weathered cars.

Once the artwork is completed, it all then has to be brought from the digital world to the physical world. Faded paint and color matched plastic parts are matched with the proprietary process of applying the weathering artwork and any pad printing, and all blended and tied together with airbrush weathering.

Brandon

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thanks for all the positive feedback! It was fun to do the artwork for these two, glad you all like them!

For those wondering how this is done from an artwork perspective, here's the gist of it (very simplified). Once we have chosen a prototype photo with weathering we like (usually discovered by Joe, our expert researcher), it is passed on to the art department. We try to analyze and replicate, by hand in Photoshop, step by step, exactly what's going on in the photo.

There are many factors at play. Paint fade, bleedthrough of previous schemes, paint out patches, etc. For example, a really beat up car will often have rust on top of the original paint scheme, receive service and paint out patches and new data, then more years in service and some rust/fade on the patches, road grime/dirt on top of everything, etc. An average weathered car can easily have dozens of separate layers in the artwork, basically built from the bottom up, just as the car would have acquired its weathering in real life. It is quite a process even for moderately weathered cars.

Once the artwork is completed, it all then has to be brought from the digital world to the physical world. Faded paint and color matched plastic parts are matched with the proprietary process of applying the weathering artwork and any pad printing, and all blended and tied together with airbrush weathering.

Brandon

We are definitely living in the future. Holy *****.

I also want to say that the airbrush part is really key to it all. I remember some of the earlier cars had noticeable places where the good stuff ended, but it's been MUCH less noticeable on more recent stuff.

Either way, it's incredible. Absolutely incredible.

Now go retool that 50' exterior post car to unlock a whole new world of stuff I never knew I absolutely needed!!!!