Workshop Wednesday

Thanks Guys! The trees are Super Trees from Scenic Express, and constructed using tutorials that I found online. Mostly, have some leaf color variety, paint armatures gray-ish, trim the armatures to shape them, and not too-much leaf material.

The weathering is largely based on the work on Charlie Duckworth. He has a couple of articles in MRH (I think) related to the Bagnell Branch and weathering when he was doing transition era stuff. It is mostly (1) airbrush with washes to fade and grime, (2) dullcoat, (3) pan pastel highlights, (4) dullcoat (repeat 3, 4) until happy (that DRG&W boxcar is still too shiny), paint and weather wheels and trucks with a base coat that is rail brown in color as a base. The pan pastels really help highlight the details in the moldings (rivets, straps, etc.).

Maybe more details later.....

-Bob T.

 

I spent some time renumbering my Accurail cars.

Accurail makes renumbering decals that are a new number in white on a background that matches the paint perfectly. They can be placed directly over a number, and they work well, especially on wood cars, where the grain hides the decals--in theory. In reality, the decals rip and tear easily. They also need to be soaked for a good 35-45 seconds before they come loose. The first decal I tried completely disintegrated. In the car on the left, the decal tore in half, so I placed the last three digits over the original number of 162237 to make a new number, 162980. I checked, and it seems to be a good number for these cars. I cut the other decals in half and finished it off. The car on the right I replaced the number completely.

I built a motor mount for my Bowser/Cary H16-44, though it's a bit off level. I used a ziptie to hold the motor down:



I tacked the leads together so I could test it on DC. The shell amplifies all the drive noise. I think I need to cushion the motor.
On another thread we were discussing old time combines, so I took two apart to see how hard they would be to repaint and rebuild:


The yellow car is a Bachmann, the red an AHM/Pocher. Can't get the roof off the Pocher.

How big should truss rods be? I have some turnbuckles that are made to fit on .015 wire, so I suppose I could use that. The Bachmann are ridiculously oversized, but the Pocher are about .020, not too bad.

 

Gary,

Several kits that I have use a piece of black thread for the truss rod. The Athearn/roundhouse cars that come with trussrods installed have 0.015 wire. I have used 0.015 wire on the caboose models I have built vs the thread.

-Bob T.

 

I've built a bunch of the old MDC Roundhouse cars with the thread. I've started using fishing line on those cars, and I thread a turnbuckle on while I'm stringing it through the holes. I pull it tight, then bring it up onto the queenposts. I use a dot of CA to hold the turnbuckle down. The fishing line is a little thin, though.



I think I may try .015 wire and turnbuckles on these cars and see how it looks.

 

Chris--

My vision is nowhere near good enough. I am amazed.
When I built the underframe of my muley caboose I used fishing line and turnbuckles. I couldn't even see it when it was on the tracks:


The thread would have worked fine.

 

To follow up, worked on cabooses more this week. Did some painting. Here's the muley caboose and a Roundhouse 3 window caboose:

I will need to find some appropriate decals next.

I had an old Silver Streak caboose someone gave me, and another I found for $.50 at a show. They've been in the thread before. I bent grabs and endrails and made a running board extension out of styrene strips, and installed a smokejack and some details on the other one:

Not sure of the prototypes (if any) of these cabooses.

I posted a pic of a roundhouse trussrod underframe last week. I had forgotten to paint them, so I painted a bunch:

Installed:

Ground out the frame for the motor on my H16-44, painted, and mounted with silicone:

And spent way too much time messing with LEDs and old decoders. I had the idea I could turn some old mobile decoders into function decoders for lighting in passenger cars, caboose, etc:

I spoofed the motor with a resistor, and turned LEDs on and off, dimmed them, etc. To get around flicker, I had to find the - on the diode bridge and solder a lead to it for a capacitor. It works, now to decide where to use it...

 

Great stuff there Gary. I need to find my layout some additional refrigerator cars.

Sorry for the late input, but we had a heck of a hail storm here last night in San Antonio. There was still hail on the ground un-melted in areas north of the city. I think we made it through OK, with a few dings in the metal roof.

Here are my offerings. The long weekend resulted in working on a number of cars in some kind of half-competed state. I finished decaling a second Tichy gondola:



Non-prototypical, but good stand-ins for something pre-1920. Needs weathering and a bit more treatment with the Solvaset.

I also started decaling these Pennsy prototype coal gondoalas for Frisco use. I picked numbers that are in a gap from the ORER (1917) and will pretend that the Frisco bought a few to try out.



I am not real happy with this lettering layout. Maybe a different scheme? Also, the Frisco herald seems to have a printing shift error? Need to order more from Westerfield. Input on a good decal approach here would be appreciated. Giant FRISCO like the wood gondolas?


I also assembled a couple of Accurail kits while sitting in on Zoom/Skype calls:



I really like these two. Not sure about the story on the green Erie car. I hope it is somewhat prototypical and not a home-road only car. Sometimes you just grab things on eBay that look cool.

I also used the trick shared by Frisco Friends to remove lettering using Solvaset and a paper towel, and then scratching off the lettering with a toothpick. I tried it first on this next-up Muley modification from another old Roundhouse kit:



...before and after. Just like magic! Why am I just now finding out about this ??!?!?

It worked so well that I also used on a Roundhouse truss rod car (MK&T) to renumber and to remove the AC&Y herald from a Proto 2000 Mather boxcar that I am relettering for the Wichita NW RR. (Not shown, but worked great).


Finally, need to address this pile during the month of June. I was asked to present on the NMRA-X in late June. It would be nice if I had a few structures to show as part of the layout tour. Better get at them.....



Take Care All,

-Bob T.

 

You got your work cut out for you, Bob. That's a lot of buildings to put together.
I found another Muley, too, in my stash of Roundhouse cars. I soaked it in alcohol and stripped it down.
I think the green boxcar was in express service. I haven't put any kits together during meetings, but that gives me ideas...we got sent home from work today, and I'll be working from home tomorrow.

 

Congrats Steve (@modeltruckshop ), your picture of the 301 made the MRH New Desk email today!

 

Another treasure from Steve Hurt!!!

Joe

 

Thanks guys!!! Don I like your confidence in me. I do appreciate it everyone. I enjoy sharing the Frisco with modelers all over.

Thanks for sharing too Bob, for some reason they always get sent to my junk mail by my SPAM filter. UUUGGGHHHH all the other junk comes through but not those.