Patrick, For the structures, the larger building front is individual boards. The smaller structures are kits with sheet stock. The larger structure was built by @Jim James and was a gift from the Zalma Branch. For the other structures (which are wood kits), I attempted to match Jim's weathering, and used a Tamiya gray primer and then a very light misting of matte white from Tamiya. Then I used some craft paints and the techniques from Jason Jensen on YouTube. He has a nice "How-To" play list including this video that is probably most relevant: I used some rust colored and green washes (Vallejo) and Pan Pastels for additional weathering, including the metal roofs. Hope this helps, -Bob T.
Its a cold early January morning at the Blue Front Bakery in Weir City. The crew is in the back baking away and a warm stove will greet customers come sunrise. Happy New Year All!
Getting real close to completing this structure. This is a Mine Mount Models kit, that they sell as "Wilson's Fine Mustard." I have been building this out for 2-3 months as the "Kansas and Texas Supply Company" for Weir City. A "Kansas and Texas Store" or "Kansas and Texas Supply" appears in several old newspaper ads. It needs a few more trim and roof details, but pretty close to calling it done. This is posed on a diorama, as the Weir City section of the layout is not currently set up in the train room (garage).
Incredible work as always Bob. I think you could slap a old time photo filter on that and pass it off as real.
RJ- can the micro lux railbrown paint be brushed onto the rail or does it need to be sprayed. Thank you Tony LaLumia
Tony, I spray with an airbrush, but I am sure it can be painted with a brush. I use a micro brush to touch up areas. You might have to make a couple of passes. -Bob T.
Thanks all for the kind replies here. I will try to finish up a few details this week and call it done! -Bob T.
Hey All, I have neglected this thread for a while, but will by trying to post more regularly again. I spent a good deal of time trying to correct a terrible "Lightning Creek" resin (water) pour. It sat for several weeks, never hardened up, and had to be removed. I am almost finished with the repair of the surrounding scenery. You can see that I need to re-do the banks which have just been repainted. The water was redone with gloss medium from Golden. I might be done fooling with resin for water features. Maybe I just can't follow directions. Oh well. I clearly need some coupler height adjustments on those Bitter Creek cars. I have worked a little on some ~1908 rolling stock. Some built by yours truly, and some purchased. I am almost finished with the Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Memphis 34-ft boxcar from Bitter Creek Models. It has sat a while waiting on weathering. I finished up lettering the Bitter Creek 34-ft flat car, thanks to a pointer from Karl on a painting lettering guide for the period. Finally, I purchased a couple of cars from the recent New Braunfels Train Show in mid-April. The La Belle Waverly 36-ft Oil Tank Car...I don't know much about it, other than it still appears in the La Belle catalogue. I traded out the Central Valley trucks that came with it for some Tahoe Model Works 5-ft arch bars. It has excellent under-frame detail and was obviously built by a craftsman. It was part of the collection of Kermit Baese, one of the founders of the New Braunfels Historical Railroad Museum here in South Texas. The Iron Mountain stock car came from the same collection and is an old Ambroid kit. I have yet to tune it up with new trucks and fix some missing decals. A 40-ft(?) car seems unnaturally large next to the shorter cars. I'll probably place the stock car with the 1920s cars. Anyhow, hope all are doing well. Catch you soon. -Bob T.
I like the way the creek scene currently looks. I don't know how you pulled it off, but I like the receding water line look on the bank. As always, your rolling stock all look like it was pulled straight out of an old photo. Very nice job.
Sometimes you have to take what you can get. I have tried to find photos from the Weir City grain elevator for several years. Today, I saw a post of the grain elevator....ON FIRE! Oh well, it was taken much later than my modeling era. -Bob T.
When I worked for the State Fire Marshal, explosive agricultural dust was a huge hazard concern. In the late 70s there was a major grain elevator explosion across the river from New Orleans. I’ve been retired for a pretty long time now but I remember the coffee processing facilities I reviewed that had the same problems with explosive dust and required specialized protections.
In addition to the dust being explosive, grain can catch fire if it's stored too wet. It's amazing that more elevators didn't burn down back in the day before mechanical ventilation became standard.
