Two, very nice cars, I always hated crossing between cars on those Cusion cars. Want a good workout, try and rerail one.
Nice work, gentlemen. Tom, I must know how you created the splotchy rust, especially on the ends. For that matter, I'd love to hear details from both you and Steve on how you went about weathering, i.e. media, techniques, etc. Best Regards,
Thanks guys. Tom yours looks good. I figured this car was going to get handled a fair amount so the weathering on mine is mainly paint. A coat of dullcoat first. Then airbrushed with a couple earth colors for some general grime of a car near the end. I used pastels for filling in some of the other more rusty grime. I used a wood toothpick to rub away some of the weathering in areas that would get some crew handling. Then a light coat of dullcoat. This car got some graffiti decals, even though it is actually a little old for that. I know a guy that sells them and I get them free if I use them and send him pics for advertising. So... Might as well send him frisco pics right? After all the decal and weathering was done it got another fairly heavy coat of dullcoat to protect it from fingers. I can not imagine retailing this or any other rail car!!
Not a reflection on your work, TOM, but that to me is just an ugly car. Once the cars went over 50 feet in length - I've not found them attractive. Guess I'm just getting too old! Your weathering skills are great and improving - keep it up.
Thanks everyone for the comments and input, Sherrel, This car does look kinda different in that the trucks are inset to such a degree from the ends of the car. I dont know if it was a attempt to minimize harmonic rock or some other reason. Interesting car.
As an engineer who has tried to rerail one of these cushioned drawbars, I know what you mean. Trying to move a car 6" when there is 20" of slack in the drawbar which will stretch and then recoil when you stop is an adventure to say the least. Setting the air brakes under the car or setting the hand brake on the car helped, but it was still a "run by the seat of your pants" operation, because I had to feel the car begin to move before it actually did move. Great fun.
Glad to help. There's a lot of interesting elements to the weathering. Of course the entire car is coated with the brown grime that was common in the caboose era, when stretch braking was a necessity to keep the slack under control. Now everything is dynamics all the time and use air to stop so brake shoe dust coating cars is a thing of the past. I like the boot/glove marks on the high ladder side from tying the handbrake. I also like the varying colors of yellow on repairs and patches. The lack of graffiti definitely says pre-90s, which is right up my alley. If I understand correctly, these plug door cars were used in Ford auto parts service in their heyday. I wonder what uses they found after that.
