May Micro Trains Weathered releases are up

[JoeD]

And quit making me regret leaving Conrail...!

But conrail didn't quit  you   LOL

[JoeD]

It should be easily doable. They do have to spray paint the body with the base color and stick bunch of cars in some sort of holding tray. Then they load up the artwork and let the printer go. Of course this operation has to be repeated for all the sides. Some cars also receive some Tampo printing (although less and less nowadays due to the better print resolution of the printers they are upgrading to).  Of course I don't work at MTL so this is all a semi-educated speculation on my part.

Then there is usually some additional manual weathering added. @Shipsure could probably better describe since I think he is one of the employees that do this. As I understand, the set up an array of cars and airbrush some rust/dirt/grime onto those cars.

@OldEastRR , the paint used for the weathering process does no adhere well to the slippery engineering plastic used for truck/couplers, so I suspect MTL would get lots of complaints that the weathering is rubbing off too easily when the weathered trucks/couplers are being installed or handled. It is ok on pre-weathered cars because of minimal handling (most stay in their jewel boxes). 

You said "semi-educated"      The whole process is pretty involved actually and it's never as easy as even I want to believe it is.  If you think about it, we have to set up the molds which can take as much as a day or more, run the plastic in quantities that will cover the overhead and materials in the process so far...then base paint, decorate, mask followed by all the hand work and processing.  There are templates and fixtures that have to be mounted, located and tested which will eat up a lot of plastic...so when we do this, we have to hit a minimum of production to make it cost effective.  Also consider scheduling.  Anyone who has walked through here on a work day sees the pace of work to meet existing deadlines.  Ask a special run customer what it costs to have low volume production done.  The other limitation of course is re-releasing the same road number which is an industry wide no-no...We have seen runs go out the door much faster than anticipated and were able to find more cars set aside from production to fill orders but that isn't the norm.  Glad you guys are liking the work, it's come a long way from the days of me wanting to move excess stock from shipping by doing a little added value work on them.  It's gone from nothing to a huge part of our business at the moment and as we get better with processes I think you'll see better things from us.

Thanks

Joe

[ai5629]

Or the Conrail version in brown, or grey, or the Evans hopper in patched silver ?

+1 to the Conrail brown and painted out Evans H47's.  You will save me the aggravation of painting and decalling them myself.  Bravo on the correct scale code and class (CR BL 4-80 and CE16A).  Way to do your homework!  Mine is sitting at  my father's house with his recent 9 car MTL order from BLW.  Will try and pick it up this weekend.  Can't wait to see it in person. 

Jeff

[ednadolski]

More "wow-factor" photos.

"Wow!" is right... are you sure that is not some of @tom mann 's work?

Seriously, that is really well done!

Ed

[peteski]

You said "semi-educated"      The whole process is pretty involved actually and it's never as easy as even I want to believe it is.  If you think about it, we have to set up the molds which can take as much as a day or more, run the plastic in quantities that will cover the overhead and materials in the process so far...then base paint, decorate, mask followed by all the hand work and processing.  There are templates and fixtures that have to be mounted, located and tested which will eat up a lot of plastic...so when we do this, we have to hit a minimum of production to make it cost effective.  Also consider scheduling.  Anyone who has walked through here on a work day sees the pace of work to meet existing deadlines.  Ask a special run customer what it costs to have low volume production done.  The other limitation of course is re-releasing the same road number which is an industry wide no-no...We have seen runs go out the door much faster than anticipated and were able to find more cars set aside from production to fill orders but that isn't the norm.

I was just describing the car decoration process (not all the other production steps). I guess, since you didn't correct me on any details, I have the process figured out quite well.  As I see it, the ink jet decorating is saving you time (and man-hours) over multiple paint masking and Tampo printing.

Glad you guys are liking the work, it's come a long way from the days of me wanting to move excess stock from shipping by doing a little added value work on them.  It's gone from nothing to a huge part of our business at the moment and as we get better with processes I think you'll see better things from us.

Thanks
Joe

The quality of your the ink jet printing has improved dramatically since the time you fist used on the meat reefer series. You must have upgraded the printer at least couple of times. Bryan's photos show how high the resolution is and how thin the link layer is. Weathering and graffiti is a perfect application for this type of decoration, but I would still prefer the non-weathered decorating to be done using the old-school method (spray paint/masking and Tampo printing). But I guess I just have to get used to the entire car sides being ink jet decorated.  As I said, at this point the quality and resolution of the ink jet printing is almost as good as Tampo printing.

[Chris333]

Any online info on how these printers work?  Just curious.

[Kisatchie]

Any online info on how these printers work?  Just curious.

Hmm... it seems to me
that sticking a car in a
printer would crush it...

[Chris333]

I was thinking the printer sprays ink and then maybe a UV cure. I know it doesn't touch the car.

[peteski]

Any online info on how these printers work?  Just curious.

Just Google https://www.google.com/#q=direct+to+substrate+printer or https://www.google.com/#q=uv+curable+ink+jet+printers

Here is an example: http://www.directcolorsystems.com/printers/

[tom mann]

As someone who has weathered more than his fair share of freight cars and appreciates good weathering <head slightly down, eyes look over top of glasses> I have to say that the nice thing about the MT's weathering is the fusion of hand-applied effects with a printed digital image. Because of this, the cars look at home on a layout (or next to manually-weathered cars) and avoid a "too-perfect, fake" look. Nice work @Shipsure .

[OldEastRR]

More "wow-factor" photos.

(Attachment Link)

Maybe I'm imagining this, but those trucks look like they are weathered, certainly they're not shiny Delrin black. Can someone explain?

[peteski]

Maybe I'm imagining this, but those trucks look like they are weathered, certainly they're not shiny Delrin black. Can someone explain?

The manual weathering (airbrushing) done at MTL also includes spraying the trucks. But if handled, the paint will eventually rub off off the high spots.

[OldEastRR]

Don't know about you, Peteski, but I respect my rolling stock's trucks too much to fondle or rub them excessively. 
However, is it your contention that NO weathering of any kind can stick to Delrin?

[peteski]

However, is it your contention that NO weathering of any kind can stick to Delrin?

Correct. Not without a special prep (like sandblasting the surface before decorating. Some modelers also report that automotive adhesion promoter (a type of special clear coat spray) also works.   But bare shiny Delrin will not hold any paint well. But then then the notion of what is "permanent" might be different for me and for you.