Weekend Update 2008/09/07

[diezmon]

I finally mounted my first rotary beacon..

using these:



My brother is an EE, so he gets me free samples of such things  

I'm still tweaking the settings to make it look more like a rotary...

[pfs]

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Here's a disturbing image..  These guys are INTENSE!


.....snip.....

You're telling us if they make a version of that shirt that has all CR locos on it, the CRHS gang wont be photographed at the titt...strip...um...gentleman's club wearing them? Come on!

When my son is that age I will do backflips if he will still wear a shirt with trains on it instead of some mass media crap poured down our throats.


Nice SOO hopper!!


I know someone working on an HO MT6 slug and they have been looking and looking for details shots. Could you spare some high res?

[pfs]

...snip...
Next I've been experimenting with some fading using Liquitex "Mixing White" acrylic tube paint, blended with Miscroscale Flat finish, thinned with windshield washer fluid, and applied with an airbrush at low pressure.  The key here is that this white color has a zinc-based pigment rather than titanium, which gives it a semi-transparent finish.  I'm sure this idea is not new to many of you, but it was to me.
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Cheers,
Gary

I agree with Skibbe, looks promising!

[absnut]

I know I'm a day late but, I just put the finishing touches on this this morning.  (Besides, a lost day here or there doesn't mean much to us retirees! LOL)  It's a Northeastern Scale Models Firehouse and was a nice kit to put together.  Having scratched/bashed/built seven fire trucks and only having one two-bay (Life Like) fire station, I needed more housing.







Dick

[rswinnerton]

PFS- PM me your email. Hi-res comin at ya!

Ed-
I booked the hotel on Expedia. It was the $55 "special". I almost booked a hotel in Fort Erie, Ontario, but I then realized that crossing into Canada wasn't going to be possible (for various reasons). The next best hotel I could find was over $100. Being the "financially responsible" people that we are, we opted to stay at the Rodeway. Stained walls, rough beds, no towels, a contingent of Japanese tourists who ate all the continental breakfast, and lousey high speed internet.

But it was better than the night we spent in the car before that in the rest stop!
Russ

[John]

PFS- PM me your email. Hi-res comin at ya!

 but I then realized that crossing into Canada wasn't going to be possible (for various reasons).

Warrants or irate dad with shotgun?

[Puddington]

,,,,,,hard to believe that a n scaler wouldn't be welcome in " my home and native land"...... you must have modeled in HO or some such other sin...............Bwhahahahaha......... for what it's worth, we'd love to have ya come and model a spell....................

[Zox]

A bit late for a "weekend" update, but if anyone wants to attend my seminar on "How To Misuse a Socket Set," tickets are still available:



Finally, at long last, I'm back to working on my Kankakee River bridge module. The first step was replacing a lost alignment pin so I could stand it back up on its own legs; the second is what you see here, fitting and attaching the water below the dam.

Next step is figuring out how I'm going to do the water running over the dam itself--I'll probably have to do some testing first, to see what might work. Any suggestions?

[GaryHinshaw]

Why is it that everytime I see those NYK containers, I think of the Three Stooges?

Oh!  Now I get it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKtwlHV1-O8

 ;D

[GonzoCRFan]

,,,,,,hard to believe that a n scaler wouldn't be welcome in " my home and native land"...... you must have modeled in HO or some such other sin...............Bwhahahahaha......... for what it's worth, we'd love to have ya come and model a spell....................

Those other goobers DO model in HO...I'm the one who likes to mess with a real scale.  ;D

[GaryHinshaw]

Wow, Gary.  Everything is right about that fading. Too often the technique looks like white paint sprayed as an overcoat...

Thanks Mike.  It was a botched attempt to fade a BN centerbeam with thinned reefer white that led me to Google to see what the alternatives were.  If anything, the current effect is still too subtle (though good for a mild fade). Other brands like Windsor & Newton list a semi-transparent finish for their Mixing White (still zinc-based).  Some sites recommend blending zinc & titanium pigments. This should be fun.   

[ryourstone]

Pollyscale dust is good for transparent white. Used it here for a heavy fade:

http://crcyc.railfan.net/model/yourstone/pcbox.html

I don't have a picture of the original color, but color looked like this:

http://download.atlasrr.com/images/36bay/0608/7327art.jpg

But yeah Zinc white is pretty transparent... I've used it mixed with cad yellow from the tube to overspray the dark green stripe on Reading first-gen diesels (or was it Flake white?) to get that bright green faded look. I know, airbrushing lead and cadmium isn't too healthy, did it outside on the back deck...

[GaryHinshaw]

Rich - I've seen that PC box before and it's awesome!  I tried your dust recipe a while back but I found it difficult to get a noticeable fade, and when I did, it was a bit gauzy, but that might have been more of an airbrush issue than the paint.  What kind of settings do you use for that step?

Thanks,
Gary

P.S. Where did the lead come from?   Edit: Mixing White contains lead. How nice... 

[ryourstone]

Flake white is made from lead. The stuff is the best for regular brush painting with but getting harder and harder to find.

The Dust mix is probably about 20% Microflat, 10-15% Dust, and the rest thinner. Sprayed at about 17-20 psi in multiple light coats. It dries quick, so by the time you cover one side you can go right to the next, so it's not as tiresome as it sounds. 20 coats might take 30 mins.

One of the things I like about the Dust is it dries ultra flat... Without being coarse like DullCote. The Microflat on it's own seems more like a satin finish.

But seeing the results you're getting there, I'd say don't listen to me  You hit on a good combo, looks great. One tricky thing about white fade coats is it tends to "cool" colors. E.g. red turns to lavender-pink instead of that orangish color red fades to. And it only works with white or yellow lettering (black lettering never seems to fade as much as the base coat).

[ryourstone]

I tried your dust recipe a while back but I found it difficult to get a noticeable fade, and when I did, it was a bit gauzy, but that might have been more of an airbrush issue than the paint. 

My guess is either too much Dust in the mix, or too heavy coats. That stuff is extremely difficult to control, and it doesn't help that you can't see it until it dries.