Weekend Update 6/27/21

[coosvalley]

My project for the week, a locomotive I saw frequently as a teenager:











And the prototype:

[SAH]

Nearly finished with the test build of the AC&Y 60 series International Car caboose.

[GaryHinshaw]

GATX 4451 is the first car to make it all the way through my new tank car conversion pipeline:



The upgrade includes new 3-d printed end platforms that permit lowering the car and converting to body mount couplers, some stripe and spreadsheet decals to bring the scheme up to date, and some basic weathering, including my first attempt with a new fade recipe.  (I'll update my 13-year old Fading Fast thread with some details, for those interested.)  The fade shows up better in this 35mm shot:



and in this going away shot, which also shows some of the platform detail:



I have about a dozen more cars converted now - mostly corn syrup and late-style LPG tankers.  About half of those are weathered and just waiting for their trucks & wheels to be painted.  I also have platform designs for the Atlas Kaolin tanker, and the Athearn ethanol and early-style LPG tankers nearly complete.

[Bob]

Impressive as always Gary!  I'll look for your updated thread - could you mention what you used to paint the wheels as well?  Thanks!

[Bob]

Coosvalley: Great job on the N. England Southern loco!  Could you say what you used for the stone wall that is visible at the bottom of the first photo?  I really like how that looks.

[towl1996]

Mostly JFRTM for me this week but I have taken advantage of summer’s slower pace to dig out an old project - a VO660. This shell is ancient, one of my first shapeways attempts! Probably 6-7 years old, and goes on a Bachman NW2 mechanism. It’s got some warts for sure, and the work that I had previously done is not up to the standard of the RS2s and FA2 I completed earlier this spring. Still, it’s fun to mess with, though I may end up starting fresh with a shell out of the photon.





Here is a PRR version of that shell,

[GaryHinshaw]

Impressive as always Gary!  I'll look for your updated thread - could you mention what you used to paint the wheels as well?  Thanks!

Thanks.  For the wheels I use a technique from an RMC article:  I paint the wheel faces with burnt umber using a medium micro-brush (after cleaning the wheels with alcohol and applying some Tamiya metal primer to the faces).  When that is dry I hit the faces with 3 shades of pigment powder: medium rust, dark rust, and a weathered brown, in that order.  No need to seal the wheels since they are not really subject to handling.  You can vary the mix of pigment colour depending on how old a wheel you are modelling.  A bit of colour variation looks good.  I finish by polishing the tread with a Dremel emery wheel to get any paint and excess blackening off them.  (I use current sensing block detection, so I need to do that anyway.)

[coosvalley]

Coosvalley: Great job on the N. England Southern loco!  Could you say what you used for the stone wall that is visible at the bottom of the first photo?  I really like how that looks.

The walls are made from Vinyl flooring tiles(about 70cents at HD/Lowes for a sq. ft.), cut and broken into strips, then bricks, laid each layer individually.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Work continues on the PD5000 fleet.

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[basementcalling]

Work continues on the PD5000 fleet.

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But will you flip the roofwalks to be correct on the last few, but different from the first ones you finished?

[ednadolski]

Inspired by @GaryHinshaw 's post above, I ran off a quick printing and painting of a few of the tank car conversion parts:



Thanks Gary!

Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

Looks great!  The future is here.   

[delamaize]

Really late to the game this week, but....

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Oh This is going to be good....

[Jbub]

Really late to the game this week, but....

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Oh This is going to be good....

That's going to be a good looking monster! Boxcabs for the win!