Weekend Update 4/24/22

[up1950s]

https://www.thedieselshop.us/BrandX%20Pre-1940.HTML

https://spotlightnews.com/towns/bethlehem/2022/04/20/effort-to-move-unique-locomotives-to-a-local-museum-is-under-way/

https://www.pbs.org/video/seattles-ramps-to-nowhere-tkli1v/

https://railgallery.wongm.com/level-crossings/F111_8786.jpg.html

https://barnfinds.com/nice-caboose-pennsylvania-rr-caboose/

http://www.railway-technical.com/infrastructure/

https://recyclenation.com/2010/11/repurposed-recycling-railroa-cars/

https://www.lstoptours.com/blog/14-questions-about-chicagos-l-train-answered

[turbowhiz]

That N6b is looking a lot better these days!

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40540&start=90

[Dave V]

I have a ton of projects ongoing but not really prepared to share much.

The HOn3 Rio Grande Southern First District faced its first existential threat today when the "Silver Charm Fire" broke out in my neighborhood. The fire was less than half a mile from my home, and we were forced to evacuate with very little notice. By God's grace and the persistence of the Colorado Springs Fire Department, our home and all our neighbors' homes were spared. We returned this evening to find everything safe. There are still some hot spots around, so the CSFD is keeping watch. The winds are finally starting to drop below tropical storm strength. We'll be ready to go if the call comes again. It helps that I have a homemade carry case for my HOn3 stuff so that I could take the Blackstone engines and the brass cabooses.

I'm grateful for a lot of things today.

[glakedylan]

sharing your thankfulness, Dave...i hope you all continue to be in safety and without loss.

sincerely
Gary

[nkalanaga]

Nothing really new this week, just the back side of last week's feed mill.


The metal shed on the right is new, and hasn't been "planted" yet.  Unlike the typical corrugated aluminum on most of my models, and very common in the Northwest, this one is galvanized corrugated steel.  The side is made from photos of an old lumber company shed in Grayson KY, which will probably fall down in a few more years.  I photographed the south side, the north side is already collapsing.  Since it was old in 1978, when we moved here, and the lumber yard has been gone for many years, it's surprising the building is still there - right downtown!  Even more surprising, given the climate, it has very little rust.  Montana is a lot drier, so it fits fine.

The model building itself is as simple as they come.  I started with a piece of poplar 1x2, cut nice and square, then added heavy cardstock ends to get the roof peaks.  A strip of the same cardstock down the middle supports the roof, which, you guessed it, is more cardstock.  I can get an unlimited supply at work, free, from the boxes our parts come in.  The foundation is a piece of 1/4 inch balsa, slightly smaller than the building.  Siding and roof are inkjet-printed copies of my siding photos, which I cropped, cut, and splice in MS Paint to get longer strips.  The door is a slightly edited wood barn door photo from online, of unknown origin, set into a hole cut in the cardstock end.  The foundation is concrete block, drawn and colored in MS Paint.  No point trying to take pictures of block walls, they're easier to simply draw.

[craigolio1]

I had a very frustrating event. I had sprayed a passenger car with a water soluble acrylic from True Line Trains. Then I short a clear coat. I used Krylon gloss clear which said safe for plastics but I should have tested it first. My fault. I shot four cars, and on ONE car, just in one corner, this happened….



I get that there are compatibility issues with different paint types, and I should have tested on a throw away model, but I’m curious if anyone can offer insight as to why it didn’t happen on all 8 sides I shot, and instead just one corner of one side.

Craig.

[hegstad1]

I had a very frustrating event. I had sprayed a passenger car with a water soluble acrylic from True Line Trains. Then I short a clear coat. I used Krylon gloss clear which said safe for plastics but I should have tested it first. My fault. I shot four cars, and on ONE car, just in one corner, this happened….



I get that there are compatibility issues with different paint types, and I should have tested on a throw away model, but I’m curious if anyone can offer insight as to why it didn’t happen on all 8 sides I shot, and instead just one corner of one side.

Craig.

I've had this happen.  Usually It's because I put the clear coat on too thick.  A few light passes is better.

[wazzou]

I had a very frustrating event. I had sprayed a passenger car with a water soluble acrylic from True Line Trains. Then I short a clear coat. I used Krylon gloss clear which said safe for plastics but I should have tested it first. My fault. I shot four cars, and on ONE car, just in one corner, this happened….



I get that there are compatibility issues with different paint types, and I should have tested on a throw away model, but I’m curious if anyone can offer insight as to why it didn’t happen on all 8 sides I shot, and instead just one corner of one side.

Craig.

I wonder if the surface beneath the paint layer in that one location wasn’t quite clean enough of residual oils and after the clear coat dried and tightened, it pulled up the paint?
To me, it looks like a paint bonding issue.

[craigolio1]

As far as cleanliness, the models havnt been touched with bare hands since I shot the blue. I used gloves at all times.

The thickness is an interesting thought. I decanted it from a spray can into my airbrush and shot the first car, this car, as it was out of the can. I felt it wasn’t laying down as smoothly as I wanted after the first side so on the next side, and other models, i thinned it a bit with lacquer thinner. The other side and three other models all look fine. So perhaps it’s not as much a compatibility issue, and I just hit that spot heavily enough to do this?

 

[peteski]

I had a very frustrating event. I had sprayed a passenger car with a water soluble acrylic from True Line Trains. Then I short a clear coat. I used Krylon gloss clear which said safe for plastics but I should have tested it first. My fault. I shot four cars, and on ONE car, just in one corner, this happened….

I get that there are compatibility issues with different paint types, and I should have tested on a throw away model, but I’m curious if anyone can offer insight as to why it didn’t happen on all 8 sides I shot, and instead just one corner of one side.

Craig.

That is a bad break!  Sorry!

I'm not surprised. You have water-based acrylic (enamel) paint, and Krylon is likely an organic solvent based (stinky) lacquer. Its solvent is hotter than water, so it can possibly attack the water-based paint.  There is an old modeler's adage: never paint lacquers over enamels (although it is not always true).  But when using paints of different chemistry (or even similar chemistry but different brands) it makes sense to do a "spoon test": use a plastic spoon as a test piece to be painted as a compatibility test.

[craigolio1]

That is a bad break!  Sorry!

I'm not surprised. You have water-based acrylic (enamel) paint, and Krylon is likely an organic solvent based (stinky) lacquer. Its solvent is hotter than water, so it can possibly attack the water-based paint.  There is an old modeler's adage: never paint lacquers over enamels (although it is not always true).  But when using paints of different chemistry (or even similar chemistry but different brands) it makes sense to do a "spoon test": use a plastic spoon as a test piece to be painted as a compatibility test.

Good call. I’m always too impatient to do a test, but seem to have plenty of time to redo a model when needed. On this one I was able to sand it down to a 2000 grit and reshoot just that spot.

I never thought of using a spoon.  Good call.

[peteski]

I never thought of using a spoon.  Good call.

Thanks!  In the automotive modeler's circle, "spoon test" is a standard procedure many modelers use to verify paint compatibility.  Plastic spoons are easily obtained and inexpensive.  Best are the polystyrene spoons Recycling #6 (some are made from other more flexible plastic).  Sometimes (for a test of how paint will look like on a model car) we use empty plastic soft drink bottles (with the label removed of course).

[muktown128]

That looks like what is called wrinkling or lifting in the paint industry.  I've seen this with solvent based alkyd paints when recoating.  With alkyds, it is related to differential cure (surface vs. through cure) and can be affected by solvent blend, film thickness and/or time.  Sometimes there is a re-coat window (no wrinkling/lifting between say 0-8 hours, lifting/wrinking between 8-24 hours, no wrinkling/lifting after 24 hours), which can be adjusted by changing the drier package in the first coat and/or the solvent blend in the second coat to be less aggressive (i.e. weaker). 

Wrinkling or lifting can also occur when using two different paints that are not compatible with one another.  I suspect that since this wrinkling only occurred in the one corner, it is probably related to the film thickness being a little too high.  The solvents in the clear coat most likely attacked the water-based basecoat. 

[Cajonpassfan]

The temps hit a nice, dry 80F here in SoCal... a perfect day to use my outdoor "paint shop" to prime a few of the nice UP 36' stock car prints I got from our own Ken Harskine. Us transition era modelers need more 36 footers in our trains (not the "old-timey" Roundhouse truss rod cars Athearn is now rereleasing). Shorter cars with steel underframes (reefers, box cars, stock cars) lasted past the end of steam era; during my modeling period, cca 1950, there were more 36/37' house cars then there were 50 footers....
Nice job on the models, Ken!
Otto K.

[chuck geiger]

New video and pictures coming from this weekends work. Hemet depot scene developing.