Intermountain Railbox

[Ryan87]

Here's my latest project for your critique...

Here's what was done to this car;

- Filed bolsters to lower car to prototypical height.
- Body Mounted Micro Trains Couplers
- Faded with Liquidtex "Softbody" transparent White/Liquidtex Matte medium mix
- Weathered with artist acrylics

I still need to add air hoses and cut levers but it is close to done...

What have I done well? What needs improvement? (don't hold back)

Thanks




edit: pic removed

[3rdrail]

Looks excellent, but can't you get photos one and three as bright as two? You can barely see much of anything subtle in the first and last photos they are so dark. What can be seen looks realistic, though.

[ednadolski]

Looks really good Ryan.  I think the rust effects are especially well done, and the lowered bolsters make a huge improvement.  With the body-mount couplers, what kind of curve radii can this negotiate?

Most of these prototype cars nowadays have graffiti & patch work, so if you do any more like this, you might want to consider including some of that.  (I'm presuming that would fit in with your target ERA, so take FWIW).

Another common feature is fading/distressing of the lettering and the red/blue arrows, some fine (600+ grit) sandpaper might work with that.  I'm not sure offhand what kind of solvents (ELO, Solvaset, etc.) would work well to remove the lettering on these IM cars.  Some guys also stipple a paler shade of blue/red over the factory colors.  That would probably work better if done before a fade coat.

The air hoses & cut levers will look good.  (with my presbyopia, I have trouble seeing details between the cars in a train, even with glasses.)

The trucks in these photos are kinda dark, but if you have any that show more detail, I'd love to see 'em.  (I know, I shouldn't criticize ... my own photography is terrible.)   BTW, are those FVM wheels?

[Ryan87]

Sorry for the pics being kinda lame  :-\ (lit with a desk lamp at one in the morning)

I wanted to simulate the fading arrows and peeling lettering but couldn't think of a way... thanks for the sand paper idea!

Graffiti will be added at some point... (trying different ways to make unique tags)

The trucks/wheels are only Floquil Grimy Black at this point haven't found a way to weather trucks that I'm happy with yet...

With the bodymount couplers the car will make a 15" radius no problem anything smaller and the wheels will rub on the coupler box (mind you I'm using the truck mount coupler box, by using 903's or 1023's you should be able to get a smaller radius)


Here's some better pics, (still not quite what it looks like in person tho...  )

What looks wrong?

[GaryHinshaw]

Ryan - I too think this looks really good!  But since you're looking for feedback, I'll offer the following: I think the grime wash is a bit too heavy and streaky on the far left end.  I think it looks much better on the right side.  If I were doing this car, I would probably have used this shot as a model:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=45634

Here the grime is pretty subtle and uniform and, if anything, the ribs are a bit cleaner than the rest of the side.  The splotchy appearance on that car mostly comes from the rust pockets.  Your rust work looks really nice, especially along the door track.  You could easily get away with more horizontal rust streaks on the ribs where the open door scrapes by, if you were so inclined.  As for the trashed "next load/any road" logo, you're on your own!  Maybe Tom has some good tips.  In a case like that, I think a custom decal overlay would be a good way to go, but not easy to make.

Keep posting your work!

Cheers,
Gary

[Ryan87]

Thanks for the comments...

I hate to admit it but I had that exact same photo out as I was doing the car...  :-\

I went much to quickly with this car, The more I look at it the more I notice things that bug me... I think for the next car I'm going to slow down and concentrate on smaller areas/details...

Hmmm what's next... 

[ednadolski]

As for the trashed "next load/any road" logo, you're on your own!  Maybe Tom has some good tips.  In a case like that, I think a custom decal overlay would be a good way to go, but not easy to make.

Are decals generally opaque enough for that?

Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

I hate to admit it but I had that exact same photo out as I was doing the car...  :-\

Doh! Me and my big mouth!  But I did start my post by saying it looks great; I was just nitpicking about the grime in one small area...  Kudos for consulting photos -- I think that's the most important step in any weathering application.

Are decals generally opaque enough for that?

I'm not sure, but I think they could be.  My only experience with this kind of application is graffiti decals, which do cover pretty well, and I think a weathered logo would have similar requirements.  Here is an example.  If you zoom in on the graffiti you can see where it obscures the dimensional data pretty cleanly.  I think the trickiest part would be matching the logo size.
-gfh