Cisco Bridges: a new layout concept

[Scottl]

A week of paint tests.  I have spent a lot of time building this bridge so I want to paint it right.  I bought some spray paint that fit the bill for color (flat black, flat light orange, rail brown) but after some tests, I was left underwhelmed by the control over painting, the final paint surface and the thickness.  I was further challenged because the spring weather here is still not suitable for outdoors painting (too cold), so a big job will have to wait some time, it would seem.

I found the black spray bomb was fine with some of the bridge beams on the approach where there was not much detail and a few quick sprays covered it.  Krylon black cammo paint left a nice thin coat.

The brass pillars were not a place I wanted a mistake, so I did up one with Polyscale weathered black mix and my air brush.  It was a good decision, as all the extra effort it took to cover the various nooks and crannies would have been a disaster with the spray paint, but with the airbrush, it worked out very well.  The added benefit is that my little paint booth can handle acrylic paints and I will be able to proceed with painting.

So, some progress.

[BArailsystem]

Hi Scott,

I noticed a couple unique views of Cisco went up on Railpictures.net today:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=476807&nseq=1
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=476806&nseq=2

Here's to hoping for some warmer weather so we can see some painting progress!


Ben

[Scottl]

Thanks Ben, these are great shots!  The mid-70s bridge is so different:  it is all black, no railings, no walkways.  It would have been so much easier to model!

[Baronjutter]

How would they service the bridge without walkways and railings?  Just in a more dangerous way?

[Scottl]

I guess.  You would be pretty exposed up there 

[Scottl]

The weather improved here enough for the paint shop to move outside.  I have laid down base coats for everything but the main arch bridge which needed some work and won't be painted outside anyway.  I spent a few hours yesterday finishing the last of the details for the main arch, including the delicate hangers for the side walkways, bridge shoes, and the gusset plates.  I also hauled the saw outside to cut the final shape for the concrete footings, a task that created a major dust problem when I did it indoors in February  .

I can say the structures are now completely done.  The main arch will get painted next, and after I am happy with all the painting, I'll attach the approach walkways (that I posted earlier in this thread) and put down railing on everything, as well as guard rails and ballast where needed.

A few shots, including the tiny little hangers for the conduit I did in brass.  These will hold 0.030" styrene rod "conduit" and assembling and installing these stretched my steadiness and patience.   The brass gusset plates are really nice with rivet detail that you can't see here.  So lots of progress as the finish line starts to become a reality, but the details all take a lot of time now.

Those looking carefully will note that the walkway is shorter than the bridge.  That is actually prototypical, and reflects some stage in the seemingly haphazard maintenance of the bridge during the past 30 years.











Thanks for following.

[Scottl]

A sidebar.  After years of airbrushing, I found that my current unit (Badger 105) was fouled with dried paint.  I have only ever cleaned the air brush by running water through after I was done painting and that seemed deal with it fairly well. I had a nice accumulation of dried paint in the feed cup and on the outside surfaces as well that was just an annoyance, but this time I needed to do something about it.

I bought a liter of lacquer thinner and soaked the parts in it.  It was like magic: all the dried acrylic paint came right off and my air brush looks like new!  I guess I should start to run a little of this thinner through as part of my SOP.   

[arbomambo]

The weather improved here enough for the paint shop to move outside.  I have laid down base coats for everything but the main arch bridge which needed some work and won't be painted outside anyway.  I spent a few hours yesterday finishing the last of the details for the main arch, including the delicate hangers for the side walkways, bridge shoes, and the gusset plates.  I also hauled the saw outside to cut the final shape for the concrete footings, a task that created a major dust problem when I did it indoors in February  .

I can say the structures are now completely done.  The main arch will get painted next, and after I am happy with all the painting, I'll attach the approach walkways (that I posted earlier in this thread) and put down railing on everything, as well as guard rails and ballast where needed.

A few shots, including the tiny little hangers for the conduit I did in brass.  These will hold 0.030" styrene rod "conduit" and assembling and installing these stretched my steadiness and patience.   The brass gusset plates are really nice with rivet detail that you can't see here.  So lots of progress as the finish line starts to become a reality, but the details all take a lot of time now.

Those looking carefully will note that the walkway is shorter than the bridge.  That is actually prototypical, and reflects some stage in the seemingly haphazard maintenance of the bridge during the past 30 years.











Thanks for following.

just INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~Bruce

[Scottl]

Slapped some paint on it.   

[mark dance]

very very wow

[Dave Schneider]

Very, very nice. If I ever attempted something this complex I would probably have broken it in half (by accident) a couple of times. Just a stunning piece of work. To me, this is what N scale is all about.

Best wishes, Dave

[Scottl]

Thanks guys.  It was a great moment to put it up and see it painted.  I could not resist and put a few locos and cars on for some photos. 

I'm not sure I realized what I was getting myself into with this project.  I started this in Dec 2012 and this is all I have done since that time.  It was quite a challenge at times, but working away at it and not being afraid to redo things I messed up made all the difference.

I'm looking forward to getting the last details done and landscaping this before the summer so I can start rebuilding the layout to fit it.

[Dave Schneider]

The rest of the layout better not suck....   

Best wishes, Dave

[Baronjutter]

That bridge is soooo amazing, and I just love CN paint scheme.  Every time I see a CN loco I want to go out and buy a couple.

[nscalemike]

That bridge is turning out to be quite the model.  Nice job!  I also like those two CN units, both custom projects you did yourself?