What did you do on your layout today?

Nice win Lee! Way to go. That sure is one great looking Jeep! I sure miss driving mine in the corps!

Paul, The building is coming right along! Looking very nice!

Thank you everyone for your kind words and support as I finish my Amtrak cars.  I am almost done. I finished the Coach car and am about to open the baggage car.  The doors open on this Baggage car and should contain postal sorting racks, luggage racks and a toilet.  I purchased Woodland Scenics Baggage Workers, Freight, Depot Workers and more Bicycles to put in the car.

Here are both interior and finished through-the-window pictures of the Coach car.  This is the 54th passenger car completed since February 26, 2018.  All of the work was done at night as I acted as care-giver for an elderly family member.  My next project will be remodeling my den into a downstairs bedroom, next to a current little bathroom.  As we grow older, we must adapt to new challenges.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

John , sounds like you can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Great work!

Nice CSX Engine there Brian!

John Rowlen, your cars look so great and each one appears different due to your exacting placement of figures.  If only Amtrak ridership were as you portray, they’d be making money hand over fist!

I was going to paint the window and door frames by hand but I found a can of green spray paint I had from a number of years ago doing trees. And it was still good. Made a make shift table out of the recycle can. Once the paint dries I can work on the building some more. Pics...............Paul

John, Yes we are helping elderly family members.  Always something new!!

Paul, I agree, spray paint whenever you can.

John Rowlen posted:

Thank you everyone for your kind words and support as I finish my Amtrak cars.  I am almost done. I finished the Coach car and am about to open the baggage car.  The doors open on this Baggage car and should contain postal sorting racks, luggage racks and a toilet.  I purchased Woodland Scenics Baggage Workers, Freight, Depot Workers and more Bicycles to put in the car.

Here are both interior and finished through-the-window pictures of the Coach car.  This is the 54th passenger car completed since February 26, 2018.  All of the work was done at night as I acted as care-giver for an elderly family member.  My next project will be remodeling my den into a downstairs bedroom, next to a current little bathroom.  As we grow older, we must adapt to new challenges.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

John, your passengers are nothing short of magical. I think everyone here is in awe both of your attention to detail and of your execution of it.

No doubt your new downstairs bedroom will be as meticulously thought out as your passenger cars. Adapt and thrive!

Pete

The Amtrak Baggage car is finished.  The light at the end of the tunnel has just been seen.

Here are pictures of the interior and an additional set of pictures through the Baggage Doors.  I did a wet-blend of Testor's "Sand", "Insignia Yellow, "Dark Earth", and "Earth Red" on the car floor.  The paint is applied with a 1/4" brush, in one direction, one color overlapping the others, in the above order, using the same brush.  The effect is intended to look like wood plank flooring.

There will be other passenger cars in the future, hopefully a Union Pacific "Challenger" set, down the road, through another tunnel, hopefully with a light at the end of it too.

My next paint brush will be a mop, not applying, but picking up, as I clean the area to be made into a main floor bedroom and bathroom.  For the next few weeks, if I hear a "whistle", it will be the tea kettle. 

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Very effective floor, John!  The baggage car interior looks great!!!!

Paul, the windows are looking very nice! I too like to use spray paint when I can!

John, the baggage care looks wonderful! I am sorry that you have to do clean up, but it will give you a nice break so you wont burnout!

As for me everything is on hold! My clutch went out in my truck and that is going to take $1000 that I am going to have to pull out of thin air! Wish me luck! LOL

Ohhh!  That isn't good news Mike! 

Mark Boyce posted:

Ohhh!  That isn't good news Mike! 

Your telling me! Plus 2 weeks without my truck, just the wife's car and my golf cart! LOL

Oh that's right; the golf cart!!  She will say you can ride the golf cart down to work at the store while she drives the car!  

Working on weathering some Pennsy Stone Block retaining walls...  I bought some flexible ones for a wide radius curve beneath the station on the lower level, and made a mold so I could make some out of Hydrocal for a 4 foot straight section adjacent to the station...

First 2 photos are after priming hydrocal gray and painting with 5 different colors mixed.

Photos 3 & 4 are after the burnt umber & burnt sienna wash was applied, but still wet

Photos 5,6 & 7 after everything dried this morning in the sunlight. 

Lee,  I’m with you with your liking of cars that are kept stock.  I was never into customizing even with my 1/25 scale models I used to build.

Haven’t done much on what layout I do have other than add a new MTH Ferromex ES44AC engine to my DCS roster.

Larry

WOW! Chris A, that's the best weathered stone I have ever seen. It's better than my own work with stone features. Totally realistic! Wow. And WOW again. I'm learning from you just by looking at those photos.

FrankM

Chris, You did a great job weathering those stone walls and portals!  I even see some weeds on top of the portals!

Chris,

Thank you for sharing and providing complete instructions for the steps used to paint and then weather the stone walls.  Thank you.  They look great, as all of your items that you shared do.  Outstanding.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Chris, great job on the retaining walls. Nice mix of colors and thanks for the step by step. When you applied the wash were the pieces laying flat or did you have them standing  letting the washes run down...........Paul

Frank M and Mark,  thanks.   I have been wanting to try and emulate that really dark brown stone look for a long time.... Most of my prior efforts not too good....    This time I found one or two photos to work from and took some time picking out the 5 colors that seemed to get me in the "ballpark".    Think I finally got a result that I am pleased with....    Yes Mark, I chose to pull the portal out of the hillside that it was mounted in, so it would match the hydrocal walls that were going to be installed next to it....(we had put some scrubby vegetation up there to blend into the hillside).      The photo below shows what it looked like before I removed it, heavy blue/gray overtone....

Very nice Chris! What wonderful work you do! I just love waiting to see what your going to do next, as there is so much to learn from you! Keep up the great work and I will be watching for what is next!

Paul,  and Mike G:    thanks.    Paul, the answer is kind of both....   I applied most of the wash with the wall at 45 degrees, so I wouldn't end up with huge puddles in the deep recesses, then as soon as got to the bottom, I laid them down flat and put them out in the sun to accelerate the drying process....   

For reference purposes:  the 6 colors I put down on a piece of glass I use as a pallet for painting the block  walls:   All inexpensive acrylic latex paints from the craft store....

Burnt Umber, burnt sienna,  Khaki, Pewter gray by Apple Barrel,  Mississippi Mud by Americana, and  Charcoal made by Ceramcoat....

Note:   the "painting" was more of "stamping" method to apply irregular blotches....  never really dragged the stiff short bristle brush across the blocks...

The wash was made with the Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna craft paints and I also added the Woodland Scenics Burnt Umber Liquid Pigment Dye used and sold for coloring plaster/hydrocal cast rocks...  Equal parts of the three pigments,  and then at least 50% water to 50% pigment. 

Chris, thanks for the info. That sure is a lot of colors. How did you come up with the formula. You did this all on hydrocal. By chance did you do it on Pennsy walls from Scenic Express..............Paul

Paul,  you can probably do without the Mississippi mud color, and minimal Pewter gray..... I tended not to put down any of the colors "straight", mixing them slightly before stamping on the glass....and then stamping several times till I got the blend on the blocks I thought I needed.   In a few select spots where I went back an added the more vibrant colors to create some differentiation, with predominantly khaki and burnt sienna.  

Yes I did 3 sections of the stock Woodland Scenics flex foam walls and 6 of the narrow splicing/joining  sections from Woodland Scenics.  The flexible walls are being mounted with magnets below the station level.   I have a sub-control switch panel there that built on a "drawer that slides out"..  and I want it hidden for photos, but accessible if I am operating in that area....

After the wash coats I can barely tell the difference between the cast hydrocal replicas and the originals from Woodland Scenics..... I am working on mounting them today and will post some photos tonight when they're in place.  

John Rowlen,  thanks I missed your kind words when I last posted !  

Worked on the last two cars in my Golden State consist, the baggage car and combine/dorm. Laid down a couple coats of silver. In a couple days I'll paint the upper parts of the cars red and then I just have to apply the letter boards.

Happy snaps from today's Frisco Festival! 

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...co-festival-9-1-2018

Mitch 

Chris- the walls look great. I did a similar process with acrylics. They are very easy to work with and if you mess up something- just wait till it dries and try again.

Mike- sorry to hear about the clutch. I couldn't get away with driving a golf cart around my town. The NY cops don't appreciate it. We do have several at the College I work for. Great way to get around campus. Of course my favorite use of one is with my clubs on the back.

John R- another great looking car! Same to you Lou (I like the hood ornaments too)

Ran some trains yesterday for SWSat. Otherwise still on outdoor chores and honeydo lists.

Bob

Thanks Bob, it was bound to happen, its a 1999 dodge ram 2500 with a cumins diesel . First think to to bad after 197,865 miles!

Wow 200,000 miles! Not bad at all Mike.

Last night I ran trains, minor repair to coal hopper, and enjoyed every moment!

Last few days I straightened out the devastation on my layout, including toppled trees and structures, caused by 3 tornados (my daughter's 3 cats) during the summer. LOL

It has been a week of experimentation.  Here's a crude attempt at, well, let me explain.

Plastic painted equipment to simulate stainless steel just doesn't look realistic.  So, I thought I'd play with heating duct tape, since it's aluminum, and cover over the painted surfaces.  First victim was this MTH 18" coach.  The contours were simple enough on the roof but the fine lines on the sides and complexity of the door areas were real learning experiences.  Each roof panel is individually cut to size and laid on, taking care to adhere them straight and unwrinkled.  I then burnish each piece  to lay them flat and remove any slight wrinkles or air bubbles.

Only the window strip and lower skirt remain painted here.  the horizontal siding is comprised of a number of full length strips, which makes application much easier to perform.  The door area is one piece of tape, worked from the inside out in a way that bends the aluminum to smoothly shape it around details.

Next, I tried it on a typical PW Lionel observation.  All the materials and tools involved lay beside the car.  Close examination shows a less than perfect finish here, a result of many small details and compound curves.  Some of those imperfections can still be worked out with careful burnishing.  On the other hand, the end result relies heavily on the smoothness of the surface you're covering, just like painting.

Bruce

I boo-booed..instructions not clear on this ore dump..l would have designed support timbers as one piece, not two (so kit would fit smaller box?), Had to remove and redo bottom supports.  Miracle!: legs are all still level. Plus: found an old Western Scale Models ore bin gates kit so will see if they can be made to work as better and different detail than stripwood ones. Putting some of the bin liner timbers in was like building a ship in a bottle, with tweezers, and no third hand.

Hmm, old test layout torn down & headed to the burn pile, but I will take advantage of today's warmth & breeze to paint some track.

I think I'll be glad I did come this winter.

P51..congrats on glomming a trophy!  Local vintage car shows, like for trains, have disappeared.  A friend is deep in hot rods, with all the icons: '32 and '40 Ford, '57 Chevy, etc. I hold my tongue here as well as there, as l am for preserving history, not painting graffiti on covered bridges.

  Bruce, there are modeling foils in various metal finishes and graining, made specifically for doing that too. You burnish gently with a stiff paintbrush. Thinned glue, etc.. Repairs; glue, burnish and wipe, like a gilder.  I have an envelope on it if I can find the thing.

At Frisco Fest yesterday,  I noted the lack of rear marker lights on the Gi-raffe Express caboose.   So,  when I got back to the shops,  Fortescue J. Gi-raffe and Freddie Flamingo got to work with some GG1 marker lights from the parts box:  

A little drilling and fitting later:  

(The red glow is from the lighted bumper on the shop track.)  

Mitch