Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[Amalynn]

That locomotive is coming along excellently.

[TMo]

Final install of the grabs and lifting eyes complete with a rough coat of paint on them.  I figure they'll get some weathering along with the rest of the locomotive.  Next come the cab details (horn, antenna, rain gutters) before I put all of the big pieces together (minus the rails) prior to weathering.  

       

[TMo]

Tonight I was able to spend a little time on the cab details - windshield wipers and horns.  The windshield wipers are brass pieces on sprues.  Once you have them cut to size you have to bend to appropriate looking angles, and they get tagged to the windowframes with a dab of super glue (wielded on the end of a straight pin in my case).  These are really small parts, so it took me a while to maneuver ithem into position to tack them on.  I had already assembled the horns on the bracket I made up, so a little glue and support until they set up.  I still have the rear wipers to install, the roof antenna and the rain gutters, but that'll have to wait for another day.

   

[TMo]

Continued fun.  It's brisk outside, so rather than catch a cold, I decided to spend some more time on the cab.  The rear windshield wipers and the antenna (I ASSUME it is an antenna - can't see what else would be on the roof cab as a vertical element and I found them up there on a number of century locos).  

   

Then came my moment of dread - trying to mount a piece of flattened and bent painted wire (the rain gutter) on the curved roof surface.  I was hard enough getting in aligned there on the roof without glue.  Once I was happy with the positioning, a needle's worth of glue on the bend and on the two ends.  It's drying in this shot.

   

Nothing more humbling than a closeup of this detail work.  Up close in these tight shots this stuff looks clunky and less than skillful (huh....  kinda like me!), but from about 8 inches with my old eyes, it ain't too bad.  

After a few minutes looking at these same photos, I started looking at things like details around windows in the plastic casting and edges of original paint.  Those ain't perfect either, so I'm gonna give my lukewarm thumbs up.  It does make you appreciate the people in the manufacturing facilities for their willingness to go to work everyday, and maybe those finely detailed "run out of the box" versions are worth the expense...

[jim currie]

myself I'm a 2 ft modeler if it looks good at 2 feet that's about as close as anyone can get to look at my layout.so your work great as far as I can see.
Jim

[tompm]

I agree with Jim. If it looks good at 2 feet than it is good. From what I can see it all looks good.

[Charlie B]

I agree with Jim and Tom.  The problem with modeling today is the darned cameras.  they always photograph things that we re not supposed to see. 

You work is just amazing. I find the more details I put on, the more I break off. I bought a bunch of detail parts for my centuries from Bowser but I will wait until I have more things done so I don't waste my time . Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing. 
Charlie

[TMo]

Thanks for all of the encouragement - you guys probably help keep my sanity with some of this stuff thanks to your commiseration.  

Well, here she is (minus handrails, weathering, cleanup and decals).  If I take a look at the "stock" Stewart model that I started with, I really think the detail parts do add a lot of interest.  That's good to say after spending some time and money with this locomotive.  I like the 2-ft rule, Charlie.  Problem is the "closeup" mode on the digital camera and the crop feature on the photos.  I just can't seem to help myself from the zoom button or cropping extraneous stuff.  

   

Decals are next for this beast.

[tompm]

Nice job. I see what you mean about the detail parts and how they can draw your eye. I assume you are going to weather it. Right now to my eyes the black makes the yellow very bright.

[Amalynn]

That definitely looks much better than when it started. The detail work adds a lot of interest.

[TMo]

Thanks! Yeah, slow process. Decals next, a good dose of weathering to mimic the prototype, railings and couplers. At this rate I'll have it done by Independence Day!

[TMo]

Except for the decals on the rear diamond (which are going to be a bit of a challenge with a grab iron running through the same space), cut and set...  These were all cut off of a sheet of Penn Central locomotive decals from Microscale.  The "C" and "R" were cut out of "PENN CENTRAL".  As you may be able to see, the rain gutter is threatening to remove itself from the roof.  Need to figure a better way to anchor those down.

   

[TMo]

Seems like this is updates by very small steps, but these are steps nonetheless...  

As I alluded to last night, the rear diamond is complicated by a grab iron right in the diamond.  I cut into the opening in the "C" and slipped that decal around the left of the grab iron, and I didn't have a whole lot of choice on the "R" - I cut into the rounded side of the R and slipped that under the right side of the grab.  Here you see the rough placement before a little massaging.  

   

The Micro Sol didn't much like the acrylic paint on the grab, so I'll have some touchups to do there.  Decals are on though.  If I get a chance tomorrow night, it's time to fade the paint as the first weathering step.  As promised, I also reinforced the glue joint on the right-side rain gutter.  One of the things I know I'm missing are the fuel fillers on each side at the front of each tank.  The previous owner didn't send them with it.  Each of them is 75 cents on Bowser's parts site, but shipping for just those two items is relatively outrageous, so I'm going to wait until I have a bigger order.

[TMo]

It was then time for the horror show.  A word of warning - this level of weathering is not for the faint of heart.  If you value pristine plastic and the best efforts of manufacturers to duplicate "off the assembly line" vintage stuff, this post may turn your stomach.

You have to understand the timeframe I'm modeling for what I set out to do with this locomotive.  1976.  Virtually every railroad in the northeast has declared bankruptcy.  The U.S. government has attempted to save the day and establish the Consolidated Rail Corporation to do a takeover and attempt to revamp freight service from the refuse of once mighty corporate entities.  Not much worked well at the beginning, and it DIDN'T LOOK PRETTY. 

I love the pictures that Charlie puts up of the rainbow years - you could see just about everything pulling cars to and fro.  Including Alco C630s formerly running on the Reading Railroad, purchase in 1966.  Dirty, slapdash, grimy, rusty and powerful.  That's the look I'm going for.  In the world of pictures, I'll try to show all of you the method to the weathering madness on this beast.  A lot of these techniques are repeats from prior efforts, but I never do exactly the same thing twice.

First is a fade coat (in this case two).  Tamiya base mixed with isopropyl alchohol and applied with a brush to all of the painted surface of the locomotive above the trucks (hopefully missing windows, etc.  Once it dries to a white film, I take a stiff brush and rub the extra away.  A good bit of it rests in the crevasses of the plastic parts - which is an excellent thing for later weathering layers.


   

Next I dappled all of the louvered panels with black paint.  The louvers do get a nice paint job out of the factory, but after sucking in diesel exhaust and road dust, black took over.  I also hit the roof with a smattering of black paint, especially around the exhaust stack.

   

Then I place a couple of drops of Vallejo Burnt Umber into a plastic cup and added some isopropyl alcohol to thin it to a wash.  And wash I did.  Started on the roof and worked my way down the sides and carefully hit portions of the front and rear of the locomotive.  The nice thing about using a wash like this is you can always hit what you created with either more wash or more straight alchohol to add or subtract from it.  The white refuse from the Tamiya base makes the wash stick in each crevice, which makes things a whole lot easier.

   

This doesn't look nearly as corrupt when I place it on my layout among the lights and background...

   

Hit the trucks and fuel tank with another round of Burnt Umber - less diluted this time.  While I thought about it, I also hit the couplers with a dose of my rust blend - mostly orange acrylic with a little bit of brown mixed in.  With all of that drying, I got out my Pan Pastels and pulled up the photos of 6757 for the final weathering.  I started with my smallest applicator - these are all makeup brushes that I bought as a kit.  I start with rust in particular places on the locomotive that tie into the weathering I did with the wash.

       

I then take a larger brush and add rust to the roof and blend the rust areas that I applied with the smaller brush.

   

and then it's just time to grab and even bigger brush and get the black powder out to add even more filth - top, side, front, rear and especially the walkways.  Here's a couple of shots without the railings.

       

Railings and couplers next, and the next time you see her, I think she'll be complete.

[tompm]

Ouch, that did hurt. But then again seeing them in real life in that state was no fun to look at. Great job and a well done tutorial. I am always looking for ways to improve my weathering attempts and there are few things from your method I want to try.