Taking some time off from making trees for the layout, I decided to build up the fleet of weathered and graffitied freight cars. The first subject/patient on the treatment table is an Illinois Central A406 excess height boxcar, similar to the example below (RR Picture Archives)




The boxcar was weathered down with brown and grey acrylic washes, and the graffiti added in acrylic, applied with a brush.








Jon

The next freight car on the table was an athearn CSX 50ft A402 boxcar, similar to the one shown below




Again the car was weathered with acrylic washes, dry-brushing and graffiti applied to one side with brush-applied acrylic paint. I still have the brake gear and pipes to add to the model











Jon

Jon, those certainly came out looking very realistic. It is almost as if you photoshopped real cars into scenes of your layout! Man, those boxcars look good!

What is the significance of the "Nine Stones Close"?

Both cars together










Next up are a couple of Canadian examples

Jon

Gary S Wrote:Jon, those certainly came out looking very realistic. It is almost as if you photoshopped real cars into scenes of your layout! Man, those boxcars look good!

What is the significance of the "Nine Stones Close"?

TRACES is an album by British Prog Rock band 'Nine Stones Close'

http://www.proggnosis.com/PGRelease.asp?RID=33754

Jon

Thanks for sharing, Jon. It's great seeing fine work done in the modern era.

I have to say that as impressive as the cars are, the backdrop is stunning in its perfect mundanity. The colors, the merging with the backdrop... first rate, without overpowering the foreground models where the focus should be. Are those trees done along the same lines as those in your current tree thread?

Paulman Wrote:Thanks for sharing, Jon. It's great seeing fine work done in the modern era.

I have to say that as impressive as the cars are, the backdrop is stunning in its perfect mundanity. The colors, the merging with the backdrop... first rate, without overpowering the foreground models where the focus should be. Are those trees done along the same lines as those in your current tree thread?

Thanks Paulman

Some of those trees 'are' the trees in the other thread, the rest are 'sea-foam' supertrees. All the trees are only temporarily installed at present - for the photos- as I am working on the forest floor at the moment. The trees will be reinstalled once the ground cover has been completed.

Jon

Jon, I agree about the trees. In the following photo, I had to look very closely to determine if they were real or not. Very nice.

I have finally finished weathering a couple of canadian boxcars. I only added graffiti to one side and for speed, used either Blair Line or Microscale Graffiti decals, plus a few handpainted tags.

The brake gear and end detail still have to be added at a later date.

The CP Rail boxcar is an Athearn 50footer, with extra ventilation added to the sides as per the CP prototype. The CN boxcar is from Intermountain and came with the detailling already added.


The plain side






The graffitied side








Jon

The next couple of cars to get the treatment were an E&C Shops excess-height A406 double-door boxcar for MDW and a 50ft NS (SOU) boxcar - I think this is a Roundhouse model, but it was heavily detailled by the late Dave Scott, and I am unsure of it's history - I have so far found no photo to match it.

The MDW car came in a shade of green that closely resembled BN cascade green, so had to be substantially lightened to match photos of the prototype before I could start the weathering.












Finally a couple of 'group shots'






Happy Easter,

Jon

More great cars there. Jon, what do you use for the black wash? And do you do any drybrushing with lighter colors?

One newly graffitied car (Racing Hippo) and some shots of other weathered cars in the newly sceniced area














Jon

This is amazing, Jon. I still can't believe these are model shots and not prototype shots! Everything looks so real. :o

Maybe one of the next photos you take needs to have a non-model railroad prop in it (such as a glue bottle or some modeling tool).

Keep up the excellent modeling work!

Great work on the cars Jon.

The other guys are right, we need to look carefully to check which is the prototype photo and which are your model shots.

At times you make it really difficult to tell, which is the sign of a top model and thus a top modeler.

Well done.

I love the Racing Hippo car.

Question; why does that Canadian boxcar have extra ventilation grills?

Mark

Photographed a few more freight cars tonight, including a freight car load to prove that they are models []

Two Proto2000 covered hopper kits




CSXT pulpwood car with pulpwood load






CSXT pulpwood car with 'pipe' load




Jon