I have those too, a pair in MEC paint and indeed they are with Kato drive and runs like a Dream. I repainted them back to Rock Island Maroon as the prototypes were old RI units.

Got some lite modified Cornerstone vents at one building's front. Will spend the next time adding details all over the place (no demolition and/or rebuild plans in sight )
It is very handy to have none of the buildings fixed installed so far while adding details

More weathering at daylight on a beautiful Sunday morning

Looking good, as the rest of the layout!

Fire escapes are the detail I had a eye on today. Water colors are used for weathering.
Some escapes at the West Bottoms have simple ladders instead of stairs found in residential areas.

Looking good, Reinhard.

Vents and fire escapes suitably grubby but blended nicely with their respective buildings. Even with my limited experience I know that's a challenge.

Well done

jonte

Nice job with the details!

Water color weathering? Turned out great!!

Thanks a lot for the kind words.

An old Cornerstone air-condition is reused and some duct from Evergreen is scratch built. Google returns a lot of great example photos if searched with "duct roof". It got a base layer of silver from the rattle can, a layer dull coat for better grip and a full wash of black water color (of course ).

May be I repeat myself but weathering with water color has the huge advantage to me to forgive any mistakes. A wet brush, a wet cotton swap softens overdone areas or a walk to the water-tap and even the worst mistake is gone and I can start again.

Reinhard,

Go ahead and repeat yourself this is good info for the newer modelers to know as well as us older guys who've been at it for awhile.Did I mention it looks great? :mrgreen:

I appreciate your mentioning the technique. Are you mixing the colors with white to make them opaque or is the weathering trick about the color's near transparency?

Ralph Wrote: I appreciate your mentioning the technique. Are you mixing the colors with white to make them opaque or is the weathering trick about the color's near transparency?

The colors are not mixed. They are more or less opaque depending on the water-paint mix and the color vs. the underground. The air-condition is just one layer of black and that's it. It is also worth mentioning how the water color flows and creating a typical pattern respectively how uniform it distributes on top of the air conditioner. The water has a good deal of detergent and I have some bubbles while painting. Anyhow they all disappear without any traces.
The rust brown at the fire escapes was to my surprise extreme powerful and needed to be serious reduced with wet brush and wet cotton swab.
I used white water paint with lots of water at the brick walls. It flows into the groves like a mortal wash. It creeps out of the groves and settles on top of the bricks when using a cotton swab to soften black and white weathering. The abounded building is an example for that characteristic.

The plain and bare roof of the large building needs some attraction. The air-condition and duct is the same as before but larger and awaiting the glue to set to become weathered etc. The pipe bridge in the background is reused from an earlier layout.



Some time later

Thanks for the weathering tips Reinhard. Very effective!!!

I'm awake. After being away on holiday and generally feeling unmotivated for some reason for a while, I decided I better have a look at big blue to see what has happened.
Looking good Reinhard, this new project is starting to come together. I've always liked brick 'n mortar buildings, but that's generally too far east for my home layout. However my module is mid west, and it's on that where your buildings you've donated will be used.

Looking forward to the next update. :-)

Koos

The roofs are (almost?) completed