Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO)

[Trucklover]

Looking Good Stein

I like the idea of masking and then spraying a light coat of paint to seal the paint on, thats a good idea and i will def. have to keep that in mind when i find myself spraying locos for the M&ET

[foulrift]

Good start on those switchers.Looks like you got good coverage with the yellow,which I always found to be one of the more difficult colors to work with.Can't wait to see progress photos. Bob

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm not real familiar with C&NW, but isn't the color more of a Brunswick green than black on the switcher?

[steinjr]

I'm not real familiar with C&NW, but isn't the color more of a Brunswick green than black on the switcher?

Hmmm - I checked to see how the color was described various places:

From http://utahrails.net/cnw/cnw-roster-notes.php:

The North Western will always be associated with the use of the classic green-and-yellow color scheme, which was first applied to the "400" streamliner EMD E3A cab units in 1939. The dark green was commonly referred to as "Candy Apple Green" while the yellow was known as "Stagecoach Yellow." With the exception of an experimental all-green scheme applied in the 1950s, use of these two colors continued on new locomotives without interruption through 1980, when EMD applied the Stagecoach yellow and green colors to 50 GP50s using DuPont enamel.

Also had a look at the Chicago and North Western society's webpages. And sure enough - it is described more as a dark green than black.

Testor also has a color named "CNW green": http://www.testors.com/products/137469.

So you are obviously right - what looked to me like black in a couple of prototype photos is actually dark green. Bad research on my part. Thank you very much for the tip - much easier to get a paint that will look reasonably right before you paint than it is to try to turn black into dark green afterwards !

Guess I'll be dropping by my local hobby store again after work on Monday

And to Bob : thank you for the kind words. Glad to see you back again.

Smile,
Stein

[LynnB]

I like your enthusiasm, your way ahead of me with your painting attempts.

[steinjr]

It's been fairly slow going model-wise over Christmas.

After a couple of false starts where I just had to stop and wash down the model before starting over again, I have finally gotten a halfway decent start on painting a couple of switchers (a GE 44-tonner and a GE 70-tonner) in Omaha Road colors (which in 1957 was basically C&NW yellow and black, with the C&NW herald, plus lettering for the Omaha Road).

Example prototype switcher from cnwhs.org:
http://www.cnwhs.org/memberphotos/albums...8-1958.jpg

Switchers primed with Tamiya white primer:


Switcher sprayed with a couple of coats of yellow:


Plan now is to wait at least 24 hours for the paint to cure - preferably wait a whole week, if I can muster the patience for it, to allow the yellow paint to cure, and then mask the sides of the engine from the walkways up to the horizontal line across near the top of the hoods, and mask V-stripes across the front and rear, before spraying over a little yellow to seal the edges of the tape, let it dry and then spray with black to get a black top, cab, top stripe on hoods, walkways, railings etc.

By that time, hopefully the C&NW heralds etc I ordered before Xmas will be here, so I can let the black cure, spray with glosscote, decal, weather, spray with dullcote, clean the mask off the windows again and so on and so forth.

Still far to go on these switchers. But at least it feels like I have gotten a little start on them.

I've gotten a little further on the first of these two switchers. Above you can see the GE 44-tonner after priming and the yellow coat.

Here is how it looked when the areas that were supposed to remain yellow had been masked and the rest sprayed with dark green. Not quite CNW green, but Tamiya Dark IJN Green, which was the closest I got for a spray can around here. Leaning up against the engine are stripes from Microscale's set of H0 decals for early C&NW switchers and hood units:



The sheet of instructions that came with the Microscale decals also explained that C&NW actually used three colors on early diesel switchers : sides of hood were C&NW yellow, cab, sills, walkways, railings and pilots were C&CN green, and the stripe at the top of the hood and the roof was black.

After spending quite a bit of time trying to work out a good way of masking this way, I grossly simplified the area painted green vs the area painted black. I reduced the green to just the cab sides and the side sills (areas easily masked off), and did the rest in black.

This is how it looks now - still needs a touchup with a brush here and there, some gloss cote, decals, weathering and dull cote. Windows also probably need a bit more cleaning



In other modelling news, I finally got the pack of stuff I ordered well before Christmas - my 25 ton rail crane kit, quite a few small styrene brick sheets, and Microscale decals - black & yellow stripes for the engine fronts and rears, and "Route of the 400"/"Route of the streamliners", "C&NW logo" etc.

Will probably be a few weeks before I get much chance to continue working on my layout. I started a new job not quite two weeks ago, and I still spend a fair amount of my "free time" working on ramping up as fast as I can my level of competence about my new employer's customers, the IT systems of the customers, my new employer's IT management systems, naming standards, billing routines and all the other stuff that change when you change employers in the MIS business. But it feels very fun to give my somewhat graying "noodle" a little workout.

Grin,
Stein

[eightyeightfan1]

Looking good.

[Trucklover]

Stein the Switcher is look good, good work on the paint job too

[steinjr]

Thank you, guys.

Have finally cleaned the windows of 44-tonner of the remnants of the wood glue I used to mask them with before spraying the engine, have done a bit of spot patching with a regular brush to fix a couple of spots on the sill where the yellow was visible through the dark green, and given the engine a coat of gloss to have a basis for decals.

Now the gloss will have to cure at least until tomorrow afternoon - ie at least 24 hours, before I can try putting on Microscale decals using Microsol and Microset. Here are the decals I plan to use :





Maybe I can get a little start on one of my other projects, too, since I finally got the goodie box of stuff I ordered well before xmas. Mail from the US to Norway has seemed pretty slow lately. Oh well - whatever. As long as the stuff eventually arrives.

My RR 25-ton crane kit (which will be used for unloading bulk materials from barges (or loading barges) at the municipal barge terminal:


Any suggestions for good colors for this set ? It comes in fairly shiny black plastic. Should I just hit it with dull clear coat and then weather it with powders, or would it make sense to repaint it in black, or grey or oxide red or something ? I have only seen black and white pictures of the prototype, so it is a little hard to decide what would be a sensible color ...

I also recieved some more packs of Walther's modular sections - enough to make up that warehouse I was planning before xmas.



And some brick sheet sections to glue to the side of the foamboard core of the International Harvester parts warehouse:


Smile,
Stein

[steinjr]

Example prototype switcher from cnwhs.org:
http://www.cnwhs.org/memberphotos/albums...8-1958.jpg

Going is still pretty slow - it takes up a lot of my "free" time to really get into my new job, and my modeling time is still pretty severely limited.

I have had time to add a few decals to my little 44-tonner:



Btw - question: is there some trick to making those Microscale wrap-around warning "chevron" decals wrap nicely around from the front to the sides of an engine where the edges are not gently curving from front to side ?



So far I have busted 4 of these decals by trying to make them fit snuggly and straight both on the front and on the sides at the same time - they either don't sit on both the front and side at the same time, or come apart when I keep trying to make em stick to the sides tapping gently with a brush.

Oh well, guess I'll make another try tonight - time for work now.

Smile,
Stein

[foulrift]

Stein-try using decal setting solution.It will help pull the decal into details.Also ,if it were me trying to wrap those decals,I would opt for cutting them into sections,back and two sides making sure that the cuts were clean and straight.I would do the rear first then the sides allowing for an ever so slight overlap of the edges.This would avoid any gaps when mating the sections.
Others may have a different technique that works for them as well.
Keep up the good work.The switcher looks good. Bob

[Russ Bellinis]

Microscale offers Microset and Microsol, it has been so long since I did an modeling with the ongoing house remodel that I'm not sure which is which, but I think Microset is the solution you use on the model to wet it before you put on the decal. After the decal is in place and dry, it will not be settled over details and around corners very well so you add Microsol, which will soften the decal and allow it to settle over the details and around the corners. I have done a bunch of Santa Fe zebra stripes, and have never had a problem with the stripes not wrapping around the bodies of Gp7, 9, or the Sw7. The Microsol settled them right down. One word of caution, when you first apply the Microsol, the decal will wrinkly up and you will think you have ruined it. Leave it alone! As the Microsol dries, the decal straightens out and settles over the details and around the corners. Their is another product called Solvaset, it is much stronger than Microsol. I have used it on Champ decals and other brands that have a much thicker film than Microscale, but Microscale has such thin films that I don't use Solvaset on them.

[Trucklover]

Stein, as Russ said, Micro-set it used before. Micro-Sol is used after.

See this thread i had from a while ago "HERE" lol

[foulrift]

I had good luck in the past using Solvaset. It did a nice job pulling the decals down around details. Just be patient and things will work out just fine.

[steinjr]

Microscale offers Microset and Microsol, it has been so long since I did an modeling with the ongoing house remodel that I'm not sure which is which, but I think Microset is the solution you use on the model to wet it before you put on the decal. After the decal is in place and dry, it will not be settled over details and around corners very well so you add Microsol, which will soften the decal and allow it to settle over the details and around the corners.

Yeah, I have a bottle of MicroSol (the solvent, that makes the decals soft and lets them snuggle down) too. Microset is the vinegar smelling stuff that makes a surface a little slippery, allowing repositioning of decals until it dries.

I was always planning to use Microsol to make the decal snuggle down close. But when I tried to bend the larger warning stripe/chevron decals around the corner of a GE 44-tonner lightly slathered (if that's the word) with Microset to position the decal, it would not stick to the side surface at all - just hanging out like elephant ears at the sides.

I have done a bunch of Santa Fe zebra stripes, and have never had a problem with the stripes not wrapping around the bodies of Gp7, 9, or the Sw7. The Microsol settled them right down. One word of caution, when you first apply the Microsol, the decal will wrinkly up and you will think you have ruined it. Leave it alone! As the Microsol dries, the decal straightens out and settles over the details and around the corners.

Thanks for the tip about the wrinkling - that's good to know!

I'll make another try with the stripe decals tomorrow - tonight I added the Microsol to the side decals I stuck on yesterday, and I want to let that stand in peace overnight and snuggle down good before trying the front and rear zebra stripes again.

Btw - thing I hope I have learned with this engine - next time I will not use white glue for masking windows, and I will not remove the window masking until I am done with the glosscote, decals, dullcote, weathering and dullcote again. The gloss cote fogged the windows up some.

Next one will (hopefully) be better. But this one will probably do okay from a foot and half away when I get it weathered.

Smile,
Stein