Just some freight cars

[Gary S]

Thanks Ralph. Both of the prototype copies were kitbashes. The GMRC car started out as a Walther's track cleaner car. I cut the roof out, then built new ribbed sides and ends, attached them to the roof, and then put the chassis back in. The ATG car started life as an Athearn, same deal as above, although I cut the roof and ends away from the sides, then added scratchbuilt ribbed sides to it.

As I look at the photos, I can see all sorts of discrepancies between the prototype and the models, but that's okay. I wasn't shooting for an exact match.

Another thing, on my monitor, the cars are an HO scale 80 feet long. About twice the size as actual.... so some of the "not so great" looking spots actually look okay when viewing the actual model.

Again, thanks to everyone for the compliments!

[bdw9535]

Gary, have to agree, great weathering work on your freight cars. Especially like the GMRC car.

Bruce

[viperman]

Wanna do mine?

[Charlie B]

Great job Gary, some of the best I have seen. I wish I could do as well.
Charlie

[Gary S]

Steve and Bruce, thanks for the nice comments. Charlie, that is a very kind thing to say. Thank you very much.

I am really anxious to see them back on the tracks!

[Steve]

Beautiful work Gary!

I think you are being way too critical of your results. They are outstanding!

[Gary S]

Thank you Steve. Honestly, I like the cars and they will serve my desires just fine. Sometimes it is difficult to post one's own work on the net, considering the high quality of other modeler's work. I'm sure y'all have seen the work of MellowMike, and the stuff over at ModelTrainsWeathered, and Kurt's and Wayne's modeling... just awesome. It just makes it easier to post my own work if I start off with "I know it isn't as detailed or accurate as _______, but here are some cars I did."

[cnw1961]

Gary, your cars are great! Especially compared to the prototype pics . You should not make the mistake and compare your results to e.g. the cars of MellowMike. He is an expert, turning cars into rust buckest for years now. Doing the same thing over and over again, you should expect some good results from him, no wizardry there. But we are building layouts and a lot of different skills are needed here. If we only concentrated on just one thing, we’d never get it done (nobody needs nothing but rust buckets on his layout ). So we have to settle with "good enough", which is not a bad thing. I am doing it all the time ... and I understand that you are your worst critic, I know that feeling all too well . So please, keep the pics coming!

[Gary S]

Thanks for the wisdom, Kurt. I'm sitting here looking at some of those cars right now, from about 3 feet away. They are certainly acceptable, even "good" in my book, and they will look nice on my layout once I get it going. You are exactly right, for someone who desires a large operational layout, there just isn't enough time to be an expert at everything, or at least there isn't enough time to spend on each individual car or structure to make them all "Best of Show." Gotta compromise somewhere.... and be a "jack of all trades."

As DocWayne said, the only person you have to please is yourself. I'm very happy with where my modeling is headed!

On the rust-bucket thing, it seems that the prototype cars that really attract my attention are the dirty gritty ones. And as such, I am afraid that my fleet is going to be pretty banged up and rusty.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Gary

[eightyeightfan1]

Excellent work!

[Trucklover]

Gary, I by no means am an expert in the weathering department, but gosh dangit those cars are BEAUTIES! I need to learn your techniques because I would love to create and do some of those things on my rolling stock!! I guess the first step would be getting myself an airbrush? Or did you do all that by hand?

[Russ Bellinis]

Josh, there is a lot that you can do with washes and a paint brush or a stiff stipple brush with powdered chalks. Just remember that water runs down which means that rust streaks will tend to start around a rivet or scratch and then go down the side. Mud and dirt will tend to be kicked up by the wheels and then if it gets wet tend to streak down. Look at some pictures and copy what you see, and you'll be weathering in no time. Maybe start with a cheap Athearn Blue box or even a cheap toy freight car for practice if you don't want to risk messing up a really nice car.

[Gary S]

Josh, thanks for the compliments. All the cars were weathered with craft paints and brush, and a little bit of weathering powder. The kitbashes (white styrene sides and ribs) were painted with the craft paints too... a light tan as a primer baes, then the colors I wanted. One thing I like about this is that the colors are not totally consistent on the entire car like if it was airbrushed. For example, on the spots where the tan primer was thicker than others, the final car color is a bit darker than where the tan paint was thinner. I think it mimicks different amounts of fading.