Representing Brake Gear - More Art Than Science

[iandrewmartin]

Last night I began weathering some of the car undersides to get an idea of how the work will look once operating on the layout. 
While I was a little worried that the rodding would stick out like well... , insert your idea of things that stick out here, 
I'm glad that I've proceeded to this point.

Southern 36188 - An E&C shops kit of the PS-1 50' Boxcar.


From a lower point of view the rodding detail on this car disappears into the background clutter of hard angles and shadow (image taken in reflected sunlight on my workbench – late afternoon – with nice and flat tones). There is further weathering to be done on this car underside, but I like what I see so far.

XAF10 class prototype car - the Athearn BB (Railbox) Kit


This is the one that had me worried that I'd made things too big and obvious using the 0.020 thou brass rod. 
With the base weathering on and the car upside down everything appears to be 'in scale' so I'm greatly relieved with the work so far.

The original post is live on the HVL blog now with a couple more images for context. 
Thanks for stopping by to read this post.