Live with it or Do Over?

Personally, I would live with it.  I think you did a great job on it, and who would notice if you didn't do a side-by-side comparison.

Only one in a million hobbyists (i.e., YOU) would notice the difference from a do-over of the silver stripe.  Mark B. is right ... live with it and love it.

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

We are our own harshest critics, right?  If it is eating at you enough, then go ahead and do it again.  But I think it looks great and would never know the difference anyways!

Ron...

Your next paint job will reflect what you've learned from this one.   (As taught to me by an older, wiser person)

Looks to me.  VERY good, in fact.

Celebrate it, smile, thank God for your talents, ...and move on!

KD (a.k.a., Lucas Gudinov)

BTW - Don't waste time chumming for pickers-of-nit.  They'll find the 'nits' regardless.  ...And ruin an otherwise perfectly fine day!

Looks good to me!

Mitch

Put it on your layout, run it and have fun, no one knows but you. The casual observer will say I saw the engine in real life. Enjoy it, looks great.

If not for the side by side, I would never have noticed. For sure nobody would notice while running on a layout. I think it came out really good and crisp!

Also, how sure are you that you could get it much closer? it would be a bummer to make it worse. To me this is a "Don't let 'perfect' be the enemy of good" type situation. Advice from one perfectionist to another. 😆

I'd live with it for a while before committing to make a change.  This will give your inner critic time to rear its' ugly voice, if at all.   If your inner critic keeps nagging you, during this period of time, then make the change.  If during this period of time you find that  you are content/happy with your creation, then no change is necessary.  I really don't think that anyone ( perhaps one in 500,000 rivet counters ) will ever know the difference.  And remember in the real world of railroading paint jobs fade over time.  You are the one who will see your trains everyday, so do what makes you happy.

Personally I think you have done a fine job!  Bravo!!!

I'd leave it too Ron. The stripe looks great.

If by chance the second attempt doesn't come out as perfect as this one, you'll be kicking yourself.

Can't wait to see the finished engine.

Bob

I'm with Bob, it's quite possible the next attempt won't look as good, then what do you do?

your focus is narrowed on this because it was recently done.  there are SO many other things you have that after a while this will not even be remembered. 

keep it for  4 months then after 6 months later decide. I'll bet by then you will have many many other things that this will be a distant memory.

Are you comparing a prototype photo in the sun to the model under your train room lights?  Leave it alone!

Silver is such a hard color, Its nearly impossible to get right.  

If it bothers you, go throw a bucket of dirty water on the real one, it'll match just fine.

If you think you must, do another, don't mess up a good paint job.  If it doesn't come out as good sell it.  If it comes out better sell the first one.  Might cost a little money eventually, but at least you won't be out anything kicking yourself.

Ron, I'm in agreement with everyone else.  It looks great as is and I doubt if anyone else, including nit pickers, will ever pick up the very minor differences you have pointed out.  In the end yours is the only opinion that matters.

I have a friend that owns an auto-body shop that does a lot of work for the local Dodge dealer.  The dealer had a customer that wanted a red Challenger Hellcat with a matte black hood and they only had all red so they sent him the car to paint the hood.  I happened to stop by after he had finished the hood but before he re-installed it.  He was torn between installing or re-painting because he said there was a blemish in the paint job.  I couldn't see any issue, even after he told me where to look.  He finally pointed to and outlined and described the issue.  Only then could I barely detect it when he held his shop light a certain way.  This scenario repeated itself two other times as other friends and regulars stopped by.  All three of us agreed it was better than factory paint and was good to go.  Well he was in the paint booth until 3:00am re-painting that hood.  It bothered him that much and he believed he could do better.

So I say again, yours is the only opinion that matters.  I agree with Patrick, live with it for awhile before you make a decision.  If it continues to bother you then put your talents back to work.

Did you paint the background blue as well ?

If so, it should be relatively easy to mask off a little on the top and bottom of the silver stripe and shoot it with the blue paint to make the stripe narrower.

Otherwise, I'd leave it alone and wouldn't mess with the silver color.

Live with it.  Life is full of imperfections, some minor some major.   Relax and enjoy this wonderful hobby and don't let it drive you crazy.

@PRRick posted:

If not for the side by side, I would never have noticed. For sure nobody would notice while running on a layout. I think it came out really good and crisp!

Also, how sure are you that you could get it much closer? it would be a bummer to make it worse. To me this is a "Don't let 'perfect' be the enemy of good" type situation. Advice from one perfectionist to another. 😆

That’s why I have learned to leave things alone.  I have made models worse by doing over and fiddling with certain features.

@Dennis S posted:

Put it on your layout, run it and have fun, no one knows but you. The casual observer will say I saw the engine in real life. Enjoy it, looks great.

Dennis reminded me of an automobile manufacturer's (will remain nameless) old adage regarding such 'nits', told to me when I started work there nearly 60 years ago...

"If you can't see it when the car goes by you at 60 mph and 100 yards away, it's good to go!"  Of course, all that changed in the worldwide game of competitiveness...bar-raising expectations among manufacturers and consumers...etc., etc., blah, blah.

So, when you invited our opinions showing us only the close-up views of the minutiae...your self-critical irks..., you were setting yourself up.   Frankly, even though I got a pass from my ophthalmologist only yesterday during my annual check-up, I would never been able to focus well enough on the actual model held as closely to my eye(s) as your photos show to render a more critical opinion!  At that distance, I'm a 'Magoo'!!

OTOH, if you had asked my opinion of your finished item from a normal viewing distance/angle/lighting...you know, standing by your layout, watching the trains go by or burbling at idle...,  I guess my reaction would be more like...'Defects?  What are you talking about?  Looks GREAT to me!'

That would be an interesting 2-part psychological experiment some time.  Post this question showing the model, the paint job, the color concerns, the masking job, ...all the irksome 'nits'..., with a photo view in the proportions that a normal viewer would be asked to judge by.   Get some opinions thereof.

Then, post as you have here...close-up views, side-by-side comparisons, perfect focus, perfect lighting, etc., blah, blah...and see how the responses compare.

Moi...'Would that I could be that skilled, lucky, whatever when doing a custom color/mask/paint/letter job on a loco/car!'

Thank you all for talking me off the ledge.

I've been obsessed with getting this so perfect because I want to give it to my son to run on the SMS Christmas layout. 

So I'm hearing all of these fictitious voices in my head.

Despite all the kind responses from fellow members, ONLY YOU can make that call! I took an adult education course in masonry and there was a guy in the class, when asked how something looked always said: "Looks OK from my place."

I'm not letting you off the hook, but I will say, it looks OK from my place.

Pull up a bunch of photos of prototype engines. I’ll bet there is more variation than you would expect. They weren’t all painted at the same time by the same crew.

@Ron045 posted:

Thank you all for talking me off the ledge.

I've been obsessed with getting this so perfect because I want to give it to my son to run on the SMS Christmas layout.

So I'm hearing all of these fictitious voices in my head.

Never met either of you...

But I know for sure that your son would NEVER judge you by that nifty gifty's micro-nitties...but rather by the love that went into it.

And, now, knowing the whole story of its destiny, why, YES!...That we can surely see!!

@dkdkrd posted:

Dennis reminded me of an automobile manufacturer's (will remain nameless) old adage regarding such 'nits', told to me when I started work there nearly 60 years ago...

"If you can't see it when the car goes by you at 60 mph and 100 yards away, it's good to go!"  Of course, all that changed in the worldwide game of competitiveness...bar-raising expectations among manufacturers and consumers...etc., etc., blah, blah.

So, when you invited our opinions showing us only the close-up views of the minutiae...your self-critical irks..., you were setting yourself up.   Frankly, even though I got a pass from my ophthalmologist only yesterday during my annual check-up, I would never been able to focus well enough on the actual model held as closely to my eye(s) as your photos show to render a more critical opinion!  At that distance, I'm a 'Magoo'!!

OTOH, if you had asked my opinion of your finished item from a normal viewing distance/angle/lighting...you know, standing by your layout, watching the trains go by or burbling at idle...,  I guess my reaction would be more like...'Defects?  What are you talking about?  Looks GREAT to me!'

That would be an interesting 2-part psychological experiment some time.  Post this question showing the model, the paint job, the color concerns, the masking job, ...all the irksome 'nits'..., with a photo view in the proportions that a normal viewer would be asked to judge by.   Get some opinions thereof.

Then, post as you have here...close-up views, side-by-side comparisons, perfect focus, perfect lighting, etc., blah, blah...and see how the responses compare.

Moi...'Would that I could be that skilled, lucky, whatever when doing a custom color/mask/paint/letter job on a loco/car!'

It's a "50-50" car - looks great from 50 yards away doing 50 mph.

@Richie C. posted:

It's a "50-50" car - looks great from 50 yards away doing 50 mph.

See what I mean?

@Richie C. posted:

Did you paint the background blue as well ?

If so, it should be relatively easy to mask off a little on the top and bottom of the silver stripe and shoot it with the blue paint to make the stripe narrower.

Otherwise, I'd leave it alone and wouldn't mess with the silver color.

It seems to be a simple mask and spray job. If you have the time, make the corrections.

@Ron045 posted:

Thank you all for talking me off the ledge.

I've been obsessed with getting this so perfect because I want to give it to my son to run on the SMS Christmas layout.

So I'm hearing all of these fictitious voices in my head.

Haha. That scene literally goes through my head when I doubt a repair or an upgrade I'm doing.

I think it looks great!

I would leave it. but next time spray the cab silver first then mask and shoot the blue. silver does funny things when trying to cover colors.

If it's bothering you enough to take photos and post the question then you already know you want to do it over.

@Rick Rubino posted:

I would leave it. but next time spray the cab silver first then mask and shoot the blue. silver does funny things when trying to cover colors.

I did do silver on top of primer, mask and then blue....

@mwb posted:

If it's bothering you enough to take photos and post the question then you already know you want to do it over.

I fear you are correct.   I was sort of hoping I could get talked out of it.  They were all doing such a good job too. 😉

I do have 4+ months.

I might run it around this weekend and see if I can get used to it.  I ran it some yesterday.  I found a great battery to fit inside.  It's Blunami controlled.

No. Enjoy your trains, you might weather it a bit, get ready for your next model railroad challenge, I think your paint work is great. Happy Railroading Everyone

@Ron045 posted:

I fear you are correct.   I was sort of hoping I could get talked out of it.  They were all doing such a good job too. 😉

Happy painting Ron.

I agree with everyone else, it looks really good to me.  I doubt your son will nit pick this gift.   So leave it.   

Well I just couldn't leave well enough alone.  Last night I was even questioning my blue color too.

My son happened to come home this weekend and I showed him.  Just like you all said, he thought it looked good.

So I resolved myself on the colors but did not like the thickness of the line.  I reread @Pingman post about retape and reshoot blue.

So I thought I would do that.  If it worked and looked good.... Fine.  If it did not work, then I would have to start over and I could change everything.

I think it came out ok.  I had a few minor bleed through areas.  I will touch those up by hand.  I will do some very minor weathering, mostly to the frame, trucks and fuel tank.  But I'm pretty sure I can fix those few over spray areas and make it look like a repair or weathering.

Again I appreciate the feedback.  I feel this was like a 50/50 fix were I followed some advice and left some things alone and follow other advice for a simple fix that makes me feel better.  After three more coats of blue today, I'm even happier with the blue than I was yesterday.

Ron

Ron, the new paint job looks great!

Now that you fixed the stripe width, go back a reread the earlier post about weathering: that will take care of any concerns about the shade of silver, too.

Well, sometimes you have to go with your gut feelings, if you felt compelled to try for a better looking stripe, that’s what you should have done. Yes, right call, it looks great. By the way, We have all been there, @Mark Boyce has changed a few things, I’ve changed a lot of things, (it’s a good thing my work is almost finished) most modelers do the same. That’s why it’s a fun hobby, we all do it differently, but the love of running trains outweighs the negatives. I like your layout, nice scenery. Happy Railroading Everyone

Ron, just don’t forget to drop it once or twice, to get that certain je nais c’est quoi of a piece coming out of the Bradford & Carlisle Shops. 😜😜😜

What a great thread. There is a lot of good advice about model railroading in here. There is also a lot about life. These posts provide wisdom and insights into different philosophies and approaches. Where does satisfaction come from?