Sunday Scenic Showcase January 17, 2016

Nice Alan!

New 8k arrival decorated as new, not much to see................

As I mentioned in last week's SSS thread, I've discovered that I like to do weathering in batches rather than doing one car at a time from start to finish.  I'm currently working on ten Weaver 40' boxcars (8 PS-1's & 2 steel-sided) as I find some spare time. 

During this past week, I've disassembled and washed all major parts, painted the interiors (two different colors--I like to mix it up!), assembled & painted the under frames, added weights for better tracking and painted the floors with a base (primer) coat. 

That may sound like a lot of work, but only a few hours have been invested so far in this latest 10-car project!  Below are some photos of the process to date...

Weaver 40' boxcars selected for this latest weathering project...

I made this paint mask out of dense packing foam specifically to speed up the process of painting boxcar interiors...

Interiors painted with two different colors (light gray & beige semi-gloss) to mix things up a bit...

Wheel weights added for better tracking...

Under frames assembled and painted...

Cars are now weighted and floors have been primed with base color...

The new train room is currently being used as my paint and work shop...

I wish I had the patience to use your methods for doing the same thing to multiple items.   I tend to skip around doing  on a little bit on different projects. Not a very efficient way.

Looking forward to some progress photos.

 BTW, can you tell me where you found those weights.  That is yet another project I have yet to attack.

Ed

Steve,

I think there is a lot to see if you know where to look. I really like the job you did on these.

Joey A,

looks good have fun with the weathering project. Once you get the room closed in you will probably be heading outdoors with the cars.

Alan Graziano

Ed Walsh posted:

I wish I had the patience to use your methods for doing the same thing to multiple items.   I tend to skip around doing  on a little bit on different projects. Not a very efficient way.

Looking forward to some progress photos.

 BTW, can you tell me where you found those weights.  That is yet another project I have yet to attack.

Ed

Thanks, Ed.  I will slow the process down when I get to the exterior weathering phase.  I certainly don't want (or like!) a "mass-produced" look to the finished cars.

As for the stick-on wheel weights, I buy mine from Harbor Freight.  They come in two different sizes, .25 and .5 ounce.  The ones picture here are the .5-ounce version.  They can also be purchased on-line in bulk quantity...something I keep meaning to do!

Joe,

Harbor Frieght - that is great.  My favorite place to roam when my wife is shopping next door at Trader Joe's !

Ed

A friend came by last week with his nice camera and we took some photos.  He uses photo stacking software to combine a bunch of separately-focused exposures into one picture where everything is in focus.  This one is my favorite.  It's a PRR M1a locomotive (3rd Rail) on my steam service inbound track.  The coaling tower, ash hoist and sand tower are all scratchbuilt.  The steel water tank is from a Walther's kit.

Click on the photo to see a full screen version.

Very nice everyone. Some great shots.

Alan, I missed you yesterday as Alex said you could not make Trainstock.

Alan Graziano posted:

Good Morning Everyone,

I am posting a couple of pictures of some refinery units I am constructing. This first one is called a de-saleter. The crude oil is pumped from tanks into this horizontal drum. An electric charge along with water is introduced with the crude to remove salts.

Alan Graziano

Alan:

I really like the color scheme.

Joe

Bob posted:

A friend came by last week with his nice camera and we took some photos.  He uses photo stacking software to combine a bunch of separately-focused exposures into one picture where everything is in focus.  This one is my favorite.  It's a PRR M1a locomotive (3rd Rail) on my steam service inbound track.  The coaling tower, ash hoist and sand tower are all scratchbuilt.  The steel water tank is from a Walther's kit.

Click on the photo to see a full screen version.

That is a lovely job of weathering; sadly it represents PRR power at the end of steam.

Photo stacking software is very useful for our hobby, especially when you can't get professional lighting and very small apertures. With stacking software you can use whatever light you have and expose at normal shutter speeds and apertures. You MUST have the camera on a tripod and it must be able to manually focus. This precludes using a smart phone. You do need a modern, digital, single-lens camera.

Trainman2001 posted:

Photo stacking software is very useful for our hobby, especially when you can't get professional lighting and very small apertures. With stacking software you can use whatever light you have and expose at normal shutter speeds and apertures. You MUST have the camera on a tripod and it must be able to manually focus. This precludes using a smart phone. You do need a modern, digital, single-lens camera.

There are lots of photo stacking apps available for iPhones (and, I assume, Android). I have not tried them, but plan to.

And, of course, HDR (which is basically photo stacking for exposure rather than focus) is standard these days.

I'm not sure how that would work since you A) must be able to precisely focus on very thin slices of the image, and B) hold the camera steady and in exactly the same place for all the exposures. I suppose that there are holding devices for the iPhone, but I don't know about the focusing question. I just went on the APP store and while there are "Photo Stacking" apps, they didn't mention anything about depth-of-field. They are for making artistic double exposures and collages. That's not what we're about when photographing models and not wanting "depth-of-field cues" that show it's not real. While iPhone cameras are terrific, they really are sophisticated point-and-shoot cameras. While saying that, I use it for my documenting builds constantly.

Trainman2001 posted:

I'm not sure how that would work since you A) must be able to precisely focus on very thin slices of the image, and B) hold the camera steady and in exactly the same place for all the exposures. I suppose that there are holding devices for the iPhone, but I don't know about the focusing question.

Oh, you certainly need a tripod of some sort, but as you say, they are available.  As for focus, current generation iPhones have pretty sophisticated focus systems, so it is at least plausible.  As I said, though, I haven't tried it yet.