John Sethian (did I spell it right John?) I am Erik with a "K" by the way John.... and John has a nice idea to share his work in progress and what he has done. I am grateful and love to see other modelers projects. I love critiques in class with student work at the college; I learn so much from the students experimentation, its all new to them, myself included.
I am responding with some sorrow to a post earlier today were a weary 3 railer wanted to see what we do; and HOW WE DID IT!
I have not been active at all in the last year with the trains; I suspect John and many of you are retired and have a little more free time. I am raising a 10 month old infant and running an illustration business while my wife teaches. Not exactly a lot of free time to play with my toys. I definitely found more time before my son came along in July.
On to my Burro load project. I wanted to produce an interesting piece for the layout that utilized a model I have not found an easy way to exhibit on the layout. Why not make it into a prop? My background in theatrics and my illustration work at Universal with the other artists in the movie industry really makes me think about how to implement these concepts into model railroading.
I love loads like John and have done many for clients and myself. Now if I could only save or keep some of these models and not sell them off I could share with you the dozens of loads I have built using sewing machine bobbins to vacuum cleaner parts. I love what John has done and I also have always looked for the oddities that would make an excellent stand in for some crazy load.
More or less my love of tractors and construction equipment comes into play. In O scale the 1:50 equipment slightly small looks OK for the most part. On this car I used a 1:48 Burro work crane.
It should be noted am still working on this car and not finished yet. Truly like any creation we abandon the thing rather than call it done; in any case this one needs cable stays and work to be completed with the rail on the decking.
The decking in this model was not real wood; a bummer in my opinion and required a high degree of coloring with the right levels of paint and chalks to obtain that weathered wood look I like and see in the photos I use in my research.
I use several layers of paint and chalks to build up the desired color and texture I am looking for. I also use a "wipe-out" method in my weathering. I use a spray gun when I initially paint the model and prefer using automotive lacquers oven baked for hardness. This gives me an ultra high gloss that I apply the decals on. I used Highball Graphics in this case for my vector art lettering in Illustrator. I use my spray gun an Iwata HP-BE2 to shoot the larger models and lay down a semi flat clear mixing high gloss and dead flat automotive paint to a desired satin finish with enough "bite" to grab the chalks yet still maintain a smooth scaled down appearance. I do not operate rolling junkyards but trains that were reasonably current and not in an state of deferred maintenance. I try whenever possible to use photos of the prototype in the era showing the degree of decay if any can be found. Often it is creative license that determines the depth of crud. Area the car operates and the age of the car in my modeling era in this case 1955 or so.
When I say "wipe out" method I mean that is exactly what I do. I use my Iwata airbrush HP-SB loaded with acrylic, a custom mixed color to reference cards I make in the field with Windex as a vehicle to the desired road grime, dust/dirt and let it set up for about 30-60 seconds and come back in with a cotton swab or rag with a hint of lacquer thinner; just enough bite for it to lift the paint off the surface. Repeat as desired depending on the simulation you want. This in effect simulates what is going on in reality. Rain, wind, dust, washings, hail, mud, and all that fun stuff comes on and goes off leaving a trace and building it up with "layers" like I paint on canvas similar to Grisaille method perfected by the french by the old masters works out really well. Outside in natural light in the right setting its darn hard to tell your model from the real thing.
I do like Bragdon Chalks, I was basically doing his powdered glue in the chalks when I was in my teens back in the 1990's. He had the foresight to put a label on it and sell it! Good man. I also use Conte Crayon hard pastels; scraped into a dish or tray provided by Bragdon. A super soft watercolor brush like a Strathmore is terrific for application. Another step I like is the use of oil paint; more or less burnt umber and chalks together are just lovely. You can really get out of hand quick wit h this in my era of modeling since most rolling rust heaps were sent to the shops. I would add some drier such as Grumbacher Oil Painting Medium II to the oil paint to accelerate the drying. I like to avoid the cobalt drier. A heat gun will also provide useful when drying those oils; just use caution and don't let it get too hot if your using plastics.
It is shaping up to be a nice model, Yoder trucks and all its a pretty sweet car and I am very pleased with it. Now I need to set up the modules outside and take some outdoor shots; I love those! After all that is what this hobby is all about; smoke and mirrors, fool the eye, and pass it off as real as it gets!
Hope you enjoyed the project (so far)...
