Moving Along!

Hey Gang! Sorry for not updating as usual. I got hit with sickness truck and was unable to get anything done. I am feeling better so it's back to the train room.

I clear coated the warehouse building of the paper company. I need to just install a roof section and paint it, clear coat the building and that will be ready for some details decals and some weathering. I also added a second story to the food processing/bakery plant. I also reconfigured the silos to go along with the track plan i had in a previous post. I mounted the background building to a piece of 1/2" thick foam board, then I glued some plastruct metal siding to the top to match the original structure . I still need to add some more details and weather the top. I am also working on an unloading area for grain and tank cars. Still in the planning stages with this not exactly sure what I want to do.

(I was taking the picture at a weird angle)

I also go to gluing down my track. I am now about 85% done. After that hoping to start installing feeder wires and have some trains running soon. The sickness put me back a few days.

A view from the paper plant side of the layout.

Weathering some Motive Power

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday. Mine was full of traveling to family and enjoying GREAT food!

Over the holiday I took some time to work on some of my GP35s. With the painting done and just some minor parts being installed, I figured I would begin weathering. I first started with doing a wash of 70% rubbing alcohol mixed with some black India Ink. Results were OK, but noticed some paint beginning to wash away. Then I realized that the clear coat I used was acrylic. So I fixed what I could and blended in the paint. Crisis averted! SO i decided to try out my Valljo black wash. Results were, but after it dried, I realized I went a little too heavy and it was really bad. SO I decided to take sum rubbing alcohol and try and fix what I did. It actually worked and with some patience and some fine tuning, I was able to salvage. So my wheels were turning and decided I would try and make a wash using oils and some Turpinoid. Well let me tell you, results were AWESOME. After everything dried I realized it was heavy in spots. SO i got out the turpinoid and worked on thinning out the heavy spots and blending. I was happy with the results.

The top 3 photos were pre-touch-up work.

A little more touching up.

Posed by the paper plant

Little dark.

This one turned out the best.

As for the photos, you can see in the last set that the track is starting to get put down. I am about 60%-70% done with putting track in place. Next up will be to glue it down in place. After the track is glued, I will be putting in the feeder wires and get all the wiring hooked up. Hopefully I will have some trains running by next week!

I also took some time to work on the paper plant and extended the walls a bit to match the other background building I installed. Once all that is in place, I will begin detailing.

I also scored an Atlas Gold Series MP15DC w/sound off eBay. It was a undecorated unit. I plan on working on putting it together and preparing it for paint. I noticed some of the extra spots for the number board and marker lights. I am going to tape those areas off to prevent any paint from getting on them. My plans for the marker lights are to paint them with some clear red paint. I was always a fan of marker lights and I wanted to keep some nostalgic symbols on the locomotive. I also have some Kato SD 40-2s that will need to be prepped for painting as well. I also have an old GP unit that will be getting a makeover. It was from my old freelanced layout. I plan on repainting and redoing that loco as well.

Lastly I also won a Atlas Master Series GP 38-2 on eBay as well. This too is an undecorated unit and will be painted up as well. LOTS OF WORK AHEAD!

Atlas Gold Series MP15DC

End of November Update

So today I decided to tackle building another one of my kits I bought. The Walther's Commissary Background Building Kit. I painted the brick with just a coat of Rustoelum Primer Brown. This is the came color as Boxcar Red from the old Floquil line of paints. After the paint dried I painted the doors and windows with Rustoelum satin green from the rattle can. It almost matched the color of the plastic, but I decided to keep it because after a little weathering, I'm sure it will com out quite nice. I also painted the cement highlights with Model Master Concrete, I picked that up at my local hobby shop.

This is prior to me installing the overhang roof and adding some roof details.

As you can see I still need to do some detailing to the metal piece where the loading dock is and. I touched up the over painted areas with some boxcar read which, when dried, matched the brown primer perfectly. 

I then added some roof details from my parts bin after spraying them with some light green from my paint collection. The details that came with this kit were very small, and in my opinion, unrealistic. I will weather these a bit to give it an older look.

My goal with this project was to make it look like the building was an old Railroad Express Agency building that was abandoned, then bought and re-purposed for a warehouse. I was stoked for that, well then another thought popped into my mind. I was looking on my top shelf and noticed part of the Superior Paper Plant kit I had cut down was up there. I then added it to this kit and came up with this....

I liked the way it looked. Plus I figured I now had an opportunity to bring back the paper plant I wanted. With some preliminary track layouts and such, I realized I couldn't achieve what I was hoping, but not to be discouraged, I did a little looking and figured out I could make this a paper printing facility. Lance is always talking about that it is not the number of industries on the layout, but the number of car spots, and couple that with some variety of cars. So I figured this industry could take come box cars with paper in them, and some tank cars for chemicals for ink. Or even make it a paper plant but only part of the industry being modeled. I will need to do a little more research. 

I also am working on finishing up the unloading racks as well as the final detaisl for the silos for the food plant. 

STAY TUNED!