Ale-8-One Reefer

[EZnKY]

Relax Frederic - I'll need many, many years of practice before I could even come close to pulling that off!

[John McGuyer]

You are doing such a remarkable job on this project. I thought you might find these interesting. Two differences to what you are doing. One is they are 1/32 not 1/20.3. Second is this car gets run in shows so as you have done, everything is soldered except for one joint. That is where the brake rod connects to the truck. Since we go around much tighter corners it has a slip joint between the truck and the rod plus since it gets hard use, the pivot rod is piano wire not brass.

Keep this project going

John

[EZnKY]

Very, very cool John.
Am I correct the sideframes are purchased, but the bolsters are custom? 

[John McGuyer]

No. We made the injection molds for the frames and brake shoes also.

John

[EZnKY]

That's even better John!  I admire work done at this level, especially at a smaller scale.

[John McGuyer]

Thank you very much.

John

[finescalerr]

McGuyer is a master of metal. He just doesn't brag about it. -- Russ

[EZnKY]

Well folks, I think it's time to call the fabrication and assembly finished.  Weathering to start next, for better or worse.
Here are a couple of pictures.  (Sorry none of them are overall shots - I didn't take the time to set up the backdrop.)

Let me know if you see anything amiss.

My plan is to start with an overall gloss coat to hide the decal edges, and then fading and dirt streaking with oils.  Followed by chipping on the painted metal parts, and then a pin wash to highlight the details.  After that, some soot on the top and some road grime on the bottom.  Then clear flat coat.

Does that sound reasonable?  Remember - I don't do weathering well.

[pwranta193]

Love where you have brought this - sadly, i can't help you with the weathering instructions... meaning, that what you are setting out would be the perfect sequence for the non wood bits, I don't know how a future coat effects ones efforts at weathering the wooden sides and the work you've done to date.  Hopefully one of the wood working gurus will jump in.

I think your results on the lower bits and the wheels are, frankly, excellent...
Paul

[finescalerr]

I thought about this after you first posted because I wasn't sure how to answer you and hoped somebody else would get the ball rolling. Looks as though I'll have to start things.

When possible we do the weathering prior to assembly. Note how Chuck, Marc, Gordon, Ken, Frederick, Anders and others created peeled paint, rotten wood, rust, and whatever else on each board or component of the model before attaching it. You didn't permit yourself that luxury on your sides and ends and, as a result, it will be difficult to create any serious decay at this point. Luckily the model doesn't need that; it just needs a little road dust and a few spots of wear.

The most important thing currently missing from the finish is a series of dustings, oversprays, or possibly washes, to blend the colors and shadings into something more cohesive. The darker boards on the car sides, for example, will become less obvious as you apply subtle layers of dust and grime to the entire car. In the old days we used to do that with a few mists of dilute paint but the gurus on this forum now use pin washes, filters, weathering powders, and other sophisticated methods to create a more realistic and detailed finish.

Go back to the first Modelers' Annual to see how Chuck treated the painted wood in his barn/Fordson diorama, for example. Marc, "Fichtenfoo", and our military modelers have techniques using dilute paint to create beautiful weathering effects. I hope they will refer you to step-by-step instructions you may follow.

Now let's wait for them to offer specifics.

Russ

[EZnKY]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

You're spot on Russ that I've struggled with knowing when to finish-then-assemble versus assemble-then-finish.
It seems to me that up to a certain point, the sequence dictates the level of deterioration you want to model.  I can't claim that this was intentional, but the reefer won't be terribly deteriorated.  Soot, grime, and dust yes, but not much peeling paint, loose boards, etc.

I've been watching some of our master modelers work on their projects, and I've learned a lot.  But I've still got a long way to go, as you've observed.
I'll keep plugging away and posting pictures...

[John McGuyer]

Let me comment on the assemble vs before assembly. I have built both the 40 ft. version of this car plus a couple of Phil's gondolas. The gondolas are made stick by stick and I spent weeks distressing and weathering each of the sticks before assembling the model. This reefer on the other hand is basically a wooden box with scribed siding. It I found, better lent itself to putting the box together, then weathering it. Also keep in mind that since the railroads carried foodstuffs in them, they were kept in pretty good shape. You just didn't see the deterioration that was so prominent in something like a gondola.

John

[EZnKY]

Sorry about the long period of inactivity on both this project and the caboose.  I decided to take a break before starting the weathering on the reefer to give myself some to practice and improve my skills.  (I also have spent most of the last five months marketing at work.  Thankfully people are starting to build again, so I can relax a little and not feel guilty about having a personal life.)

Anyway, I've gotten tired of taking pictures of the reefer on my workbench, so I thought I would build a section of track with some context and scenery.  I also thought this would be a nice small way to experiment with different scenery techniques.  Here's my plan...

I have shelves covering the end wall in my living room and dining room.  When I built them, I cut grooves in the shelves above eye level to match the flanges of No. 1 gauge wheelsets, so my wife is already resigned to having models on some of the shelves.   I'm going to build a removable diorama to fit in each section of the shelves.  Eventually there will be six, which will give me roughly 22'-0" of track to work with.  The dioramas will let me work on the scenery in the shop, and take the whole thing outside for photography.  It will also make them disposable if I'm unhappy with the results, and I don't have to make any modifications to the shelves themselves.

[EZnKY]

I started by cutting some cedar ties from left over from building a fence last summer.  These were run through a wire brush and glued to a 1x4, glued to a sheet of 1/2" plywood cut to fit the shelves.  This will raise the models roughly 3" above the shelf itself, which is about as far as I can go without having clearance issues.  I was hoping to have small bridge on one diorama, but there may not be enough topography for this to happen.

The profile boards are 1/4" masonite scraps from a previous project. 

[EZnKY]

I used wadded up paper to form rudimentary contours, and covered the whole thing with plaster-soaked paper towels.  I think on the next module I'll do the plaster before the ties since I had to spend some time cleaning the splatters and dribbles off the ties.

Once the plaster was dry - which took an eternity because it's been so humid here lately - I spray painted the edges satin black.  We'll see if I can keep these clean during the rest of the project.  (I'm betting I'll wish I waited to paint them at the end.)