1/22,5 Feldbahn flatcar for 26,7mm track

[mad gerald]

G'evening all,

as mentioned before in the painting and weathering section I am in the progress of building a narrow gauge flatcar (running on 26,7mm track representing 600mm gauge) from brass, sandblasted and stained by a modelling mate, treated with a little wash of rustall ... please see building report here*, unfortunately in german (sorry for the inconvenience) ...



... now it came to the weathering/painting of the wheels, with steel rim and an inner part of resin ...

At first the brass axles got a stain treatment and a coat of primer. Then, following Marc's suggestions, the axles were coloured with 3 different braun sorry : colours of brown, beginning with the darkest. Whent the last coat of brown colour was dry, I gave the axles a blackwash: much thinner and less black colour, added by a little of the darkest brown colour, followed by some kinda drybrush of artist's pastells on the drying blackwash, trying to approach finescale   ...

Now it seems to me, the wheels do not quite match the frame of the flatcar anymore, don't they?  



* BTW: in case of interest there is now the latest progress here available ...  

EDIT1: spelling
EDIT2: links switched to my "old" modelling website as I intend to discontinue the blog ...

Kind regards

[Ken Hamilton]

Thanks, Gerald.  I can't speak or read a lick of German, but the pictures come through load & clear.
Very nicely done.  I love the large scale.
Thanks for posting.

[mad gerald]

G'day all,

sometimes if you think you got your things going you have to suffer a setback ...  

After I managed the first time in my life to use the chipping technique (modern nursery wagon right) I thought I could treat the frame of my flatcar the same way ...

Because the wooden strips were already superglued to the frame I applied the hairspray -several times - with a brush to avoid masking (or spraying) the wood ... but that turned out to be not a good idea: It is hardly possible to remove the yellow colour with a hard brush or a toothpick.   I also tried a fiberglass pen/stick, but it has not the same effect.

Now I have "shiny" yellow colour on a flatcar that makes it look almost brand new, when it should have a used/worn look.

May be I'm gonna do the whole treatment again, removing (or masking) the wood before I restart ... other suggestions?



Kind regards

[lab-dad]

Is the yellow solvent or water based?
If it is water based try soaking in alcohol.
If solvent based.........

I dont use hairspray, I use a solvent base coat and watert based for the top coat to be peeled.
Then I use 70% alcohol and a brush to chip the top coat.

-Marty

[mad gerald]

G'evening Marty,

Is the yellow solvent or water based?

... both, the different shades of brown(ish) colours and the yellow colour are Humbrol, so must be solvent base ... but according to Marc it seems to be that a little oil based wash would change/dissolve the surface, but perhaps the base coat too ...   

Kind regards

[marc_reusser]

Gerald,

If your base rust color is solvent/oil based (Humbrol), and your color coat is also oil/solvent based, using solvent can/will affect both coats....there is a good chance that the yellow and rust colors will mix togeteher and make a mess. (but you can try/experiment on the underside where nobody can see). 

The hairspray should have worked the way you did it (though brush application is not recommended because of coat variations and potential streaking).....but this can depend on hairspray coat thickness, on the thickness of the color coat, and how long you let the color coat and HS dry before you began chipping (you want to start chipping pretty rapidly after the color coat has set, and the thinner the color coat the better it works). I suspect another problem could be that...if I recall correctly....you are using a brush to apply the color directly over the hairspray...this can potentially cause the hairspray to disolve and mix with the color coat, thus eliminating its function as a barrier/release coat/layer.) If you are applying the color coat with a brush...the way Chuck does some of his...I highhly recommend that you use his approach and apply a coat of clear finish from a spray can over the HS before applying the brushed on color coat.  (this layer of sprayed-on clear should be 'Acrylic' based paint....not oil...otherwise you will can once again have the issue of the color coat mixing with the clear and thus also the HS.) 

This all though, is not a big problem. Before you go crazy and try all sorts of solvents here are some potential suggestions:

Option 1:
If you do not have the problem of brushed on HS bonding with a brushed on color coat, you could use a very fine sharp needle to poke very small random holes in the color coat, and then wet the area liberally with warm water...let it seep into the holes and then try the removal. Wetting and removal may need to be repeated several times. Do this working only a section at a time.

Option 2:
Paint on your chips and wear, using fine brushes and a sponge. This is till the way many armor modelers do their wear; and it is also frequently used in combination with the HS technique to gain more control or a specific finished effect or wear pattern/coloring.

For quick example, these chips and wear were all painted on, no HS was used.








HTH.

Marc

[mad gerald]

Marc,

thanks for your explanations and especially for pointing out options 1 and 2 ... I'll take a deep breath (and the necessary time) and give 'em a try ...

Kind regards

[mad gerald]

G'evening all,

after having been the first time successful using the chipping/hairspray technique, I failed doing it the second time ...

Following Marc's suggestions, I first tried option one, but also with less success, so I turned towards option 2 and painted on chips and wear, followed by a wash of isopropyl alcohol/isopropanol and acrylic paint (black and brownish colours) at certain areas  ...

May be, I have overdone it at some areas ... ?! The main problem was for me, that the flatcar was almost assembled and some areas were difficult to reach, especially with the sponge pieces.

So I'm rather satisfied with this result on one hand, but I'm aware that there is still a lot potential to improve on the other hand ... so wait and see, what the next flatcar or wagon would be like ...  


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A few pictures more can be found here ... *click* ...

[Ray Dunakin]

The rusty, painted metal looks good to me.

[finescalerr]

Your photos seem to have two kinds of light: maybe natural light from a window and also the light from a bulb. Because of that, the model looks too yellow and it is hard to guess its true colors. The relative light and dark values look pretty good but, honestly, the whole impression is destroyed by bad lighting. Please ake a couple of new photos in sunlight so we can see better. -- Russ

[mad gerald]

Your photos seem to have two kinds of light: maybe natural light from a window and also the light from a bulb. Because of that, the model looks too yellow and it is hard to guess its true colors. The relative light and dark values look pretty good but, honestly, the whole impression is destroyed by bad lighting. Please ake a couple of new photos in sunlight so we can see better. -- Russ

... bl**dy h*ll ...  

... modell building or even scrtachbuilding seems to be a piece of cake, compared to the tricky bit: making good illuminated pictures ...

This time (photos above) I used 2 halogen spotlights: 300W for indirect illumination and 500W for direct illumination, followed by a treatment with GIMP regarding the white tone (BTW what's the correct term in English?).

The following pictures have been taken by daylight only, follwed by a treatment with GIMP regarding the white tone ... better? Otherwise I have to join some photographer workshop ...  

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[Frederic Testard]

The car is very nice, Gerald.
About white tone : it's called white balance.

[finescalerr]

The color is much better and now I can appreciate how effective your rust technique is. If you need help with photos, send me a private message and I will try to answer any questions you have. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Much better!

[mad gerald]

G'evening all,

... adopt, adapt and improve ... motto of the round table ...  

... so I tried again to take some photos, using

- 2 identical (shop)lamps
- a seamless backdrop (not to cause a horizon)
- the delayed-action shutter release
- and last but not least: a small block of wood to put the camera on, as I do not have a tripod yet ...
- Photoshop Elements 5 for some treatment regarding the colour/white balance

There might be still more potential for improvement, but it's not THAT bad as a start IMHO ...









Kind regards