Model Railroading > CSX out West

Tonight I was down in the basement dusting off the tracks after weeks of inactivity. Snapped a few pictures with the cell phone.
Here's a manifest freight with a UP SD70M and a CSX ES4400 in the trail...

Andy

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nice love the weathering

Take more photos-----I like what I see!!!

Beautiful models!

PQM

Outstanding weathering Andy!  Any chance you'd care to share how you did it?

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

iaisfan Wrote:
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> Outstanding weathering Andy!  Any chance you'd
> care to share how you did it?

Hi Joe,
 Thanks for the comment! The way I weather the equipment is with A.I.M. products. I give it several wash coats with the "Quick Age" solution and then I wipe much of it as clear as possible with Q-Tips. Then I use their weathering powder to simulate exhaust, dust, dirt and sand. Most of the time I give the underframe of the equipment a light blast of dust or sand with the airbrush. Then a coat of Dullcoat and that's it.

Hope that helps!

Andy   

Enjoy most anything western, even modern!  =P

Cheers, Jim Fitch

Thanks Andy!  Also, how do you shoot your model photos?  They look great!  I've been really disappointed with my own pics using an iPhone 4s and, more recently, an iPhone 6.  With the naked eye, I think the layout lighting (simple 4' twin-tube florescent shop lights) looks fine, but photos are often dark.  However, if I try to add lighting, the models look too washed out, almost like I shot them with a flash.

wheel_slip Wrote:
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> iaisfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Outstanding weathering Andy!  Any chance you'd
> > care to share how you did it?
>
> Hi Joe,
>  Thanks for the comment! The way I weather the
> equipment is with A.I.M. products. I give it
> several wash coats with the "Quick Age" solution
> and then I wipe much of it as clear as possible
> with Q-Tips. Then I use their weathering powder to
> simulate exhaust, dust, dirt and sand. Most of the
> time I give the underframe of the equipment a
> light blast of dust or sand with the airbrush.
> Then a coat of Dullcoat and that's it.
>
> Hope that helps!
>
> Andy   

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

I'm confused------if an alcohol-based product is used and later "dull-coted" doesn't the two products react (to each other) which causes a white chalky substance on the model?

iaisfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks Andy!  Also, how do you shoot your model
> photos?  They look great!  I've been really
> disappointed with my own pics using an iPhone 4s
> and, more recently, an iPhone 6.  With the naked
> eye, I think the layout lighting (simple 4'
> twin-tube florescent shop lights) looks fine, but
> photos are often dark.  However, if I try to add
> lighting, the models look too washed out, almost
> like I shot them with a flash.
>
Joe,
These were done with a Samsung Note 4. It has a pretty decent camera. The only lighting is a ton of florescent lights above. Usually I will shoot my trains with my Nikon DSLR, but I am finding that the cell phone works for simple snapshots. I don't know much about iPhones, but I think a generation or two may have had image sensors that were less than previous models in terms of quality...
I have also found that when adding light (I do that sometimes with the DSLR to add shadows or give a more daylight look to the image, that I have to be very careful with hot spots caused by aiming the lights. To prevent this, I always aim the extra lights high or low to prevent the center hot spots...

Andy

The consist reminds me of this one I shot heading west onto the Golden State in Topeka, KS last month.

Nice work, as always!

- Jeff Carlson

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It is dull-cote sprayed with alcohol that gets the chalky effect. Hitting it again with more dull-cote gets rid of the chalky look.
Clarence G