Scattered Thoughts . . .

I n my previous blog entry, I wrote about my custom designed, homebuilt truss bridge that I have been working on lately for my little garden railroad.  I had applied far too many coats of paint in varying colors and shades in an attempt to get the color I had envisioned.  I eventually landed on a pale olive color for this bridge like many truss bridges in real life. After writing that previous blog entry, I also applied additional shades of green to this bridge to add some tonal depth to this paint job.  The single shade of green was a bit "flat".  I'm not referring to the finish of the paint...  ie, gloss, satin, matte, flat...  but referring to the tonal depth of the paint job.  I had applied one or two more shades of green lightly with a dry brushing technique to add some tonal depth.  Today, I applied some reddish washes very lightly to give the impression of rust developing on the bridge. In this photo, below, my locomotive is just departing ...

A fter deciding upon a track elevation for our garden railroad, I decided to see what the locomotive looks like on track at the specified elevation in the garden.   Here, below, is a front view.  I still need to install the marker lights.  I'm waiting on new light bulbs to arrive.  The original bulbs were only 6v bulbs (I think...  one blew out at around 9-10v) but it is easier to work with 12v bulbs.  The DCC circuit board I'm using outputs 12v for the lighting.  I could have added resistors to the 6v bulbs but preferred to keep all the bulbs in the locomotive the same.  Consequently, I have yet another delay because I'm now waiting on new bulbs to arrive. This weathering is looking pretty good now.  What used to be a shiny plastic, toy-like body with brightly molded-in color now appears to be a weathered metal locomotive.  And, I completely changed the color(s) to make this a very unique locomotive. I just noticed that the rear w...

M y large scale steam locomotive kitbash is still coming along.  This project is taking far longer than I anticipated but at least it is coming along nicely. Yesterday, I started the day by adding trim to the cab and then I spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon continuing the weathering that I had previously started on the backhead of the cab.  This time, I was weathering the outside of locomotive and tender rather than just inside the cab.   I'm finding that getting the weathering just right is a delicate balance of differing subtle colors...  ie, rust, white discolored corrosion, and simple weathering of varying shades.  I find that I do a bit of weathering in one color and then I need to add other subtle colors to tone down what I had previously done.   Before I started weathering yesterday, I finished all I plan to do with the cab on this project.  The ceiling is done...  the cab is painted...  I installed trim on...