The JSSX This Week 12/14

My GMRC boxcar from last week is finished up, and can now be found in service out on the JSSX.  I really kept the weathering (rusting) in check on this one, mostly following what I could see on the prototype photo I had. There are just a few small rust blisters and streaks on the sides, but it's had plenty of paint patching done, which I think implies that the boxcar has had it's share of scratches and hard knocks.

I did rust the roof, using roof brown and an orangey rust coloured paint.  Over top of that I put a couple of applications of thinned black Vallejo Wash to bring out the relief of the roof panels. The reporting marks on the ends of the car are patched too.  That was 20 separate little decals to do the two ends.  I thought I got them a little bit straighter than I did, but I'll be able to live with them like this.

The JSSX had a couple of pretty talented modelers visit on Wednesday, as Don Janes and his friend Bill Moore came by on Wednesday.  I've been acquainted with Don for a few years, but he's never been here before, and it was my pleasure to meet Bill.

They both gave the JSSX a pretty thorough looking over, and made a number of observations about various aspects of my railway. They looked pretty closely at such things as the rust and weathering on the freight cars and structures, the chain link fences, the oil storage industry and tanks, and the JSSX engine facility.

Don remarked to me that he noticed that there were a number of high-cube boxcars, but not so many that they dominate the layout.  That was something that I have actually limited on purpose, and it was very nice to have him recognize such a subtle thing.

Their comments were quite validating to me, as they picked out such things on their own that I've done purposefully to try to create the look and feel of my layout.

Here's Don and Bill during their visit as they had been checking out the street trackage and warehouse area.

Also this week, I've added these 2 loading docks to the rail side of that building with all those windows. Just a few scraps of styrene is all it took to make them, and only an hour or so. Then I painted and weathered them with grime streaks, rust streaks, and oil stains at the workbench before attaching them to the building.

A couple of loading dock roll-up style doors were also added.  They are photos of doors from Lance Mindheim's website. He encourages us modelers to copy and use certain photos from his site, so Lance, if you ever happen to read this, thanks very much.

Here's a picture of one of the loading docks in place, and the two doors from Lance's site  installed. I changed the colour of the door on the left from red to grey using Corel's Paintshop. I actually mistakenly installed both doors upside down.  There are still 3 more doors to do, so I'll correct the first two then.