Some Views From Around the Layout

 Just a few random views of what's been out and about around the layout recently...

A Walthers gondola that I repainted to GTW and have loaded with scrap metal (it's styrene actually)  The load of scrap is easily removable so the gondola can be spotted empty into  

JSSX 813 with a pretty well-aged (Exactrail) boxcar.  Two of my favourites in one picture.

SD40 beneath the overpass is shoving parts boxcars into place.

Same engine and location, different angle of view

A sharp looking 3-bay plastic pellets hopper out there this past week.  Painted this one myself.  Thinking of maybe selling this one, as I have two more that are the same paint scheme (different numbers).

I noticed WC 12125 showing some wear and tear as it was passing by on the GTW.

Plastic Pellet hopper car patched and with some mild weathering.

That's all I've got to show this week.

Fork Lift Trucks for the Layout

First off, I picked up a copy of the December MR at WalMart, and found a really nice article written in there by Don Janes about his layout.  Check it out.

As for my week, I spent time painting the 2 fork lifts that Brian's friend Leo 3D printed for me.  I needed to do just a little bit of filing on them, which only took a couple of minutes.  I showed the raw prints last week, but here's one of those photos again anyway:

Now please excuse me as I digress into a story about a fork lift incident back when I was supervising a shift in the factory I worked in, some of the guys left a bit to be desired as far as work habits and ethic was concerned.

One night, there was an unexpected and very loud crash and bang.  Upon looking into whatever might have caused that, I didn't have to look too far.  One of the guys was driving a forklift and had turned the corner from the loading dock into the plant and drove through - and I mean through - a roll-up style door.  He was thankfully un-injured.  He said afterward that he didn't know the door was there.  The door had been there for longer than the 6 or 7 years he had been an employee.

Now back to my painted models.  Truth is, it never occurred to me 'til now that I ought to weather them a little bit.And there's the paints I used as well.  I've painted the 2 pallets that were included too.

And on the outside dock at Gray Warehousing.

At an open door at Tri-State Paper.  I should sometime try to find a seated figure for these now, and add some wear and tear on the fork lifts as well.

That's it for now.  Have yourself a good week.

A Couple of New Items for the Layout

I've received a couple of new items for the layout this week.

First up I have this Atlas Master Series GP40 in CN striped scheme, which I bought as a used item through facebook's Canadian Railway Modellers Buy/Sell group.

The model arrived from Montreal in good condition on Thursday.

I removed the body shell to install a decoder, an ESU LokPilot, successfully tested it with the body off, and then put 'er back together.  Took only a couple minutes and done.  Runs great and the lights all work as they should too.

The previous owner had done a little weathering, mainly on the top surfaces.  I'm not crazy about the way it looks right now, so I'll either remove that weathering it, or if that doesn't work out my plan B would be to just paint black right overtop of it.

Also this week, I received these two HO scale 3D printed forklifts.

My friend Brian asked a friend of his if he would print these for me.  They turned out great !

Once I get these painted, they should look great in the doorways of a couple of the loading docks along the railroad here.  So special thanks to Brian and Leo for creating these for me.

That's all for this time.  I hope you all have a good week.  I gotta go rake some leaves outside.

BKTY 153277 All Finished Up

Well, after close to 3 weeks of chipping away at boxcar BKTY 153277, I'm calling this one done.  Mostly done few minutes at a time here and there.

Anyway, here's my finished boxcar in few locations around the layout:

Since last time, I dirtied up the doors with PanPastel Burnt Umber, and sprayed a few really light coats of Roof Brown along the boxcars' lower areas.

Same side, different angle.

The other side received the same treatment with the Pan Pastel Burnt Umber on the door, and the Roof Brown spray.  I find that brown works really well to flatten down bright colours.

I painted all 4 tack boards with an aged wood colour, then added a really light touch of thinned Dark Gray Vallejo wash.

I had mentioned before about painting sealant on to the panel seams on the roof, so here's how that turned out.  I used Primer Grey and a 0000 brush, also adding sealant above the door.  And a light touch of the Pan Pastel onto the panels, which I had already painted with Vallejo Rust Texture.

I'll close this out now with a look at the B-end of the boxcar.  Those reporting marks at the top were time-consuming decaling work.  10 individual decals on each end.  Cutting out 20 letters and numbers which I could barely see was tricky, and then getting them to settle straight on the model was touchy too.  Never had to get any stitches in my fingers though, so that's a win.

That's it.  On to the next project, whatever that might be.  Have a good week, and thanks for looking in.

MTW Boxcar Weathering Progress

I've had quite a cold all week and I'm not happy about it, and haven't really felt like doing much.  But, I've made a little more progress on that (now former) MTW boxcar.  I've got the other side of it mostly weathered now, with Fusion Scale Graphics graffiti decals added as well.

I really try to take my time with weathering, doing it in layers and allowing a couple of days to dry in between.  It's slow, but it seems to work out better in the end.

Here's what the 2nd side of the boxcar looks like now:

I've also patched over the original MTW reporting marks and changed them to BKTY.  I just made up the number, but it's at least in the correct number range for the prototype.  Also, I've added the yellow reflective stickers along the lower sills on both sides. 

Here's the first side again, but with the reporting marks patched.  I still have to get the data decals added, and to paint on the roof sealant like I referred to last week.  Then some overall grime and of course a clear flat to be sprayed to finish up.

Just as a reminder, here's how the car looked when fresh out of the box:

That's what's accomplished on this freight car project so far.  It's not a lot for this posting.

So I thought I'd add just a couple of older pictures from the layout to this post:

My duo of SW1200's alongside the maintenance building

And a drone view of the maintenance area.

So that's actually all I've got for this time.  Have a good week out there everybody.

Game 7 tonight.  Go Blue Jays!