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CJ,
I used to use leather dye for both wood cars and wood structures. It works great for either because the surface is porous and you can control how much weathering you get by just sticking the the brush first in the dye and then swirling it around in a small bowl of solvent. I never used alcohol but I'll take your word for it that it works.
Jeffrey, maybe that's the issue. With india ink, you just dip you brush in the bottle and then dilute it by applying it full strength to the model and them using a clean brush with alcohol to thin it down on the model. You can also have the alcohol in a small bowl and dilute it the way I described using leather dye. You wouldn't want to make up a whole quart of the stuff already diluted because then you have no control over how the model will look. I have a one ounce bottle of Dr. Ph. Martins "Black Stain" india ink I got at Hobby Lobby for $6.69. You can also get it at Michael's. As you know, I have a lot of structures and a fair amount of rolling stock and almost all of was weathers with some amount of india ink. I've uses about 20% of the bottle in a year.
CJ also had a good point about dullcoting the model first. This gives the plastic some tooth so the india ink doesn't just run down the sides and make big blobs on the surface. I almost always follow up with some weathering chalks and then dullcote the model again to protect the finish from handling.
VA3TOM, that is a really sweet looking lokomotive although those trucks do make it look like a little kid with shoes three sizes too big. Nice wire work and scenery too. I've always admired guys who do good traction work like that. Stringing two lines on a telegraph pole is a challenge for me.
Josh, still haven't seen the Mini-Cooper's at my Wallyworld.
I think it's a kit from a Canadian Company called Juneco. I picked the car up years ago as a basket case (I seem to get alot of those) and just recently finished it.
As usual fine, fine work being put up here. I am in awe of several of you and your modeling and your photography. Way too many to mention each of you, but I bet you know who I am talking about.....
I have been doing a bit more work at the top of the hill. This week fencing was put in place and some well grazed pasture over across the road from the barn. The scene is still far from complete but seems to be coming together nicely. Oh, BTW those aren't dead trees you see along the fence, they just haven't received their "Woodland Scenics" foliage yet. That will be one of the last things to get done after the rest of the fence and pasture is finished and a water pump and water trough is added to the scene (You gotta have water for them cows ya know....).
And a couple from the other side of the mountain (What the bear saw...)
The new gondola has been repainted. The UP job paint job it sported is now toast. I started with this :
And now have this:
I also changed out the couplers while I was at it. Where there were EZ-Mate Mark II's there are now Kadee #5's. One of the Mark II's came in handy as I needed a coupler for the tender of my Spectrum K4. Being it's going to be a park display I didn't see the point of sacrificing a Kadee to it.
I have been working on the "overpass" on my layout. I just finished giving it the base coat, so the paint is still wet! I started putting down some scenery around it: Foliage, grass etc.. That is still wet too! So while I wait I took some pictures (and been carefull not to "smudge" anything. Once this part of the layout is somewhat done, I'll take better pics!
I've been somewhat busy today, as you can see. I wanted to use India ink and alcohol as the weathering agent but couldn't find any India ink. I did however find a pure black acrylic gel from Folk Art (plaid) that seems to be a good substitute.
All that remains is to add some rust here and there.
jeff, the results on the second attempt to weather look pretty good. did you just wash it, or are the spots and such intentional? if its just a wash, i think im gonna give it a try, then go from there.
jeff, the results on the second attempt to weather look pretty good. did you just wash it, or are the spots and such intentional? if its just a wash, i think im gonna give it a try, then go from there.
Nice work everybody. Haven't posted for awhile, but have been popping in to check out whats going on. Always learn something it seems like. Several shots from today.
New to me RSD unit.
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