Merry Chrismas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here is hoping that your stockings and tummies are full and all is well with you and your families.

Image of the Month

This photo comes courtesy of the Willard Ohio Library.

From My Workbench

Awhile back I purchased a couple of Sunset Cab Forwards from Gunning's and they have been sitting in my "to do" list since. I finally got up the nerve to tear one apart and paint it (this one being the AC-4). So here it is. I am modeling WWII so all of my locomotive consist look like they are "rode all night and put up wet".


First I completely torn down the model right down to the individual drivers. Installed Tsunami DCC and sound using a mini bass speaker. Wired it up with Front and read LED headlamps, interior lighting and finished up the interior with gauges crew and glazing.








I airbrushed each piece individually using Floquil weathered black and reassembled.










I purchased some SP decal sets from San Juan Decals out of Durango, of which I HIGHLY recommend.
I finished up the locomotive with using powdering techniques that I learned from Brent Gallant of Sierra West.

All and all I am pleased with the way it came out. A word of warning however; this locomotive's drive assembly is very difficult to reassemble so if you tackle one of these be careful to record via photography before you disassemble the model, you will thank yourself later. I still have another Sunset AC-6 to do the same with, but after this one I think I am going to take a break.

1898 SP Sunset Limited Edison Movie

An truly amazing 1898 Edison movie depicting the Southern Pacific Sunset Limited. The people on the train waving at the camera could little imagine you would be looking at them over a 100 years later.

Image of the Month

I have been so busy of late, I have been remiss in regularly posting here. However I hope this months offering will truly tell of the talents of a gentleman I met during a recent train show here in the Dallas area.

The talented artist I speak of is John Winfield. I was stupefied by his work and immediately ordered one of his works of art and once I received it, I was amazed on how he can capture the spirit and feelings of the moment. This particular work of art is another example of his work and I plan on purchasing a canvas copy of.

It is called "Three hours to Amarillo", click on the image to view the stunning detail of the painting.

I encourage you to visit his website and see what he has to offer.

As you will see, John is an extraordinarily talented man.

Winfield Rail Art

Product Review - Vallejo Paints

Of late I have been working on collecting facets of the future military portion of my layout. In my mind, it will consist of a small yard to store my military train equipment and perhaps a airfield. Of course this will be based off of the 1944 era.

In gathering these components, one challenge is finding HO scale figures that are one, US Military from that era, and two, finding figures not in combat poses and descent quality. (that subject in itself warrants a separate blog post).

So I collect these figures I find that most of the ones I have found are unpainted Preiser figures so the next logical step would be to find paints that are of good quality and help me accomplish this.
After hearing a recent Scotty Mason webcast, Dave Frary mentioned that he used some Vallejo Paints and found them to be quite nice. So I purchased a 72 bottle model color set as well as the panzer aces set and a few game set bottles. Buying these sets from a dealer will run you about 200.00 - 250.00 bucks, pretty pricey. I found that you can get some good deals on ebay and paid around 100.00 for 140 bottles. Just shop around, used bottles are ok since you don't use a great deal of paint each time.
The bottles are designed to dispense extremely small amounts of paints so a bottle will go a long way. The paints are acrylic, so water dilution and clean up is a nice attribute.
The paint goes on well (after primer is applied), and if you invest is some good quality brushes such as 0/20, 0/10, and larger you will find that painting the smallest details very satisfying. Another nice thing is that the paints that are flat are dead flat.



The 3 varieties I purchased are;

Model Paints - These colors are the typical primary and variations of colors you will use. They contain metallic colors as well.

Military Paints (Panzer Aces) - These colors are used for all thing military as well as the darker spectrum, grays, tans, browns etc.

Game Paints - These are designed for the WarHammer Fantasy crowd and I found them to be a bit to loud for Model railroading (I only have a few of these colors)

I recommend these paints highly and due to the amount of colors I now have, will use them for all of my smaller details provided in the craftsman kits. They are a bit pricey new however.

All and all 5 lanterns....

Vendor Recommendation - Craftsman Kit Howard

If your into building or for that matter collecting craftsman kit structures and models I want to tell you about a friend of mine that can really make your day. Howard is a very talented craftsman and knows his kits and if you looking to find that special challenge and raise your layout a few pegs with FSM, Sierra West, FOS, Master Creations, South River, Memory Lane, the list goes on... Howard is your guy.

Howard runs an ebay store located at

http://shop.ebay.com/howard3746/m.html

I encourage you to look at what he has to offer, he is a really honest and dependable gentleman that I have done business with for some time now. His shipments are so fast it will make your head spin. The kits he sells are the best on the market at a really fair price.

"Tell him Mike sent yaw"

Howard definitely gets 5 lanterns!

Product Review - Bar MillsModel Works Craftsman Kits

I have a pretty vast collection of Fine Scale Miniature kits awaiting the day I dust them off for the build. I find that George Sellios is the best in the business, hands down. If you have seen his layout in countless model railroad magazine articles or have built any of his kits you will agree.


But recently I have been purchasing Bar Mill Model Works kits. This company nestled in Bar Mills Maine is really impressive. They are housed in a reproduction of a railroad station and from what I have seen on their videos (on their website) have a really sound processes. The folks that work there are true professionals.

The majority of the kits they offer are under 100 bucks, mostly in the 30 t0 60 range with some "super kits" as well. The kits are simple to build (under 8 hours typically), they have unique designs and really make for enjoyable bench time.

The kits that I have purchased so far consisted of laser cut panels, some of which are adhesive backed, precut rafters (now that is nice), finely detailed castings (even better), and excellent humorous instructions.

"I tell you what", there is no fighting these structures to get everything squared and plumbed. Its smooth sailing for both the novice as well as the pro.

Their website is www.barmillsmodels.com and I encourage you, if you have 30-40 bucks, treat yourself to a great time.

For their consistent quality, unique designs and castings, very reasonable cost, and just generally cool approach to the business I give the 5 out of 5 lanterns.... Great job!

Image of the Month

This is a famous scene from Buster Keaton's "One week" where the couple is forced to move their house and of course of doing so, it gets stuck on the railroad track... well the rest is priceless..

Hearing the piano playing at the front of the theater...


The impending doom as the locomotive approaches...

.


The relief as it misses



But unfortunately it was a double main line...

From My Workbench

Greetings everyone, I just finished up my MMR CAR AP entries number 3 and 4.


To obtain the Master Model Railroad Car Builder Certification you are required to build a total of 8 cars of various styles. 4 of the 8 are required to be scratch built, and of the 8, 1 has to be a passenger type car. With that said, I have completed 4 of the 8 required. These next two cars will supplement the HoN3 flat cars that can be seen on the blog.

This water tank car is a HoN3 style wooden tank car towards the end of its life. I scratch built just about everything on this car excluding the trucks and couplers. This was also my first attempt at mold making and casting my own parts. The dome as well as the end pieces of the tank are custom made using silicon and plastic resin. A lot of fun actually.

I have also learned some really cool ways to mimic rust. This technique was developed by Brett Gallant of Sierra West Models of whom I recently met at the LSR NMRA regional convention. I really like the technique and Brett outlines how to do this on his website. While your their take a look at his craftsman's kit his offers for sale. These kits are out of this world.







This next car was really something that morphed into what is is now, a blacksmith car. I fully in tended on building a gondola but when I placed my first side on the side I stumbled across another blacksmith car on online. One thing lead to another and this is what I came up with.

I outfitted the interior workbench,forge, tools, coal bin, and even a cuspidor. I enjoyed these builds and hope that they will merit at my next NMRA meeting.

4 more cars to go... Stay tuned...

Newest Model

This is my latest find, and quickly becoming one of my favorites in my brass collection.

The 2248 SP Fire Train by Precision Scale. Yes thats right, Precision Scale & Iron Horse Models, when Westside was bought out by PSC, they produced a 75 piece limited run of this beauty. The details are much sharper, paint is impeccable, and overall this is one fine train set. I had been wanting the westside version for some time but when the opportunity came along for this one, I was just short of pretty much getting in line to sell my plasma to obtain it. Looking at the pictures do you blame me?
What is really ironic about this model is that this very locomotive is up and operating not more than 50 miles from my home. Sans the whaleback tender & firefighting equipment, add a few "tourist" additions, wa-laa... here is SP2248 as it appears today.As part of the Grapevine Historical Railroad, it runs almost daily from Grapevine to Fort Worth Texas.

Sad News in the Model Railroading World

I heard from a fellow model railroader that the hobby lost one of the greats last week. Hal Carstens passed away peacefully at the age of 84. For those who have subscribed to Model Railroad Craftsman know his work. Hal owned Carstens Publications for many years and was one of the hobbies great originals. I was fortunate to meet and listen to Hal at the LSR convention a few weeks ago. He really told the story about model railroading and its history of from his viewpoint because he was there. My personal thoughts and prayers go out to his family, he will be missed.
His obit is located at the Carstens Web site.

The Blog is one year old

Hey my blog is one year old this month, not exactly a momentous occasion, nor even earth scattering, hell barely even worth mentioning, but its been fun and over 1000 hits so far, not bad...

Image of the Month

Happy Father's Day out there...

Latest News

Over the last few months I have been crunching to prepare for the Lone Star Region NMRA convention. I had planned on having a few models placed into the contest. So with only hours remaining I completed "Houligans Alley" to be entered into the display category and readied the HoN3 scratch built flat cars for the freight car category.

So over the last week, I have been totally emerced into railroads, railroads, and more railroads. The Convention this year (co hosted by my Division 3 and Forth Worth's Division 8) held in the Irving area this year was a great success, the banquet hall was packed and the tours, various rooms and over 90 clinics were a buzz for over 5 days. So many thanks to all involved, Jerry, Duane, Paul, Larry, Bob, so many to name made this possible.

Since this was my first contest entries, needless to say I was nervous and this was only magnified when I saw the competition. Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and some from Kansas contain some of the best modelers I have ever seen. Regardless I threw caution to the wind and entered my models.

The first were the two HoN3 flat cars which both fared well, they scored 88 points and both "merited" for my MMR. As a bonus, both placed honorable mentions. The freight car category was quite impressive and best of class were On30 scratch built models built by an MMR here locally. Outstanding craftsmanship was witnessed on all of the models submitted.

My third model, the display "Houligans Alley" faired much better, I was totally shocked when I was told that the display not only Merited, placed third against the Pro's but was awarded Novice Best of Show. It really made my year; I spent 3 months on that model and it absolutely worth every bit of time.

I look forward to placing new models in the 2010 convention being held in San Antonio. I have a few ideas of what I want to do and I have much better insight on what is required for the competition and I should (hopefully) do well, so expect scratch built, various scales and some unique approachs.

The bar has been set now, so stay tuned...

Image of the Month

During WWII, America's railroads were completely utilized for the war effort. So busy were the railroads this article was published in magazines to explain to the civilian population why the service was not up to par as compared to the pre-war levels. It is a great illustration showing the amount of rolling stock that was required to transport just one armor division...

Please note at the bottom of the page, most railroad advertising and bulletins would proudly show the number of employee's that were serving in the military... it was a unique time in American history.

Newest Model

Well actually it is not one of my newest model, it is my oldest brass piece that I own in my collection. I recently weathered it, replaced the open frame motor, installed a tsunami with sound in the tender, 0603 LEDs. And although not SP originally (believe it is a Southern Railway MT-4 Mountain), it is one of my favorite runners.




It was a gift in the 70's from one of my mentors Dusty Rhodes. A retired Army Colonel at the time and was my sponsor when I was a Junior Member of the El Paso Model Railroad Club and NMRA. He taught me a great deal as well as others in that club and I have always been greatful. So if you ever see a orange and silver box car with Texas Western Railroad, that would be Dusty's Railroad. He passed away many years ago but is still sorely missed.

World War II Poster Resource

In modeling the World War II era, one of the many aspects is Posters. They were plastered (literally) everywhere during that era. These messages encouraged anything from purchasing war bonds to being careful of what you said.

This is a great site with dozens of posters you can print out and apply to your layout;

Lackland Airforce Base Poster Collection

08/01/09 unfortunately, Lackland AFB has taken the posters off their website, I will try and post the posters that I have online when I get a chance. In the meanwhile, a simple google image search on WWII posters will produce many for you...

How to apply these great posters;

a) Pick a site on your layout, Typically they were Store Windows, Sides of Buildings, Wrapped around Telephone Poles, Billboards, On fences, etc.
b) Print out the poster on a color printer to the appropriate scale you are modeling,
c) Cut out the poster and taking a fine grit sand paper, carefully begin to remove the paper from the back side of the poster. Your goal is to thin out the paper enough so that when you apply it it will conform to the surface that your applying it to. Bricks, Fence sign etc,
d) If you want the poster to have a weathered appearance you can lightly sand the front of the poster causing a fading effect,
e) Make a mixture of either 50/50 Matt medium or 50/50 Elmers (not school type) with water,
f) Using a paint brush coat the back side of the poster with the mixture and apply to the surface,
g) Apply a coat of the mixture to the front of the poster as well with that same brush, you want to have the paper complete soaked. After it is applied working the poster from left to right (I use a stippling brush) into the crevices and surface of the wall or whatever your applying it too.
h) If you want to weather the poster even more, find a paint color that matches the brick or surface background. (I use acrylics diluted) and coat the surface of the poster and this will give it an appearance of the brick or surface bleeding through as if the poster was painted on.
i) Added details such as making small tears in the paper, peeling down a corner as if it was coming off the surface. Also if placed on a fence you can cut the paper between the slats.
This is an easy, inexpensive way to detail your layout and give it that feel of WWII era.

Newest Models

Sunset AC-4

Being a Southern Pacific modeler, I have always owned Cab Forwards, these have been the older Rivarossi AC-12s. Any modeler that owns these models knows that they are (although nice for the day) difficult to run due to flange depth and the mechanics of the model are somewhat mediocre at best. As a kid I always wanted the Brass versions of these locomotive types. So with that said over the last year I invested in two Sunset Model Cab Forwards.

Sunset AC-6

As they appear to be identical in the photo's, there are small differences between the two variations. As time permits I will begin to tear them down for paint, decoders, sound,and weathering.

I am a big fan of Sunset Models, they are somewhat reasonably priced as compared to the higher end brass available today. The level of detail is very nice (includes cab detail) and as far as I can see are identical to the prototype. Moreover, the later year versions have can motors, sprung drivers, and great drive train which makes for a easy DCC conversion.

From my workbench

Military Train Complete

I have been slowly building a military transport train for several months now. It consist of 20 pieces varying from flat cars, kitchen, and troop carriers. As part of the era of which my layout is being constructed (1939-1949) I felt it was a key ingredient.



My layout plan calls for a separate military "compound" of some type. Regardless, it should prove to be an interesting aspect of my operations.

Image of the Month

This is a curious photograph, it appears to be a safety reminder for the railroad or perhaps an advertisement for Johnsons & Johnsons... the engineer and fireman has a look like "you have got to be kidding"

Cool Freebie - Yard Office

Yard Office Railroad Database

I ran across this software package when looking for a way to categorize and organize my fleet. It is a shareware that is really pretty nice. You can store all of the information for each piece of your rolling stock and motive power. You can take it a step farther and take photographs of each piece and have this as part of the record. Reporting capabilities are more than I will ever use but all and all this is a nice addition to my model railroad software library. Here is the link;

YARD OFFICE

Here is a screen shot of one of my records. For an additional $27.00 you can register and open up even more of this software's capability. For the price and its capability, yardmaster rates as a 5 Lantern product and I highly recommend.