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....