114 The Navajo Mining Railway - Dr. Wesolowski's Weathering Goop

I'm trying to catch up from being away for a week, but it is very tough.  The goal is a post a day this year...so let' see if we can do it.  Today is Sunday and the wife gave me the day off.  Basically that means I have half the day off and a lot of grief for taking it...but some modeling time none the less.

WARNING!  YOU MUST LEAVE THE CAP ON THE BOTTLE VERY LOOSELY SO THAT THE PRESSURE FROM THE CHEMICAL REACTION CAN BE RELEASED OR THE BOTTLE WILL BLOW UP.  MY BOTTLE EXPANDED TO THREE TIMES ITS NORMAL SIZE.  ANOTHER PERSON HAD A BOTTLE EXPLODE IN HIS WORKSHOP!

First, I need some more weathering materials.  The area I'm working on needs something not so black, but more reddish.  I think its time to whip up a batch of Dr. Wesolowski's Weathering Goop.  Invented back in the seventies by the renowned scratchbuilder Wayne Wesolowski, it has a reddish brown hue.  We only need fine steel wool and a bottle of vinegar.

Tear up the fine steel wool and immerse it in the vinegar.  I take out about half of the vinegar and stuff torn bits of steel wool into the bottle.  Once I put in enough steel wool, I'll pour the rest of the vinegar back into the bottle.

I cap the bottle, and as always, I write the name of the chemical on the bottle.

We put it aside on the chemical shelf to cure.  The acid in the vinegar will eat away at the steel wool, causing it the rust.  The result is a reddish brown hue that makes a great weathering solution.  Tune back in and we'll use some!

111 The Navajo Mining Railway - Depot Weathering

It's time to weather the depot, or at least get the first coat going.  Let's remember that we are in Southern Utah.  It is hot there, and dust.  Seldom rains.  The dust is yellow to orange to rusty red.  Paint doesn't last long in the oven that is the high desert.

 I dug out my set of Dr. Ben's Weathering Powders.  We'll need them today!  I'll be using my new bottle of white as well.

 

Here are the colors that I'm using.  I did put the shadow gray back as it has a green tint to it.  Good for a barn in north Georgia, but not out here in the high desert.

We'll need an old, soft brush, so I grab one from the used brush bin.

I'll start with dusting the roof with some white.  Weathering powders stick close to where you put them so you have to bang some of the dust off the brush before you start.  I got a bit too much on the roof here, but with repeated brushing it came off.

Here is a close up of where I started on the right vs the left with no colorant.  It is a bit much here, but I wore it down with the brush.

The picture on top has the white highlights, the one below doesn't.  See the difference?  It improves as I add other colors and a dull coat.

The roof is complete.  I'll add some other colors later and smooth out the white.  For now I'll let it sit.

A little soot black will be added as streaks on the roof.

The roof looks different under the flash, but right now it looks great...very dry and sun parched.

Using the other colors I start adding dirt to the lower parts of the structure.  Not too much, but enough to indicate the wind has blown the dirt up on the building over time.

There!  I had to glue the door back on, so we'll stop today while that dries and I'll work on it more tonight when the little monsters go to bed.  I'm trying to figure out how to get clay out of my carpet.  Arrgh!

107 The Navajo Mining Railway - Depot Weathering

Sometimes it gets really tough to have a blog post daily, but I intend to keep at it.  So far we've been good for the past few months!  When I'm on trips, like this week to Orlando to a conference, I don't get any modeling done.  I did get time to have dinner with my good buddy Rick Wade and to see both his layout and the layout for the Central Florida Railroad Modelers which was amazing.  That is a very long standing club with a great building and a huge operating layout.  What fun!  The only bad thing was that my small camera died before I got a single picture of either layout!  Maybe I can talk Rick into guest blogging sometime.

Time to work on the module.  One thing is that I'm happy with the track so we need to fasten it down.

Using some ACC cement, I put a drop of it under the rail at every tie, and then put a pattened Rick Wade Can 'O Cement on it to weight it down.  We'll let it dry overnight and the rails won't move.

Next, I want to remove the rubber cement from the model so that the weathered gray boards will show through.  I used a regular pencil eraser, but that wasn't such a good idea.  Next time I'll use a square, white art eraser as the pencil left pink rubber all over the model.

Here you can see the weathered wood coming through where the worn paint has peeled off and exposed the boards.  This is a great affect, but next time I'll put the rubber cement on a little heavier.


Wizdom:

1.  Wen using the rubber cement peeling paint technique, put the rubber cement on thick so that it is easier to see.
2.  Use an art gum eraser to remove the rubber cement when the paint is THOROUGHLY dry
3.  Don't wait more than about 48 hours to remove the rubber cement

Rick's Ramp Project 02 - Design

We have the basic idea of what we want, now let's design it.

After looking at prototype photos, I usually grab my sketch pad first.  I keep sketch paper and this handy sketching set in my desk drawer.

Using an HO scaled rule, I'll figure out or estimate the dimensions and begin drawing.

Here is the finished sketch.  I inked it after drawing it with pencil.  I've decided to use more "bents" or pilings for this so that it will look more robust and theoretically hold more weight.  One prototype photo I saw had square timbers, but I think I like the look of the pilings better.  The drawing was sent to Rick who said "proceed!"

One critical dimension needs to be checked, and that is the height of the platform.  For this I use the NMRA standards which are free on the internet.

NMRA Standards

When we use the standards, let's look at the "classic" standards which would cover out time period.  Dimension "E" is what we are after, which is the height of a platform.  We look up E and HO, and we are given 18/32" or 14mm.

I gave estimated dimensions for lumber, but will check this against my available supply and will use what I have.  Plastic may be substituted instead of wood for some parts.

Ok, we have a plan.   Now we need to check for materials, and most likely, build a jig for the pilings.

Wizdom:

1.  Sketch out your ideas if you can.  It gives you a better feel for the model.
2.  Items like ramps don't need to be precision made, or even perfectly copying a prototype, but that is up to you.
3.  When making a model for someone else, get their buy in as to what you are building constantly through the project so that you can build what they are expecting.
4.  You don't have to have precision scale drawing to build a small model.  Rough drawings or even just a photograph can be enough to get you started.

090 The Navajo Mining Railway - Staining Crossties for On30

I plan to get some track done in the next few days.  There is still a switch and some flex track to be installed...so I'll try to do that tomorrow.  We are going to need some crossties, so let's do that tonight so they have time to dry thoroughly.

This is EASY to do...but can be extremely messy.  I've done it a lot...so follow the instructions to a "T" and you won't go to work next week with black stained fingers.  First, clear off your work area and put on old clothes.  I wear an old black T-shirt and old jeans...and no socks.  You'll need a metal pan to catch accidents.

I've got two bags of crossties.  We'll do about 2,500 of them, then stain more if needed.  Always had a hard time estimating how many I need, so now I just do half of what I need.  These are sugarpine ties and they take dye really easy.

You need a bottle of black shoe or boot dye.  This is DYE and not shoe polish.  A mistake here will have you throwing out ties.   ALWAYS keep this powerful dye in a bag with a zip lock closure.  Don't think you'll ever spill a drop....just try me.  Or ask my friend Coalfinger Ken how he got his nickname!  Special note: other colors of dye such as gray or blue do NOT always work as they are more colorant than dye, so be careful and experiment.

You'll need some isopropyl alcohol.  Don't worry about the water content or alcohol percentage.  Just get the cheapest you can find and keep the empty bottles.

You can use disposable gloves, but I like the heavy dishwashing/housework kind.  I have one pair that is ONLY for dying ties and keep them in a bag labeled for this purpose.  You'll also need a glass jar, drinking glass with a wide opening or possibly an old tin can.  This is the dye bath.  I've covered my pan with two sheets of paper towel.

A long pair of tweezers will help you keep your fingers out of the dye.  A few stir sticks, like a popsicle stick, are helpful for mixing the dye solution.

I poured about 4 oz of alcohol into the glass, and added about 1/2 oz of black shoe dye. Stir with a popsicle stick.  Normally I start out with a light/thin wash solution, and gradually keep adding dye until it gets as dark as I want it.  I'll dye a handful of ties with each level of darkness giving me a mixed assortment of weathered ties.

Take a handful of ties.  Don't try to work with more than this.  Drop it into the solution.

Using your popsicle stick, stir the ties around in the solution making sure they are well coated.  Leave them in for 5-10 minutes or so.  Different ties, and even different batches of ties from the same materials, will stain differently.

Let the ties soak up the dye.  Watch them and stir occasionally to get them a bit darker than you would like them to be.  The colorant lightens up as the ties dry, usually to a nice weathered looking silver/gray color.

Fish the ties out with your tweezers, shaking off the excess fluid.  Put them on the towels and stir them around.  Try to get the wetness off of them as quickly as you can and unstick any ties that are together.

I usually use my hand to mix them up and stir them around.

Using another pan, paper plate or towel, move the ties you just stained to a dryer towel and let them dry out.

Add some more black dye...or in my case, I got the dye mix too dark, so I'm going to pour out some dye into the empty alcohol bottle and put more clear alcohol into the glass.  This will make the solution lighter.

Stain, dump, stir and move them to a drying towel.

Here you can see them drying out and turning a light gray.  One batch is slightly lighter than the other.

The alcohol dries quickly, but sugarpine sucks it up deep into the tie causing them to swell.  Getting them dry quickly is important, so I put them under a hot lamp.

Again I thin out the black dye and stain another handful....dry, move, make some more.  I did this five times with a total of 2,500 crossties.

When putting away your suppliers, put all dye materials in zipper bags and label them properly.  Spills occur, as do leaks.  Do not take chances or something will get destroyed.

I keep all my staining materials in one plastic box and I hide it from everyone so that accidents don't occur.  Trust the man with the black finger nails....do this necessary step!

Here we have five plates full of ties, each a slightly different shade.  These ties have not been distressed yet, but will on the layout.  I stain them now so that 100% of the tie has color.  You cannot stain a tie that has glue or glue residue on it.  Once they are glued down, I'll distress and sand them flat, then give them a spray coating of tie stain just before laying rail.

Stand by for laying track!

Product Review: New DVD Making, Casting and Weathering Details

Product Review:

Making, Casting and Weathering Details DVD
By Darryl Huffman

I recently purchased Darryl's latest DVD on model building and about to go downstairs and watch it again. I love it!

Darryl takes us through the steps to make some simple detail items such as a picnic table, lobster traps, birds nests and store room shelves. But its not the details that are important. Its how he constructs them and the techniques surrounding the assembly. He makes it look so easy.

I like his natural approach to keep it simple. Anyone can watch this video and go to the shop and reproduce what he's done. There is way more than $20 worth of information and you don't have to scan over ads like a magazine.

It is of great value and I highly recommend it. The filming still leaves a lot to be desired, but it is tough to get close ups of some of this. His wife's hands make a guest appearance and they are much easier on the eyes than Darryl's. But all in all it is a fantastic skill builder!

Since I don't sell advertising I can say whatever I want...so this one gets 4 out of 5 stars!

You can buy it on Ebay or Dr. Ben's website where I bought my copy.

Painting and Weathering Clinic On Line

I like this clinic for painting and weathering. I'm getting ready to build my Gator's Bait Shack for the Okefenokee Railroad, so I'm looking for new ideas.

http://www.sierrawestscalemodels.com/clinic/Resin/resin.shtml

When I get rich I'm buying one of everything from Sierra West!

On thing I really don't like about this clinic is that they put down weathering and painting pigments, or dry powders. That is stupid, as these pigment paints have revolutionized our hobby. I use them all the time, mainly the Dr. Ben's line. You can buy them here:

http://www.debenllc.com/servlet/StoreFront