I have been asked over in Weekend Photo Fun how I manage to turn out new freight cars models weekly.
The answer is pretty basic. I do not build frieght cars one at a time, I have developed a constant cycle of production with tr
ain cars in various stages of completion, and I roll through them as much as possible.
I have a room I am renting in Tampa during the week. This usually gives my 8-12 night a month where I can sit at a work bench with zero distractions and assemble feight cars. This has increased Production Capacity by quite a bit.
I paint the cars at home in Cape Coral with my good old Paasche model "H" airbrush. Decals get applied in hotel rooms when I travel away from Tampa or Cape Coral for work. Taking decal supplies to hotel rooms is very easy. Much easier than assembling or painting.
So, this is how I paint the assembled freight cars in batches of 15-20.
All of the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them for a better view.
The freight cars are all layed out neatly. In this batch there are the 9 cars that will make up the DAWDLE AND DELAY interchange fleet on my roster. The rest of the cars will all be painted different colors from one another.
I jot notes inside of the freight cars if there are special painting considerations to be followed in the process. This is done with a Sharpie pen.
The roofs and ends that will be painted in differing colors are taped to cards and the painting instructions are also noted on pieces of tape with a Sharpie.
Here is a great tool/trick that I have not seen discussed in the forums.
This tool is called a Clay Shaper. This is a cheap one I bought from Jo-Anne ETC. in the Sculpey section. It is a rubber point on a handle, and it works great to press down and seal the edges of masking tape.
The painting supplies are all neatly layed out for preparation. The D&D cars will all be painted Scalecoat 2 Boxcar Red #2. A big batch of this will need to be mixed. The primary colors for this batch are Boxcar Red #2, PENNSYLVANIA freight car red, and Oxide Red. The cut-colors for this batch are MILWAUKEE ROAD orange and White.
One boxcar will be painted in Floquil CSX Gray, and another will be Floquil CNW Green.
All other colors will be custom mixed. I use 1/2 ounce "Boston Glass" bottles to custom mix paint. These can be bought in bulk for about 30 cents each. I usually have a couple hundred on hand.
The primer color for this batch is Floquil Primer Gray. I am almost out of Floquil Primer Gray. I was criticized on another thread for hoarding stock when a company closes its doors. Well, I am glad I stocked up as much with Floquil as I could. I am darned happy when I have all the supplies on hand I usually will need.
I also mixed up some flat black. I need to use Model Master flat black now because I am completely out of Floquil Engine Black.
The gray primer, flat black, and Boxcar Red #2 are all mixed in plastic bottles from the Dollar Tree.
I make a chart like this on cardboard to keep track of the color mixes. Except for the D&D cars in this batch, all of them will be a different color. You can see the range of colors achieved in the clear glass bottles.
Each glass bottle gets 3ml of thinner, and 4ml of paint. This is enought to paint one freight car with just a little bit left over. I use disposable plastic fluid transfer pipettes to keep the mixtures exactly as I intended.
These are all of the equipment that I primed today. Only the freight cars will be painted today. The rest is for another time when I do not want to get to a beach resort for the night!
The freight cars then all get a coat of flat black on the underside after the gray primer coat.
Now it is time to paint the main color. My wife came out and snapped this picture and wanted to know why we have not left for the beach yet.
I am not very photogenic.
Here is the completed mass of freight cars. You can see the variety of colors, but all are recognizable as some sort of "boxcar red". I think it is very important to get a lot of color variety in your reddish brown freight cars.
I have seen too many model railroads where every boxcar red freight car was the same color of "boxcar red". The real world just does not work like that.
Since one of the cut colors was MILWAUKEE ROAD orange, this batch is a little more on the orange side than I usually do.
My poor trash can!
If anyone ever wants to know if a painter lives in my house, the inside of the trash can will give it away!
After the paint has dried, the freight cars will rest on a tray like this waiting for the decals to come so they can be finished.
And that is my technique to always have freight cars moving through the production pipeline so that there is always something new to share in Weekend Photo Fun each week.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Kevin, you are a well-organized individual... and it shows. I could use a few lessons in that department. I wonder if your wife says "He has a system for everything"
Quote: Steve Martin My Blue Heaven
A must see! One of TF's picks.
Wow- that is very inpressive.
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
SeeYou190...I am almost out of Floquil Primer Gray. I was criticized on another thread for hoarding stock when a company closes its doors....
Probably by someone who missed out. I bought-up what was available locally, but it's almost gone now. While I started in the hobby, using Floquil, in the mid-'50s, the Grey Primer is the only Floquil paint that I miss. Once I learned how to use Pollyscale in my airbrush, the rest of my Floquil is now just stuff waiting to be used-up.I stocked-up on Pollyscale when Testors decided (erroneously, in my opinion) that their Model Masters brand was better.
SeeYou190....Here is the completed mass of freight cars. You can see the variety of colors, but all are recognizable as some sort of "boxcar red". I think it is very important to get a lot of color variety in your reddish brown freight cars....
I certainly agree with that, Kevin, but since I use full-size Floquil or Pollyscale bottles with my Paasche VL (as the original paint is used-up, I simply clean the bottles and caps and save them for re-use), I mix one version of "boxcar red", then, after painting two or three cars (or 8 or 10 for cars from the same order for the same road) modify the original colour left in the bottle and simply carry on painting.
While I'll take the time to paint just a single item when necessary, I also prefer to paint stuff en masse. The most I've done in one session was the first time I was able to successfully use Pollyscale in my airbrush: four dozen boxcars, all in one version or another of boxcar red or boxcar brown.
You seem to be considerably more organised than me, though, and definitely more photogenic, too...I strongly dislike having my picture taken. The only ones I liked, as an adult, were self-taken, but they don't get shared either.
Wayne
Track fiddler I wonder if your wife says "He has a system for everything"
.
My wife has come to accept all kinds of my strict "systems" throughout the years.
I am lucky to have her.
31 years and counting!
Nice system you have down there. I once painted a fleet of 3 matching color 1/25 flatbed and drop deck trailers using a similar mass production technique, it sure moves the process along.
You are definately right about mixing up the colors a bit on boxcars.
Question; Are those steam engines going to be runners or for static display? Dan
Oh to have that much hobby time. I"m envious.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
SouthgateQuestion; Are those steam engines going to be runners or for static display? Dan
Those are inoperative models I purchased at train shows for just a couple bucks each. They are going to become props for "show me something" pictures.
Since I started posing pictures on my 30 by 30 board, the whole "show me something" thread has become a hobby all in its own for me.
I do much the same. Early Reading covered hoppers were "kits" built by the railroad by adding a roof with loading hatches to USRA 55 ton open hoppers, and replacing the hopper doors with discharge gates. More than 20 years ago there was an article in MR on more or less duplicating this, using the readily avialble Accurail kits. The first one I tried was a mserable failure, the way to make the roof in the article was to score and bend a piece of sheet styrene, and cut out triangle shaped eaves. Then I discovered some wood roof stock from Micro Mark which had the exact dimentsion of the isnide as well as the outside printed in their catalog. Out came my caliper - sure enough, exact fit! So I ordered some, cut a piece to fit and sure enough, works great. So I ordered a bunch of Accurail undec kits and cut out a bunch of pieces of the roof stock. Assembly line process really helped with the wood roof stock, because I used multipel coats fo sanding sealer and finer and finer sandpaper to turn it into more a s mooth metal appearance. While one was drying, I painted the next, by the time I had a coat of sealer ona ll of them, the first one was ready to sand, repeat until they felt like pieces of plastic instead of wood. I also do things like paint the car weights flat black, even on house cars where you will never see them, and I never do one at a time, I do a whole bunhc of kits so they are ready to go. I also painted wheelsets well ahead of time so I have an on-hand stock of painted (and resistor equipped ones for block detection) and when the finished bins start getting low, I run off a new batch from the brand new unpainted bin, always keeping ahead. That way I am never stopped for some of the more tedious work in the midst of a kit assembly.
Only problem is, the dog ate one of the hoppers, so now I have 5 hoppers and 6 roofs. If the teeth marks weren't so obvious I'd finish the chewed one and put it alongside the yard somewhere as a wreck damaged car since that's what it sort of looks like. Oh well, I need a lot more of these anyway, 18 or 24 would probably be a reasonable fleet.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I guess this would count as "mass production"?
IMG_3430 by Edmund, on Flickr
I'm "rusting" the interiors of hopper cars here. When the mood strikes me I do my weathering in a bulk fashion. Most weathering pretty much appears consistent among groups of cars so I try to do two or three dozen at a time.
IMG_3428 by Edmund, on Flickr
In this case I coated the inside with Dullcote then sifted real iron oxide inside and lightly brushed it in with a soft brush. Dumped out the excess and, voilà!
Fun Stuff! Ed
Nice work. I actually have 10 MDC tank cars in the waiting. The last time I did it, I did 5 at a time.
This time I'm going for 10. I have all the extra parts I need, they are just waiting, holding their spot in line.
After an over head crane project is complete, ( I'll have a post on it with lots of pictures), the tank cars are next.
Once they are done, that's get me down to the streamine passenger train I'm doing.
Henry Ford's method works for us, too!
Model on !
Mike.
My You Tube
gmpullmanI guess this would count as "mass production"?
Those are beautiful Ed.
The only thing I do mass production is painting.
Assembly, decals, and weathering are all done one car at a time.
I'm fumbling around and around, and then I come across.... Kevin. The man that has a system for everything Keep doin what you're doin Kevin.... seems to work
Track Fiddler
gmpullman I guess this would count as "mass production"? IMG_3430 by Edmund, on Flickr I'm "rusting" the interiors of hopper cars here. When the mood strikes me I do my weathering in a bulk fashion. Most weathering pretty much appears consistend among groups of cars so I try to do two or three dozen at a time. IMG_3428 by Edmund, on Flickr In this case I coated the inside with Dullcote then sifted real iron oxide inside and lightly brushed it in with a soft brush. Dumped out the excess and, voilà! Fun Stuff! Ed
I'm "rusting" the interiors of hopper cars here. When the mood strikes me I do my weathering in a bulk fashion. Most weathering pretty much appears consistend among groups of cars so I try to do two or three dozen at a time.
Seriously, thanks for the lesson here Ed.
I am always willing to learn and I did.
TF
Track fiddlerThe man that has a system for everything
I really need to comer up with a better system to keep track of the paint and supplies I have on hand. I tend t buy too much of the wrong thing when I am ordering.
This is enviable efficiency and organization. The only reason I do not adopt it for my own modeling is that in my case it would just increase the chances that all of the cars in a project would be botched, as opposed to my current scattershot approach where there is at least hope that one or two will turn out OK.
I am not being falsely modest here. Alas.
I am however (speaking more seriously) a great believer in tackling certain building projects in batches. If you have just tackled a certain "difficult" kit, or one that is new to you, that is the very time to do another one, or to do them all if you have a bunch.
Dave Nelson
Nice write up Kevin thanks for posting. Would not mind reading how you do your decals.
Eric
SeeYou190 Track fiddler The man that has a system for everything . I really need to comer up with a better system to keep track of the paint and supplies I have on hand. I tend t buy too much of the wrong thing when I am ordering. . -Kevin .
Track fiddler The man that has a system for everything
Kevin, I remember you looked extremely organized somewhere in this thread from illustrations I saw. Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one because I do that too.
I have all my styrene bridges done and I'm going to be moving on to scratch building wooden bridges soon.
I have been stocking up on scale model wood supplies for my wooden bridges. I have bought duplicates of scale model wood way more than once every time I'm at the hobby store.
Oh well. Just like construction, better to have more materials on hand than not enough
And,... when I get to the part of the hobby of customizing cars, I will be coming to you for advice
I did the mass produced production years ago, and it worked great but todays RTR ended that when RTR cars became almost as cheap as kits (for me). Now I have too many cars but still can't refuse a new one if cheap enough.