I really enjoyed the comments. It does take a steady hand and so far my Parkinson's hasn't set in yet so I am trying to get as much done as I can. I actually enjoy hand painting, for me there is a certain satisfaction when I can stand back and watch the engines ride the rails.
Even all of my buildings are hand painted.
I pick and choose my colors based on what I like, I know many use prototypes for their color schemes like Tony Koester and his work looks great. Dr. Wayne always seems to present beautifully painted models which I greatly admire. And so many of you do the same.
As far as sharing my pictures I would love too, it's just learning how to do it. I can do it on the forums but when I step into other venues, even on the MR web-site, for some reason it gets more complicated, but I am trying to learn.
Much of what I do is by trial and error, but that is the beauty of our hobby, finding new ways to do something and trying to make it look good.
The other day I just typed in model railroad layouts and pictures and low and behold there were pictures of my layout, Newberry-Columbia Line, and I didn't even put them there but somebody did. That was nice.
Thanks,
Robert Sylvester
Newberry-Columbia Line, SC
Wayne, your brush painting skills are truly amazing!
When I try to use a brush for fine details my hand shakes enough to make it look like I am using a pig bristle brush with the pig still attached!
That's only a slight exaggeration.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Nicely-done, Robert.
dknelson...when you look at "Trackside Photos" from older issues of Model Railroader (and when I say older I mean 1948 to 1958) very few modelers used airbrushes and yet nearly everybody needed to do their own painting and lettering. Some of the brush painting back then was about as obvious as you'd imagine, but there were real artists with the brush and some of the best did work as smooth and even as you did on this diesel. It can be done....
You're absolutely right Dave. When I started in HO in the mid-'50s, if I wanted something painted, it was done with Floquil and a brush.In February of 1980, a photo of a brush-painted locomotive, which I had submitted to MR, appeared in their Paint Shop column.It involved a couple of Athearn geeps painted and lettered for a real railroad for which no one, at that time, had either the proper paint colors or lettering.I used the, at that time, new Polly S acrylic paints (not the later Pollyscale version, which I sorely miss).I had mixed the colours to match those on a photo I had taken of the prototypes, and when a swipe of the colours was applied directly to the photo, it could be detected only by tilting the photo so that the lighting showed the matte paint in contrast to the slightly gloss photo.
The main reason for submitting the article was to demonstrate how to letter locomotives with lettering of any colour, using dry transfers as temporary masking devices.
Here's some of the real ones...
...and here's the models...
Except for the numberboards and striping on the pilots, along with the herald on the cab, all lettering and striping was done with dry transfers.The process required painting the areas with the maroon/brown (it varied in colour with age and weather conditions) lettering to be painted in that colour, and the areas with the cream lettering and striping painted with the custom-mixed cream colour. Because of the paint type, this required two or three coats - fortunately, the Polly S paint dried quickly, so painting could be done virtually non-stop - keep in mind, all brush-painted.
Once the colours were sufficiently opaque, the models were set aside to allow the paint to fully cure. I then applied the lettering and striping using dry transfer sets from C-D-S. At that time, the lettering was alphabet sets, so one letter or numeral at a time. Normally, dry transfers are burnished in place by putting the paper, which comes with the sets to protect the lettering, over the applied lettering and rubbing vigourously with a smooth object, such as a not-to-sharp pencil. However, since I wanted the lettering to be removeable, I skipped that step.The models were then painted again, usually several coats, especially of the cream over the maroon, until the correct colours were in their proper registration. As soon as the paint had dried to the touch, I used small bits of masking tape to daub at the lettering, lifting off the dry transfers and revealing the contrasting colours of the lettering. (This technique, as far as I know, was first touted by Art Curren, as a good method for making multi-coloured signs.)
The numberboards and the striping on the pilots was done using readily available decals, while the cab heralds were done using a brush.I did at least two dozen more of these for a local hobby shop, before the owner convinced me to buy an airbrush.While airbrushing needed fewer coats (I used Floquil, again custom mixed), it also necessitated masking, which wasn't required when doing that work with a brush, so while there was a time saving in painting, much of it was negated by the need for accurate masking.
In total, I did over six dozen TH&B diesels (GP7s, GP9s, and switchers), some in N scale and some in brass, too.Eventually, C-D-S came out with complete dry transfer lettering sets for these diesels, in the proper colours, and Polly Scale offered the paint, too. Not too long after that, LifeLike released very nicely-done Proto-2000 versions of the TH&B locos (as did Atlas, I think), and I was glad to finally be done with that particular painting.
Wayne
Nicely done - when you look at "Trackside Photos" from older issues of Model Railroader (and when I say older I mean 1948 to 1958) very few modelers used airbrushes and yet nearly everybody needed to do their own painting and lettering. Some of the brush painting back then was about as obvious as you'd imagine, but there were real artists with the brush and some of the best did work as smooth and even as you did on this diesel. It can be done.
In an era when most modelers had their own name for their model railroad and very few were in a position to have custom made decals, a fair number of the models back then, and even more so back into the 1930s, were hand lettered. Again most of it was obviously done by hand even when neatly done, but there were a few amazing modelers who could hand letter in railroad gothic and railroad roman and other common fonts, virtually as nicely as decal lettering. Al Kalmbach had one of those artists (memory says it was a US Army officer) do a passenger car of his, and MR in the 1960s once reproduced just the lettering as it appeared on the car. It was astounding.
Dave Nelson
RR_MelVery nice Robert. You need to drop by WPF with your pictures.
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I agree with Mel 100%. It all looks very nice, and I would also love to see some of your shares in Weekend Photo Fun and Show Me Something, that is if you feel like joining us.
robert sylvesterWe are watching Dorian, it may be heading our way.
Best of luck. I am out of the cone right now, but I was also out of the cone in 1992 for Andrew. It was supposed to turn North like they are predicting for Dorian, but it never did, and went straight across South Florida.
We are staying on alert. Best of luck.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
The paint laid out very nicely, Robert. Well done!
Russ
Modeling the early '50s Erie in Paterson, NJ. Here's the link to my railroad postcard collection: https://railroadpostcards.blogspot.com/
robert sylvesterThis is just one of the factors I love about this hobby, I can live in my small world and share it with others.
Thank you! Nice to see the photos
I hope everything works out OK for you.
Cheers, Ed
A while back I purchased a beautiful undecorated F unit from my favorite hobby shop in Columbia, SC. It is a Walthers Proto 2000 F unit with all sorts of detail attachments. I pain stakingly attached as many of the details that I could.
Since my railroad mainly runs in the south I decided to paint it in a Southern livery of my own design. I don't airbrush, to complicated, so I hand pain my engines as well as everything else on the railroad. It's just my choice.
This is the manuel that came with the unit. The engine has a Quantum sound decoder that works well. Taking my time I carefully applied the paint using an acrylic Southern Green.
The top was done in an off white.
As you may notice it has a very bright headlight that really looks good.
After letting the paint throughly dry I then applied brand new decals, again letting them dry as well before putting it on the layout.
I left the diaphram in its natural color so the paint wouldn't interfere with the operation of the diaphgram.
Here she is running through one of my small towns; I think for hand painting it looks pretty good.
I am also the town doctor and my new office just received power.
That's me right behind the telephone pole and I am even carrying my black bag.
I live right across the street in the Carolina Towers, it is convenient not only for work but if I want to travel all I have to do is cross the street and catch a train.
This is just one of the factors I love about this hobby, I can live in my small world and share it with others.
We are watching Dorian, it may be heading our way.