Now that I have a trains worth of pulpwood flats, I find some of the plastic loads are painted gray like this:
And some of the plastic pulpwood loads are a light tan like this:
And this car has a real wood load made from twigs off backyard trees. It clearly has the best color. I'm looking for a paint color that is closest to the real thing. Any one know which of our surviving paint vendors might have a paint that looks like the real wood? May be I will just print out the real wood load on my inkjet and take it down to Wally Mart and look thru their acylic craft paints for the best match.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Please let me know how you do it.
.
I have four Chooch pulpwood loads that I cannot get to look anything close to real.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Without wishing to be critical of the OP, personally I'm not too fond of the molded pulp loads. Regardless of colour they still look like plastic moldings IMHO.
The club has several bulkhead flat cars that need loads. I am going to try to make loads using 1/8" and 3/16" wood dowels. I plan on painting the dowels various shades of gray and brown, as well as some white over brown (birch and aspen) with other suitable colours applied in a few places. I'm hoping that if I paint the dowels before cutting them the centers will retain the natural wood colour and the paint will look like bark on the outside edge.
Has anyone done anything like this?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
It depends on which stage of the cycle of transporting pulpwood you model.
Freshly cut pulpwood should look like, well, freshly cut wood and the wood sticks from the yard capture that reasonably well. As pulpwood is shipped to central storage areas and is stored in big piles before use, that fresh cut look is fine. Once stored it can sit for a long time and it takes on something of the gray of driftwood but it is not a painted gray color which is the problem with the first photo. Nor does it tend to look like the yellow measles which is the problem with the other photo.
I would take the real sticks and spray the ends with a mix of isopropyl alcohol and a small amount of india ink to get a darkened (but not blackened) appearance, assuming you are shipping pulpwood from storage pile to final customer.
Dave Nelson
hon30critterI am going to try to make loads using 1/8" and 3/16" wood dowels.
A little fun with a calculator give 3/16 dowels being about 16 scale HO inches, and 1/8 about 11 inches, A resonable size for pulpwood, but I suggest no larger.
In the Great Lakes region, pulpwood is about 10" to 16" diameter and 8 feet long.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
davidmurrayA little fun with a calculator give 3/16 dowels being about 16 scale HO inches, and 1/8 about 11 inches, A resonable size for pulpwood, but I suggest no larger.
Hi Dave and Michael,
Thanks for doing the math. I tend to just go with what looks right so I was guessing about the sizes. In truth, there aren't many other choices of dowel sizes in that range so I'm glad that what I chose will work.
dknelsonI would take the real sticks and spray the ends with a mix of isopropyl alcohol and a small amount of india ink to get a darkened (but not blackened) appearance, assuming you are shipping pulpwood from storage pile to final customer.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your suggestion about applying a gray wash to the ends of the logs where they are in storage. We are going to make a couple of large piles of stored logs for the Hearst scene so obviously they wouldn't all be fresh cut.
Great advice everyone!
Apologies to David Starr the OP. I seem to have stolen the thread.
Model Master Sand would be a good starting place for modeling freshly cut wood
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
hon30critter Without wishing to be critical of the OP, personally I'm not too fond of the molded pulp loads. Regardless of colour they still look like plastic moldings IMHO. The club has several bulkhead flat cars that need loads. I am going to try to make loads using 1/8" and 3/16" wood dowels. I plan on painting the dowels various shades of gray and brown, as well as some white over brown (birch and aspen) with other suitable colours applied in a few places. I'm hoping that if I paint the dowels before cutting them the centers will retain the natural wood colour and the paint will look like bark on the outside edge. Has anyone done anything like this? Dave
Rather than painting dowels, I would actually collect and cut real twigs. Most realistic, and as a bonus, free!
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
cv_acrRather than painting dowels, I would actually collect and cut real twigs. Most realistic, and as a bonus, free!
Chris is right, Dave, and I've got an acre and a half with lots of trees and bushes - some help tidying-up the sticks would be much appreciated, and you can have them for free!
Wayne
doctorwayneChris is right, Dave, and I've got an acre and a half with lots of trees and bushes - some help tidying-up the sticks would be much appreciated, and you can have them for free! Wayne
Thanks for the offer! My back won't let me do my own yard work anymore so I'm sure as heck not about to help you with yours!!!
Seriously, I agree and I disagree with the idea of using real twigs for pulp loads. I have never seen a pulp load made from real twigs that looks totally realistic. If I can use the OP's own example, there are too many larger than realistic sized logs in the load. I'm sure that if we were to take Wayne's entire 1 1/2 acres and harvest it very carefully we could get enough straight twigs that are between a scale 10" and 16" to fill our bulkhead flats and form a couple of decent sized piles, but unfortunately there seems to be a universal trend amongst the natural twig load makers to use twigs that just aren't realistic in size. Sorry, but I am entitled to my opinion. No offense intended to the users of natural twigs.
I'm hoping that by painting the 1/8" and 3/16" dowels properly I can get well defined, accurately sized and coloured realistic loads. We shall see.
Please don't expect any results soon. My back is so painfull that I have to spend most of my days lying down. I can sit for three or four hours at most. I have a ton of projects on my workbench but I haven't been able to spend time on most of them. Recently I have used my reduced working time to build the control panels for the club layout and to upgrade numerous turnouts with point rail jumpers and live frog feeds. I also spend a lot of time doing club related business on the computer. All of the various tasks cause severe cramps in my back, as is happening right now as I type. I'm likely due for surgery some time in the new year. I promise I will eventually get around to all of these projects.
Sorry for the whining and the excuses, and sorry for hyjacking the thread again.
dstarr Now that I have a trains worth of pulpwood flats, I find some of the plastic loads are painted gray like this: And some of the plastic pulpwood loads are a light tan like this: And this car has a real wood load made from twigs off backyard trees. It clearly has the best color. I'm looking for a paint color that is closest to the real thing. Any one know which of our surviving paint vendors might have a paint that looks like the real wood? May be I will just print out the real wood load on my inkjet and take it down to Wally Mart and look thru their acylic craft paints for the best match.
The problem I see with the paint match idea is that the ends are not really a solid color. So you are not going to be able to match the ends without doing some additional detailing. In addition, the plastic loads have different color ends so any paint you find that matches the real wood will appear different on the plastic items because the base colors are different.
What I would do is paint the ends of one of the plastic loads a neutral color. Then take the plastic load and the real load to a place like Home Depot (when they aren't busy) and ask them if they can match a color to the primary color of the real wood. They have some sort of magic machine that they use to do this.
Then you need to purchase a sample jar of that color. It will probably cost $4-$5. After they mix the paint, you can have them put a dab on the ends of one of the plastic logs. Then you'll be able to see how close they got. At that point they can make some small adjustments to your sample if required.
The individual at my local HD was very happy to experiment with this process when I tried a similar project.
Now, on the other hand, if you are like some of the others here and want to go to the craft store because paint there is only $1, then I wish you luck.
Regards
Been there, done that, not much fun. And the process of cutting, gluing, and stacking is very labor intensive.
doctorwayneI've got an acre and a half with lots of trees and bushes - some help tidying-up the sticks would be much appreciated, and you can have them for free! Wayne
I do suggest reading Chapter 2 of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer before taking Dr. Wayne up on his generous offer.
maxman cv_acr Rather than painting dowels, I would actually collect and cut real twigs. Most realistic, and as a bonus, free! Been there, done that, not much fun. And the process of cutting, gluing, and stacking is very labor intensive.
cv_acr Rather than painting dowels, I would actually collect and cut real twigs. Most realistic, and as a bonus, free!
Not going to be much different from the idea of using dowels in that regard, which is what I was responding to.
So the alternative to that is the painted plastic load.
cv_acr maxman cv_acr Rather than painting dowels, I would actually collect and cut real twigs. Most realistic, and as a bonus, free! Been there, done that, not much fun. And the process of cutting, gluing, and stacking is very labor intensive. Not going to be much different from the idea of using dowels in that regard, which is what I was responding to. So the alternative to that is the painted plastic load.
maxman
cv_acr Rather than painting dowels, I would actually collect and cut real twigs. Most realistic, and as a bonus, free! Been there, done that, not much fun. And the process of cutting, gluing, and stacking is very labor intensive.
And I was responding to the collection of real twigs, not the dowels
okay, I give up.
Trying to get two photos of a scratch pulpwood load from Imgur to here, but not smart enough to make it happen. and yes, I did read the instructional post.
Have to do it the hard way.
https://imgur.com/F4xWbF9
https://imgur.com/P1hPL2G
Your links work fine, but here they are as pictures...
...and that load looks pretty darn good to me! I would suggest, though, that the car's ends be put back in place, as there's no way that those logs would restrain the load without that additional support.
How did you get the pictures to show up? I tried for over 2 hours and couldnt figure out how to do it.
Regarding the car ends, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the lack of grabs and stirups at the ends. Actually that car was just something handy to display the load.
Generally, loggers try to load as much as possible into one car, so the pulpwood should be loaded up to the full height of the verticals.
Bayfield Transfer Railway Generally, loggers try to load as much as possible into one car, so the pulpwood should be loaded up to the full height of the verticals.
I agree. However, in this case the wood came from a forest in proximity to a nuclear power plant where the trees were watered with the condensation from a cooling tower. Since this was HEAVY water, the wood is twice as dense as normal so the car can only be loaded half as much.
(If it would make you happier I can have the loggers come back and shorten the verticals [smiley goes here])
maxmanHow did you get the pictures to show up?...
Probably just dumb luck, but I clicked on each of your links, "copied" each of the photos which appeared, then "pasted" them into my post.
I'm not at all aware of how Imgur works regarding photos, as I'm still using photobucket, but I thought it was worth a try, and was rather surprised to get results.
maxman...Regarding the car ends, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the lack of grabs and stirups at the ends....
I did notice the lack of steps and grabirons, but figured that that part of it was a work in progress.
This is best I have been able to do with a Chooch load casting.
Really hoping for some awesome advice to improve it.
maxmanHow did you get the pictures to show up? I tried for over 2 hours and couldnt figure out how to do it.
There is a screen with all your images. Click on the one you want.
Click on BBCode to the right. Just copy that (don't use and icons in the posting window) and paste it in your reply
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddy maxman How did you get the pictures to show up? I tried for over 2 hours and couldnt figure out how to do it. There is a screen with all your images. Click on the one you want. Click on BBCode to the right. Just copy that (don't use and icons in the posting window) and paste it in your reply
maxman How did you get the pictures to show up? I tried for over 2 hours and couldnt figure out how to do it.
Thanks!!!!!!!!
I'll give that a try.
Regards!!
Real pulp wood
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
DSchmittReal pulp wood
I don't believe it. Looks like Pulp Fiction to me.
BTW back when pulpwood was loaded by hand, the logs would normally only be 4' long. When mechanical loading devices came along, 8' became standard. Generally one man could pick up a 4' log by himself, but 8' would be too heavy.