GP40's and a GP7R

Someday I'll get back to the scenery, just not sure when? But for now the juices are flowing.  After getting the U25B & U28B refurbished, the gears started turning again.

Next up: Two GP40's and a GP7R.

All three will be in the Red and Yellow scheme.

The GP40's will have two different numbers from different orders.

One will be in the high 300 series that got repainted, the other will be in the low 4700 series that were delivered in Red and Yellow.

The GP7 will be a rebuilt GP7R in the 1200 series which was rebuilt and painted by Morris-Knudson during the CRP (Capital Rebuilding Program). Unfortunately some didn't stay in Red and Yellow very long as the Rock Island officials decided shortly afterwards that they were going to start painting their locos in the Blue and White. 

So some of the Red and Yellow GP7R's were repainted as soon as they were delivered back to the Rock Island and were renumbered into the 4400 and 4500 series, but some did retained their original numbers and the Red and Yellow paint until the end.

The images are not mine, I use them for reference only.

Refurbished U25B and U28B

I decided to work on a couple of locos again before working on the layout.

I did up these two U25B's back around 1995, a few years before I switched over to DCC.  These units have been in storage since then.  I recently was deciding how many U25B's I wanted for my fleet and which paint schemes I wanted to portray them in when I remember I had these two.

They're both U25B's but the 253 is actually numbered for an early version U28B, which were for all  practical purposes U25B's except they had 2800 hp.  The late U28B had the cab moved forward which gave the traditional stubby nose look of the later GE units.

Overall these looked pretty good as far as the paint and weathering went, but the only thing I had to do was to repaint the handrails as most of the paint had flaked off since they were made from Delrin and I didn't know about using a plastic adhesion promoter.  

I redid the number boards with Shell Scale decals and also swapped out the older DC chassis for a newer DCC chassis then added an LED headlight.

Not sure how many more U25b's & U28b's I'll paint up but there are at least 6 more schemes I'd like to add, but that's for another time.

Rock Island airslide hopper

Once again, going off on another direction, I'm taking a bit of a break and trying to wrap up another smaller project that I found buried on my workbench after cleaning up from the barn build.  

Delaware Valley released some of these blue Rock airslides in N scale a long time ago, but when BLMA released theirs, the difference in fidelity was night and day difference.  Then when Atlas bought BMLA out, I've been waiting for them to release some in Rock Island, which they have, a stacked block lettering.  Recently I did several up in the 70's speed lettering, but I still wanted a blue car.  

Joe at MTL said they were still planning more of their versions of airslides and would put a request in for a blue version when I asked him recently.  Nothing against Joe or Atlas, but I have waited long enough and with a bit of time to kill due to a snow storm that rolled through here, I have a couple of days off to make something happen.

I started out with a couple of Cotton Belt cars.  I removed the lettering with a toothpick and some 70% alcohol, cleaned them up and dismantled the trucks and couplers.  

I first shot a primer coat using TCP light primer. 

Followed by a coat of  TCP-166 Rock Island Blue.  Once it had dried I gave it a shot of thinned Dullcote so that I can start applying the decals. 

Even though I'm not looking forward to applying all those DATA decals, it should be a fairly easy project.  Easy yes, time consuming, OMG....54 decals per car!

But they're done!

Now Atlas or MTL will release their version...

   

Wrapping up the barn

I got the last of the corrugated sheets installed on the roof I then set about to weather it.

I painted the roof  with a coat of Vallejo Neutral Gray and let it dry overnight, after which I sealed it with a heavy layer of Dullcote to seal it and give the surface some tooth.  Then applied a layer of P3 Armor Wash and let it dry overnight.  The Armor Wash is kind of similar to a black wash, which can be left on if desired.

In my case I used a "Q" tip, damp with alcohol and wiped of the biggest share of the Armor Wash so that it just highlighted the grooves (yeah the lighting sucks and doesn't show the difference very well).  When this was done, I sealed it with another coat of diluted Dullcote to seal the Armor Wash in place.

Now came the fun part; the rust.

This time I decided to try another approach to apply it rather than to lather on oil paints and then wiping them off for a finish.  I started with the craft acrylic paint: Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and Deep Yellow Ochre.

I started off making a wash from the Deep Yellow Ochre and added a tinge of Burnt Sienna and applied this over the entire roof and wiped off the excess with a "Q" tip.  When dry I used a Deer Foot brush to stipple on straight Burnt Sienna in patches.  After that was dry I applied the Burnt Umber in the same manner.  With each color I used less and less to build up layers, applying them to the bottoms and corners of the metal panels.

Once this was done, I came back with some pan pastels and dusted some of the panels for a slight variation in color.  I also applied some Pans to the rest of the outer face of the barn to give it that weather worn look like I did before.

After this was all done, I applied another diluted coat of Dullcote to lock everything in place and used an Exacto to slightly bend up some of the corners.

So far, so good.

Lying in bed I got the idea to try something different.  While it's an old barn and old house, something just seemed to be missing?  These would look great in a dry western scene, but since these be will located in Louisiana, which can get humid and damp, I'm thinking it should have some moss growing on it?  Not much, just a trace.

So grabbed more craft paint and started adding a bit to the house first.  I started out stippling on tiny bit of black to block the area, then I grabbed some dark green and mixed a bit of black to darken it a bit more as I didn't want it to stand out as green as a lawn.  Once this was done, it looked a little to flat, so I used the deep yellow ochre, added a bit or green and lightly stippled it around the patches, just enough to see small dots.  

I liked that, so on to the barn...

With this project to a stopping point, I can now start laying out the positions of the buildings for the abandoned farm scene and know where I can start carving the floral foam to its final shape.

 

   

 

The Barn's roof

One thing I wanted to do to this barn was give it corrugated metal roof.  

I found some online from a company that showed some, but was unsure of the actual size as they just said it for "HO & N".  So I took a chance and I got lucky.  Looks close enough for me.

I glued roof to the barn with the roof supplied by Showcase Miniatures so I had a good solid base to work on and to help keep the kit structurally sound.

I started by cutting the material into roughly 3' x 10' strips.  It's pretty heavy foil and it doesn't seem to flatter out like typical foil would.

So I got started, piece by piece....

Once I get it all glued on, painted and weathered, I'll come back and beat it up a bit and bend up some of the edges for an aged, wind blown looked.

Barn weathering

As always, I get ideas as I'm doing something and decide to strike out and see what I can do with the idea before the project is finished.

After getting the outer facade applied the structure, I got to thinking about how best to weather it?  I thought about washes but with cardstock I wasn't sure it would be a good idea to apply something wet on it.  So I dug out my trusty Pan Pastels and started playing around with some on the scrap portions of the kit.

After getting an unseen area coated, I decided to go for broke and try the facade.

Here's the raw facade.

Here it is after applying some Pan Pastels.

Here are the four colors I used:  

Orange Extra Dark    Neutral Gray

Raw Umber               Raw Umber Shade

I sparingly applied the Neutral Gray in a random pattern.  Then applied the Raw Umber in the same way but a bit more heavier and blended the two together.  I used the Orange Extra Dark along the roof overhang to highlight where the sun didn't beat down on it.  The Raw Umber Shade being a bit darker was used along the bottom to show dirt splatter.

I'm kind of thinking about dry brushing or using a sponge to add some remnants of white paint?  

I'm also kind of wondering if I should use a darker gray since the area I'm modeling is not in a dry, arid climate?  The darker gray may give it a damper look with a bit more moss?

 

The barn

After a few months of a modeling pause, I tried to get started back on the barn (a kit by Showcase Miniatures) for the farm scene by Winnfield.  

I had ordered some Roket Glue by Deluxe that's supposed to be designed for Cardstock models.  This stuff is advertised to work on paper/cardstock kits and have a pretty quick bond?  We'll see...

Anyway, I got the first four walls up.

The Farmhouse weathering Pt2

Found a little time to work on the farmhouse a bit more tonight.  I got the chipping done on the walls and shingles, touched up the holes in the roof and added some dirt to it.

While I still have some more details to add, I'm sticking a fork in the house for now, this way I can move onto the barn and get it a solid footprint.  This will allow me to start terraforming the foam where the farm will be.