A project finally completed before the end of year. After decaling, I let it sit on my shelves for quite a while. Why? Because I tried to pre-weather the model before applying the decals and messed up a little bit. The model turned out to be far too dark instead of being bleached. Not a big issue, but still a little bit frustrating. I've yet to experiment more with altering the shade of paint before applying decals. I think I'm not bold enough and when the dark washes are applied, it nullifies the bleaching.
Another question was to determine if this car would join my early 1980s fleet or my late 1950s one. The difference would have been the addition of an ACI label and a yellow dot for wheel inspection. I finally decided this car should be weathered for the 1950s.
Finally, I tried my best to weather the car interior... which is quite underwhelming. I've yet to master that too. Weathering open car interior is always a big challenge due to the availability of prototype pictures. I'll probably revisit this gondola some day and add some debris inside it. But for now, it's ready to move along the rails, or more realistically, to go back in its storage box for an undetermined period of time!
From humble beginnings a real masterpiece. Lovely work, subtle and restrained but entirely believable weathering.
ReplyDeleteThanks James... I was really unsure it would turn out right when I was hacking the shell on the tablesaw!
DeleteThat turned out beautifully
ReplyDeleteThank Chris... would look nice forgotten on a non-descript grass covered team track in the middle of nowhere!
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