In-ko-pah RR: Something new, something old

[Ray Dunakin]

Lately I've been trying to get some projects done that have kind of languished for a while...

First off, I finally finished my the first passenger car for my 1/24th scale outdoor railroad. It's an old Bachmann combine that I repainted in my RR's colors and lettering. The decals were provided by Stan Cedarleaf.

I had started this several years ago, and the thing's just been laying around in pieces for a long time. I added aluminum tape to the roof to simulate the look of sheet metal roofing, then painted the roof dull silver. I also removed the couplers from the trucks and added body mounted couplers, as well as metal wheels.

I had planned to replace most of the plastic details and add some additional details, but decided against it. I'd rather wait until I can build something from scratch, and then go nuts with the details. Anyway, here's how it looks. The paint is actually burgundy, but for some reason it looks very red in the photos:




At the moment, it has no interior lighting because I lost those parts. At some point I'll put in LEDs. I also have a couple coaches that I plan to repaint to match, for a complete passenger train.

Next up was to refurbish some of my oldest structures. The hoist house of the Cliffside Mine needed a little work -- the paint on the door and windows had badly faded, and the door had fallen off. They look much better now:





The ruins of the blacksmith shop, at the abandoned Monolith Mine, was also faded. Here's how it looks after touching up the paint. Someday I want to build a replacement for it using my current modeling techniques:




The biggest job was refurbishing the water tower near the town of Dos Manos. The supports were made from real wood (western red cedar), and most of the paint had peeled off. The wood on top of the platform was heavily weathered and worn. The tank also needed repainting. Most of all, the original spout needed to be replaced -- not only was it beginning to fall apart, I was never happy with it to begin with. Now I have the skills to make a better one.

In this photo you can see the old spout, with the new spout below it. The old spout was made from cardboard tubes coated with fiberglass resin, and spray painted silver. The mounting brackets were crudely made from brass rod. The new spout is entirely made of brass:





The prototype for my model is an old San Diego & Arizona RR water tower located at Dos Cabesas, in the Anza-Borrego desert. The prototype has an unusual, hinge-like hardware. Without any good photos of the tower when its spout was still intact, it's difficult to determine exactly how the spout was attached, and how it operated. My original spout worked but did not seem very practical or realistic. When I built the new brass spout, I tried the configuration shown in the next photo:






That didn't really look right, and didn't work very well either. So here's the configuration I settled on:






Here's how the finished tower looks, with new paint and new spout:













The foundation has small brass pins sticking up, which fit into holes in the ends of the support timbers, to hold it in place.

[Doneldon]

Ray-

Your models look very good to me. Keep in mind that even operating mines, especially
those in a severe desert environment, tend to be extremely weathered. I would expect
to find disappearing paint and even doors off of their hinges.
                                                                                         -- D

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks! I guess I should have been more clear -- the photo of the hoist house shows the door and window frame AFTER they were repainted.

I didn't have a "before" photo to show how badly it was faded. Suffice to say, real-life weathering is the enemy of "scale weathering". The new paint, including scale weathering, is now protected by Krylon UV resistant clear coat, a wonderful product which I was not aware of when I built my early models.

[Desertdweller]

This really looks good!  Reminds me of someplace I saw in a Clint Eastwood movie.

Les

[jonathan]

Wonderful as always!  I bow in your general direction.  Thanks for letting us look.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Ray Dunakin]

Here are some pics of my latest progress...

First up, I recently finished converting my Bachmann 4-6-0 to battery power, and also installed an Aristocraft "Revolution" receiver in it. While I was at it, I also made a few small cosmetic changes -- I painted the cab roof silver, to better match the rest of my rolling stock. I also painted the cylinder ends black, and I added some subtle weathering. The heaviest weathering is on the stack and smokebox:







I also finished repainting and lettering a Bachmann coach, the second car of my passenger train. I have a third coach in the works, and a fourth planned:








Enjoy!

[Doneldon]

Ray-

That's some truly impressive work. Congratulations. Also, your photos with the natural light are terrific!
                                                                                                                                               -- D