Perry Lumber Co. #265 (Climax Kitbash)

[Kevin Strong]

From this:



to this:



New cab, straight boiler, and slight modifications to the fuel bunker backdating the loco to a c. 1901 25-ton Climax. QSI "Titan" plug-and-play sound/motor decoder installed. Runs like a champ!

Details of the conversion can be found on my blog:

http://tuscarorarailroad.blogspot.com

Later,

K

[Wade Colyer]

Very nice, Kevin. It would look good working either side of Conogocheaque mountain.

Wade

[Skarloey Railway]

Inspiring work like this really deserves better than a single reply when a question on "minimum radius" usually gets at least three 

Not only does Kevin produce great work but his blog nicely demystifies the process and should act as inspiration. 
Colin.

[Loco Bill Canelos]

We are indeed fortunate to have Kevin in our group. He is always an inspiration. 

[bob kaplan]

runs as nice as it looks.....very nice.

[charon]

Kevin,
Great job and excellent info on your website.  One thing I'd like to know, what is the "color" and how did you paint it?
Thanks,
Chuck

[Kevin Strong]

Chuck, the color is basic black. That's what the prototype used, so that's what I use. In this case, I only painted what I had to; the boiler, cab, and fuel bunker. Since I didn't do much of anything to the original frame/cylinder assembly, there was no reason to repaint it.

I've found Badger's ModelFlex "Gloss Black" to be pretty close to the stock Bachmann black finish, if a touch on the glossier side of the equation. I could probably tone this down by mixing in a little bit of their flat finish, but by the time I get done with the weathering, it's not noticeable. The nice thing about the Badger paint is that it brushes on very easily and lays down very evenly once you brush it. (Over time, the paint in the bottle will thicken slightly, so you must periodically add a few drops of water to maintain the consistency.)

For surfaces like the smokebox and firebox, I use flat black acrylic paint. (Badger's "flat black" is unfortunately more of a dark grey, and isn't terribly flat.) Usually I'll use a garden variety craft acrylic paint (Folk-Art, etc.) I do usually thin this a bit with water so it lays down without brush strokes. This flat black isn't absolutely black, but it's about 98%, which is fine because the weathering will lighten it up a touch anyway. An artist friend of mine recently turned me onto a guache flat black that is 100% black--really strong pigments and about as dark a flat black as I have ever seen. I still don't use it for smokeboxes and the like, but I do use it for modeling soot deposits and the like.



This is an example of what the loco looks like prior to weathering--a mixture of gloss and flat blacks. Weathering is done with washes of dilute acrylic paints. I mix black and browns and tans in a variety of tones and brush them over the model.







It's hard to see in these photos, but the tones being brushed onto the smokebox are a little more brown/rusty than the grimy black that I'm brushing on the saddle tank. There's no science to this. I brush it on, and if it's too thick, I add water. Too thin, and I add some more paint. I'll also keep a paper towel handy to wipe the wash off of surfaces that I want to be "cleaner" than others. The result is a difference in finishes; you get a nice mixture of glossy paint where it would be a bit more polished, and grime gathered in the corners and niches.



The nice thing is that outdoors, the gloss black does what it does on the prototype; pick up and reflect some of the colors around it, which makes it look like it's not black depending on what's around it. For instance, the cylinders here are reflecting the blue sky, so they look lighter than they really are.



Powders are used in conjunction with acrylic washes to give a dust-like coating to the locomotive. I typically use black powders along the top of the boiler to simulate soot and the like, while the trucks get a dustier-colored coating.



While this image is primarily showing where I hid the power switch and charging jack, it also shows the coal dust I use to simulate cinders. I sprinkle this on while the paint is still wet, and it sticks very nicely to the model as the paint dries.

Later,

K                                                     

[charon]

Kevin,
Thank you very much for the complete and informative response regarding the finishing of your locomotives.  This will be very helpful on mine and others projects.
Take care.
Chuck