Niles Project ~ Interior Paint

I notice that a lot of folks don't take the time to paint the interior of their models. But really, it doesn't take that much extra effort to do.

 The interior of the Niles cars are described as being finished in selected mahogany. For that I used a 50/50 mix of Floquil Southern Freight Car Brown and Roof Brown. After letting that dry for a day, I masked off the windows and the open bottom. Don't forget to mask the clerestory windows too!:

If I was to paint the interior last, the the masking would have be on the outside. Which would mean the side of the window posts would also be the mahogany color. Which in some cases may be desirable. It all depends on what the end result requires.

So in the end, it only cost me an extra day and a half to paint and mask the interior. But if you ask me, I'd say its worth it, yes sir! I'd say its worth it!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Primed and Ready

Getting ready for a nice coat of SDERy "Mission Yellow". Whatever color that is!

All right. With the Birney project once again wrapping up, I can now turn my attention back to the Niles cars. Here is where I'm at with that:

The new Sightseeing Car (far right) is awaiting its "De-PEing" while the other three have gotten a nice coat of primer. This time I'm using Floquil paint since I have come across a recipe for SDERy "Mission Yellow" utilizing that brand.

 On combine #105 though, I wanted to try out Floquil F110358 CSX New Image Gold. On paint swatches and in the bottle, it looks really close to being the right color for SDERy Mission Yellow. But on the car it looks very desaturated. And there is no way of saturating paint. You can desaturate paint by adding gray, but you just can't re-saturate a color. For the roof and under body details I'm trying out F110081 Earth. It looks good on the roof, even better when it gets weathered, but for the underbody details I might try Mud instead. The trim is painted in Roof Brown, but that's entirely too dark. I'm going to have to try mixing it with one of the Tuscan colors.

As you can see in this photo, SD&SE #101 has had a hard life. It started out as a passenger car, converted to an interurban, then involved in an accident and so rebuilt into a combine. I want to try to capture this flavor with my model of #105. So I just might leave it the faded color it is and just weather the heck out of it. Yes sir! Just weather the heck out of it!

~Dandy

Worlds Largest Model Tram Show ~ Bremen, Gemany

Small tram - VERY LARGE

Werner Jurkowski, a very fine tram modeler from Berlin, Germany brought this show to my attention. The Kleine Bahn Ganz Gross (Small Tram Very Large) attracts tram modelers from Austria, Belgium,  the Czech

Republic, Germany, Great Britain and Switzerland. The show is held annually and this year it was held in the carhouse for the Bremen-Sebaldsbrück tram lines in Bremen Germany (next to the Mercedes-Benz auto plant!). I wanted to share the following video taken at the show with you. The modeling is fantastic!:

The video starts out with shots of the carhouse and prototype tram equipment, but then it gets into the modules. I just love the model of the carhouse, the smooth running tram models running in the streets with tight overhead and clean streets. A clip of Werner's layout starts around the 7:20 mark.

Traction modeling seems like it might be starting to take off here in the USA. I hope we start seeing shows  like this real soon here. Yes sir! I hope we start seeing shows like that here!

Dandy