Recolorizing a Berkshire Valley Models Buggy Photo

Build a Berkshire Valley Buggy.  Take Photo of Buggy.  Decolorize Photo of Buggy.  Have AI Recolorize Photo of Buggy.

Artificial Intelligence is getting kind of smart.  I came across a site for colorizing old black and white photographs and I wondered how well it would colorize "old" photos of my layout:

Recolorized. I just finished building this Berkshire Valley Models Buggy in HO scale so I thought it would make a good subject for trying out AI colorizing.

Original Photo. This is the photo I took on the layout. It's interesting to compare it with the AI photo (top). Since I gave the ai a black & white photo (below) it had to guess the colors. It nailed the horse color. It assumed the street was concrete and colored it grey. I kind of like what it did with the brick color. It guessed the mans jacket was red rather than green. And really didn't do much with the yellows.

The black & white photo the ai had to work with. I took the original photo into Photoshop and took out the color and then uploaded the result to the MyHeritage site. And just like the old timey photo tinting studios from back in that day, it had to make educated guesses with the colors.

 

Interesting results. And I can assume this technology will only get better as time goes on.

Yes sir! The technology will only get better!

Dandy

My Old San Diego Trolley Layout - Part 2

 Happy Fools Day Everyone! Let Us Celebrate this Day With Some More Legerdemain!

This is Part Faux of one of the most popular posts ever on this blog:  My Old San Diego Trolley Layout Part One.

So here are some more pictures of my old, too good to be true layout when I lived on Neverwas Street years ago:

4. Pulling in to the Transit Center.  Boy I went through a lot of red paint! Sorry about the crooked photo, its a little tilt shifted. Okay- its a lot tilt shifted!

The "layout" at a glance. Basically a double cross uh- double track loop with some sidings and a small yard with a car house. The numbered arrows correspond with the location of these photographs - more or less.

5. Yards and Car House. A lot of these models are 3d prints from Volkmar Meiers Shapeways shop. Isn't that right Volkmar?

6. Rounding Seaport Village station curve. Why I didn't just paint Seaport Village instead of this parking garage I'll never know. I'm a stickler for realism I guess! I don't know why I painted it right on the wall either!

7. Crossing Broadway past the Power House. Left turn at the bathroom and closet. And beyond credibility.

8. And as the last car zips along private right-of-way and disappears around the bend, we are reminded of this quote by Christian Nestell Bovee:

"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities".

Happy April Fools Day everyone!

Yes Sir! Happy Fools!

Mirror Test

Taking photos under the overhead wires by using a mirror.

     Cameras are too big to be able to take photos from a scale persons height. So I had the idea of placing a mirror on the layout at a 45 degree angle and aiming the camera down at the mirror that I wanted to try out:

You can actually make out the bottom edge of the mirror in this photo. And since the photo was taken in a mirror, I had to flip it in a photo editing app.

    It kinda worked! I was able to get a very low POV. Not bad for a quick and dirty test. The photo is a little 'foggy', I suspect that's due to my little mirror being rather old. There is also some ghosting effects going on that is quite prominent on the forward pole of the trolley. This is due to my little mirror being a 'regular' (second surface) mirror.

The mirror set up.

    For this photo of my mirror set up, my camera was sitting on the layout. This is the lowest I can get my lens to the ground and still we are about at the roof level of the trolley looking downward. So this mirror technique seems to be viable.

    I'm encouraged by these results. So I'll order a new 'first surface' mirror that should be more clear and eliminate ghosting, and continue to experiment.

Yes sir! Continue to experiment!

Dandy

My Old San Diego Trolley Layout

You might think I'm trying to fool you but, believe it or not, before your ol' pal Dan D Sparks was modeling the old San Diego Electric, I used to have a layout featuring the "new" San Diego Trolley!

I came across some old photos of the old layout, so I thought I would share them with you. So here is the nickle tour:

The layout was built in a 12x12 foot bedroom in my apartment. Originally the layout started as a 2'x4' module that grew to take over my entire bedroom!

1. This is the scene that greeted you when you walked through the door. I absolutely fell in love with MTS Imports models of the Siemens/DuWag SD-100 LRVs when I saw one in my local hobby shop. So I saved up my nickles and dimes and purchased it. Which was no small feat at $300 a copy (that was a lot of money in the late 80s)! Eventually I was only able to collect 3 of the models.
2. Transit Center and Clock Tower built from Plastruct parts. The background was painted directly on the wall. Something I regretted when it was time to move out.

3. Visitors really loved peeking inside the American Plaza Station, it made for a nice scene.
After the layout was dismantled, I traded in the LRV models for some San Diego 4oo series class 5 trolleys from Pacific Traction. And that's how I got started modeling the old SDERy. MTS imports is apparently importing some more of the LRV Trolley models. I wonder how much they will cost this time around!

I have some more pictures of the layout somewhere. Maybe I'll post some more pix at the beginning of next April also. Yes sir! The beginning of next April also!

Dandy

Click here for Part II !

Niles Project ~ Decals for #107

As typical of railroad companies in the early 20th century, the San Diego & South Eastern Railway lettering and striping scheme became more simplified.

This photo of #105 was used to determine the lettering scheme for my model of #107, since the number #105 i'm using for the combine.

Gone are the embellishment in the corners of the pin striping, and gone are the 3D lettering with drop shadows as found with the earlier Niles cars lettering scheme. The result is a rather smart looking interurban. The spelling out of "San Diego & South Eastern" has been replaced by an interlocking monogram which I tried to magnify as greatly as possible (so great that the printing dot matrix is the limiting factor) :

Here is the monogram as seen in the center of the car greatly magnified. Spending quite a bit of time studying this monogram I have determined that it has to be the initials of the San Diego & South Eastern Ry (the photo is identified as San Diego Southern Ry). The two "S"'s are clearly visible. The "E" is readily discernible as well, though I'm not sure how it interrelates with the second "S". But the "D", is it backwards? The blob at the top center between the "D" and the "E" does have the general shape of an ampersand. And the blob at the bottom center is the right size for a "RY". So here is my interpretation of this monogram:

What do you think? Looks about right? I hope so, it was a lot of work. I'm not too concerned about it though, its so tiny in HO scale that it'll just end up looking like the fuzzy prototype picture anyway.

It also appears that the spelling out of the railways name occurs underneath the cars number. The overall shape of the fuzzy streak in the photo is about the right proportion for it. I can't imagine what else it would say otherwise.

And here is my interpretation of that as well. Looks about right? I settled on mahogany brown for the lettering and striping. Seems like the logical choice.

The finished decals. I did a test print and found that despite careful measuring, the proportions are off a bit (I ran into that with #105 as well), so adjustments will have to be made when I actually print onto decal paper. Otherwise, were good to go, yes sir! We're good to go!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ I Cal. You Cal. We All Cal for Decals!

Creating decals for #105.

Voilà! Pretty much used the same technique that I used for the Birney car to make these decals for the Niles car. See my post: Birney Project~ Fresh Homemade Decals.

My model of #105 is based on the history of #101. So I used this photo as reference for the font style and the locations of the lettering and pin-striping.

The earliest surviving SDERy streetcar is car #54 of 1895 (rebuilt 1901) vintage. It ran until it was retired in 1913. So it was around at the same time as the Niles cars. #54 sports red 3D lettering with drop shadows. Looking at the b&w photo of #101, this seems to be of the same color scheme. So I went with that. SDERy seemed to have used either red, silver, or brown for lettering, so I'm pretty confident this is the correct color scheme.

Here is a nice clear closeup of #101 that I used for the destination sign. ( I deduced that the sign on the other end of the car read "To San Diego"). Its' also the only photo that I have come across that clearly shows the "garnish" in the corners of the pin-striping. Is that supposed to be a rose? My simplified version looks like an ant! Either way, it doesn't matter. It's really minuscule on the model.

#105 has been sprayed with a layer of Floquil Hi Gloss necessary for applying decals to surfaces painted with Floquil paints. Once its dry we can apply the decals. Decals really make a model, I can't wait to see what 'ol #105 is going to look like with decals. Exciting isn't it? Yes sir! Very exciting indeed!

Dandy

Birney Project ~ Fresh, Homemade Decals

This whole "making decals" thing has me pretty nervous. It seems like this can make or break this project. So, as usual, I'm just going to take it one step at a time, and at a pace I'm comfortable with, a pace that I have come to call "tinkering speed".

I'm confident that Photoshop can easily handle the tiny lettering and details required, but my biggest concern is whether or not my printer is capable of printing such tiny details with any sort of clarity. But first thing is first. Lets make the artwork.

This blog seems to have a few regular readers. But honestly, I maintain this blog mainly so I can remember how the heck I did things! So, in the future when I'm making decals again, here are a few things I'll want to remember: I'm using the Cannon MultiPASS F30 to scan and print. It has a resolution of 2400 x 1200 dpi. So the artwork is being made at 1000 dpi to be within that parameter. And now back to the show...

First, I scan my reference photo of ol' #301 and import it into Photoshop. I also imported a mugshot of my model. The lettering will be extracted from the ref photo and applied onto the photo of the model. Using the "lasso" tool, I select the side of the car in the ref photo.

I then apply the selection to the model photo. Using the "perspective" tool, I'm able to "flatten" the photo and conform it to the dimensions of the model. Now its just a matter of tracing the lettering and pin striping.

"INBOUND PAY AS YOU ENTER. OUTBOUND PAY AS YOU LEAVE. Transfers Issued Only At Time Fare Is Paid" Fortunatly, my 8x10 glossy reference photo is detailed enough where I can make out the fine print. But we'll see if this actually makes it onto the model without being a complete blur.

After much fussing and tinkering, I eventually get things to look about right. Everything is on different layers. So now all I have to do is turn off the layers with elements I don't need anymore and rearrange the artwork so it makes efficient use of the decal paper.
I had to make some educated guesses on some of the signs here. The ref photo only shows one end of the car, so I had to research the routes that this car took to help determine what the signs on the other end read.

Ta-da! Wow! I am just pleased as bees at how well these turned out! And because I'm such a generous guy, clicking on the decal image above will open a big juicy copy of it so that you (yes YOU my loyal followers) can print your own decals!!! Because I know that tons of folks out there are wanting to build their own model of SDERy #301!

Except for the fancy, long out of production, and expensive ALPS printer, printers don't print white or light (as in light magenta, light cyan, light yellow or any of the variants between). Fortunately for me, my decals are black (actually dark brown) so I'm able to print right onto clear decal paper. Since my printer is an Ink Jet I used paper for an Ink Jet, which is important, Laser paper wont work in an Ink Jet printer and vice versa.

But! The route board is brown and yellow, so I have to print that onto white decal paper (or if using the clear decal paper, prepare the surface first with white before applying the decal).

After futzing with the settings on the printer...

You know... It's funny the things that make me happy. This makes me really happy. I'm walking around with the biggest grin on my face... Success!!! These printed out beautifully!

Look! You can even read the fine print!!! Wow. This is a big load off of my mind, I am so pleased with the results. I am just pleased as bees. Yessir! Pleased as bees!





Dandy