PLW gets a spray booth!

After a long time thinking about getting a spray booth, I finally bit the bullet, and built one from mostly recycled materials picked up at a Habitat for Humanities Restore.  Some recent spraying of HO units in the basement showed me just how much crap was lingering in the air and I decided it was time to look into a spray booth.  My father, who has also built and custom painted model cars and 1:1 cars his whole life, also encouraged me to get a spray booth, mentioning that he built his own.

I spent the last week Googling DIY spray booths and I saw a lot of alternatives, from building plywood boxes to using plastic storage totes.  I was looking for something that I could move around easily and tuck into the corner of the basement.  I also wanted the ability to close it up and keep my recently sprayed items protected from most of the dust in the basement.  I saw a build from a guy on a military modeling site who used an old wall hung cabinet.

The cabinet provides a prebuilt box with a door.  I picked one up at the Restore that felt the right size, along with a bathroom vent fan.  I looked for a light but could not find one, so had to resort to new from Home Depot there.  Once home I located the fan on the top of the cabinet, offset to the left as I spray with my right hand.  I cut a large hole in the top for the fan to suck up the overspray.  I added a couple of 2x4 to the side of the cabinet near the top to hold a furnace filter, as well as a piece of 1x4 screwed to the bottom of the 2x4's to place a closet lamp.  With the box basically built, I proceeded to wiring.

The wiring was pretty easy, especially if you have ever installed a light in your home.  I screwed a junction box to the side of the cabinet so that I could have switches for both the light and the fan.  A replacement cord for power tools provided a plug and the three wires needed for all wiring.  Using the power cord lets me place the spray booth anywhere I want with an outlet in reach and makes it very easy to wire the junction box.  Inside the junction box is your typical wiring with hot, neutral and ground, pigtailed appropriately for the switches.  The wires then run to each the light and fan.

I tested the booth out today by spraying three Walthers N scale coil cars.  Everything was nice and bright in the booth and the fan worked wonderfully.  I think I could use a little extra air movement out of the fan as it's only 50cfm, but in the tight space of the cabinet it worked pretty well.  I need to paint the inside of the cabinet white to make it a little bit brighter.

Overall this was a quick and easy project and works very well for my needs.  For less than a $100 and a couple hours work, I've got a great spray booth to work in.

Rock Island Covered Wagons

Just finished up a few Rock Island units for a friend in Nebraska.  These came to me as undecorated Kato units with details added by the owner.  These were pretty straight forward units but did require some interesting masking on the noses.  We used Tru Color paints and Microscale decals with a Future clearcoat before applying decals.

First of the three was F7A #122 in the red/yellow scheme.  The owner added the spark arrestors and a small radiator on the top of the hood.  He also filled in the lower headlight.  This model was first based in red paint, then masked for the yellow nose and stripes.  Decals followed including the yellow stripes on the door grabs.

Second is E8A #658, also in the red/yellow scheme.  I grafted large numberboards to the nose from a donor F7 model to match the prototype 658.  This model was painted and decaled in the same manner as #122.

Last is E8a #649, this one is in the maroon/yellow scheme.  This model was stock straight from Kato and only got paint and decals.  The yellow nose was sprayed first to ease the masking and then the model was finished with maroon.  Decals followed including the yellow stripes on the door grabs.

These were fun units to do and were a real challenge to mask.  I used a lot of decal solution to get the large Rock Island letters to settle down over the rivets on the body panels.  Photos of the assembled units can be seen over on the owner's blog. thelittlerockline - covered wagons on little rock

Thanks for looking!
Doug

GP7 C&S 9273

This locomotive began life as an Atlas unit decorated in the EMD demonstrator scheme.  It was a very straightforward repaint with no additional details.  The unit was sprayed grey to begin with and then masked for the black.  Decals followed including all of the striping, lettering and numbering.  Pollyscale paints and Microscale decals were used to complete the job.






Thanks for looking!
Doug

GP7 ATSF 2650

This HO scale locomotive started as an undecorated LifeLike Proto 2000 unit.  These models basically come as a kit with all of the detail parts needing assembly on the shell before paint.  It was nice to have molded plastic parts that were designed with the shell, a departure from the usual sanding and drilling of N scale locomotives to attach detail parts.  The shell came covered in an oily residue that I believe was from the drivetrain lubrication.  An overnight bath in 90% alcohol cleaned the plastic and it was ready for assembly and painting.  Paint work started with the yellow on the handrails, nose, cab and a portion of the long hood.  I taped over the Microscale curve templates to cut a mask for the blue, which was painted next.  After the color was done, I sprayed Future for my clearcoat for decals.  Decals came next, which was a chore working with the large Santa Fe billboard logo.  Unfortunately, you can see the difference in color between the decal and the yellow we chose for the paint, it is difficult to determine how the decals will change with the paint underneath.  After decals and a final coat of clear, it was on to applying the grab irons.  I glued them in the shell and painted each by had with blue to get the contrast.  All in all this was a fun project that was not my normal N scale work.  It's always fun to see these next to an N scale model and see the difference in size and feel the difference in weight.  My O scale work makes the size difference an even bigger impact.









Thanks for looking!
Doug

SD35 CBRY 14

This locomotive started as an Atlas N scale unit decorated for the Southern Railway.  The paint was stripped and details including grab irons, MU hoses, coupler cut levers, etched fans, antenna and brass handrails were added.  Paint consists of Badger ModelFlex for the grey base and black underframe and Vallejo Color for the copper stripe and hood ends.  Decals were printed on an Alps printer for the text and numbers.  The barricade striping on the ends is built up with Microscale black barricade stripes and grey stripes at the edges.  Weathering was applied via an airbrush to the side and top of the unit, weathering powders were also applied to the top and in the grills to give depth.  A sister unit, CBRY 15, is currently on the workbench.  These two units will haul copper ore drags across the layout.

Thanks for looking!
Doug

ADN Woodchip Hoppers

Finished weathering some Deluxe Innovation N scale woodchip hoppers over the weekend.  The weathering process starts with a coat of Testors Dullcoat to give the cars some tooth to hold the various mediums to be used later; the shiny plastic of the cars will not work for weathering.  After the dullcoat, a fade is put on the cars with the airbrush.  The fade is sealed with another coat of dullcoat and then additional color is added using oil paints to get different hues of green and yellow across the car body.  The oil paints are dry brushed on to keep the paint and color build up to a minimum.  Next comes another layer of dullcoat.  Once I am happy with the fade and color transition of the car, I use powders to simulate build up of grime and dust along the sill of the car and in all of the recesses; seal with dullcoat.  Rust pits and scratches are next using a combination of different oil colors at full strength.  These spots need a few days to dry before sealing with dullcoat.  Once the pits and scratches are dry and sealed, halos and streaking are completed.  This is the part of the process that takes the longest.  Each and every pit or scratch gets a faint halo by dry brushing oil paint on and around it.  The streaking is done by building up dry brushed layers of oil paint.  Starting from light to dark, the streak is drawn straight down until the paint brush leaves no color.  Still another layer of dullcoat is applied.  Finally, the car gets one last layer of powders to help blend some of the sharp edges and to build up some more dust and grime in areas.  One final layer of dullcoat seals the car and it is ready to be put in service.

ADN 4192 is the first car completed.  This one received a very light layer of weathering.








ADN 4112 was the second car, this one received a much heavier application of rust and neglect.








Thanks for looking!
Doug

GP30 CFNR 3009

This locomotive started life as an N scale Atlas GP30 decorated for Pennsylvania.  The unit was stripped, detailed, painted, lettered for the California Northern and then weathered.  It will serve as part of the power for a local that runs on my layout.


The unit has been stripped and details have started to be added.  We can see a relocated horn, grab irons, sunshades and custom handrails in this photo.  Parts are a mixture of BLMA and Gold Medal Models.


A shot of the handrails on the engineers side.


The rear hood shows BLMA etched fans.


The model has been painted with a white base and was then masked for the green.


This shot shows the etched fans are still see through with paint applied.


The finished model shot in sunlight.


The model was weathered with mainly artist oil paints.  A white fade coat was applied and then followed by rust.  The rubber window seals were painted black and various pilot details were also finished.


The top of the hood and grill sections were weathered with both acrylic from the airbrush and weathering powders.

Thanks for looking!
Doug