Burnt Offerings

[NSTopHat]

I have a friend who is getting into the decal business and asked for some projects to work on, as he described his printers capabilities to me, beyond just lettering. My mind immediately raced to burn patterns on TopGon's and other steel coal cars in the NS fleet that I have shot over the past two decades....

The following images are of initial test shots. We are trying to work out a couple of pattern issues and nuances with what I am looking for out of the finished product.

The first car, NS #23254, I had completely weathered previously. The decals laid on the existing finish coat and were clear coated to seal them. The decal film is different than that from Microscale, so I am still playing with the application process.

These decals will be good for NS TopGon's, H11 Rebody's, NS H49/H50/H51-H54 class cars; CSXT Raceland built Bethgons in both black and grey, Conrail H1's and H2's and their Hollidaysburg H52L and H52R bethgons. I'm sure that cross dump coal cars on UP and the DRGW from ExactRail and Tangent will be excellent fodder as well. The burn patterns come from the thaw houses at unloading facilities like Pier 6 at Lamberts Point, VA and at Sandusky OH.

More images to come....

Regards,
Russ

[NSTopHat]

After the decals were set with MicroSol, I used a coat of Testor's Dull Coat and then a coat of Model Master's Clear Lusterless Finish.

More to follow...

Russ

[NSTopHat]

Some other cars that are in progress. For the first car in this set, I had already started a base coat of weathering and then added the decals. I am going to finish weathering this car beyond what is seen here. In the third image in this set, I went straight onto a car fresh out of the box. The weathering on the length of the tub is a decal as well. Still a few issues to work out, like how tall the tub decal should be. The burn marks have not been completely seated or sealed on these cars.

Another set to come.

Russ

[NSTopHat]

Back in 1992, NS bought over 500 three bay 100 ton hoppers from UP and placed them into the H51-H54 car classes. This set of images is of a soon to be ex-UP car that has been burnt as well. The UP name, reporting marks and road number will get patched and new reporting marks and road numbers and car class will get applied later. The burn marks have not been completely seated or sealed on this car.

Hope you enjoyed.

Regards,
Russ

[E.M. Bell]

It would seem that would work well for accurately depicting the paint on just about every GE ever made as well! 

[NSTopHat]

It would seem that would work well for accurately depicting the paint on just about every GE ever made as well! 

Well Mr. Bell, that is next on the project list.

Regards,
Russ

[thpbears]

Look nice

[NSMoWandS]

Nice work! The turbo/fuel leak fire marks are prob going to be difficult. I am still having trouble making this one GE look right. Between the soot, bare metal, cooked metal, and rusted metal... getting everything to blend correctly is still a little ways off. DE Dan

[NSTopHat]

Dan;

The whole process starts with an actual prototype photo. Then using a art program, the images is manipulated as desired including colors in order to achieve a finished product. Sometimes colors are tweaked so that a better product is created. The expectation is that additional weathering may be needed to achieve a completed model.

Again, we are in the crawling stages of this process.

Regards,
Russ

[NSMoWandS]

Using a proto picture is pretty cool. I did something similar to model a very beat up B30-7. I scanned the decal sheet... used a edit program to "fade" the decals to a lighter color... then printed them out on decal paper. And, if the "fire" decals turn out like the burn decals for the hoppers/gons they are going to look great! DE Dan