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I've Been Working on the Railroad

Image courtesy of Steve B.

For the weathering I started dry brushing with Tamiya Flat Olive Green and Tamiya Flat Khaki (I tried not to overdo it). Then I made a few paint chips and scratches using a #2B black pencil, this pencil also was used to simulate the exposed metal on the wheels, principally on the parts that has more contact to the rail road, here is a little trick: just after use the pencil I rub off the graphite with my fingers to blend it onto a more realist effect. After this first phase of weathering, all tools, equipments and the camouflage net was added to their places, taking care to make the straps and ties downs. Finally I start to use the dry pastel chalks using colors to simulate dust on the upper parts of the jeep, and rust colors for the train wheels, but taking care to not overdo and this way kill the realistic effect. Since that vehicle was designed to ride over rails, the dust wasn't big like on a regular vehicle that was used on regular terrain.

On the other part I built an small vignette using tracks made by a local manufacturer, the base is in plaster and the tracks is resin, by the way, they were very warped and with a huge resin block very hard to sand off. The painting was done with the following:

• First all set was airbrushed with Tamiya Flat Medium Grey with a little Tamiya Flat Light Blue added.
   
• The wood beds was painted using Tamiya Flat German Desert Yellow.
   
• The tracks were painted with Tamiya Flat Black.
   
• Then I've made a dry brushing with the same previous colors, but a little white was added to bleach it.
   
• Last but not least I used dry pastel chalks in various colors, making and emphasizing the shadows. I also used #2B black pencil over the tracks where it contact the wheels.
  

After the vignette, the finished jeep was glued in place using cianocrilato glue (the gel type). I really enjoy this project, besides the use of new techniques, it was like a research laboratory, and it represents a very original model. Keep modeling and good luck!

View all the images for this project here.

©2002 Model and Model Photos by Paulo R. Castro