Congrats to my longtime friend Marty McGuirk on the release of his new book, “Modeling Autumn Scenery”. Decades ago, Marty worked for Model Railoader and edited my very first cover article. He’s a seasoned writer that always puts out great information.
There are a number of annotated maps circling in the LAJ community calling out which industries received what type of cars, where they were spotted etc. I believe most of this information came from retired employees. One note that stood out was a business on The Horn Lead called Western Cleanser. The notes state they received “two bay hoppers at spot 3, and a boxcar at spot 1”. I thought this could be a good industry for the layout so I picked up a Kadee PS-2 hopper complete with scale couplers. It’s truly an exceptional model.
Start With Studying a Photo
The next step was to study photos of similarly colored prototypes and that’s where things got tricky. The signature feature of the car sides was a color pattern that was clearly not uniform but in the most subtle of ways. These subdued patterns can be the most difficult to model. Here’s a breakdown of how I did things.
The Car Sides
Let’s start with the car sides. The central theme being to use the lightest of touches.
-It’s important to note that I did not apply Dullcote until the last step.
-I created a very thin wash of Tamiya XF-20 “Medium Grey” (about four drops of paint in an airbrush cup full of thinner). I loaded a “fine tip” in my airbrush (Paache Model H). Before moving to the model, I did a test spray on simarly colored scrap. Satisfied the wash wasn’t too dark, I sprayed the car sides using vertical strokes on the panels and tried to stay off the ribs as much as possible. Let this dry for an hour or so.
-Next was a wash of Burnt Umber artists oils. Pour some mineral spits in an old metal lid. Put a dab of paint on a scrap of styrene. Tap a half inch wide, soft, square-tipped brush in the paint and then dip the brush in the mineral spirits. Draw the brush vertically down across the car sides. You want the mix to be very thin. Keep an eye on your work for fifteen minutes or so to see if any odd pools or swirls shoe up. If they do, wick them up by lightly tapping the area with a clean brush. Let everything dry for three days or so.
-Finally, we need contrast along the ribs. Take a black artists pencil, give it a super sharp point, and draw ultra-thin lines along the ribs.
-Seal with Dullcote
The Roof
-Take a tiny, ragged, brush and dip it inBragdon “Soot Black” weathering powder. Tap your chalk-laden brush on a paper towel to knock most of the black off and then lightly work some of the weathering powder around the hinges.
-Using your black artists pencil, and a straight edge, lightly draw over the weld seams
-The fade was created by the frosting chemical reaction of alcohol and Dullcote. Spray the roof with Dullcote and let it dry for fifteen minutes or so. Tap a small, square tipped brush in rubbing alcohol and draw it across the roof. As it dries, you’ll see the frosting appear. If you don’t like your result apply more Dullcote and the frosting will disappear.
Trucks
Using an airbrush, I gave them a base coat of Model Master “Dark Earth”. Any earth tone will work though. When that dried, I took a ratty brush and worked in Bragdon Soot Black to create shadows.
Hopper Doors
It’s not clear from the photo but the hopper doors have a more prounced, slightly orangish look. I created a small 50/50 mix of Bragdon “Weathered Brown” and “Medium Rust” and applied it with an old brush using a stabbing motion.
Wrapping Up
The central theme for creating this look is to use the lightest of touches and washes. You can always bring an effect up if it’s not noticeable but if you go too far, there’s no turning back and you can end up with a ruined model.
A view of the LAJ layout room. The new extension module is on the far right. I didn’t realize until after the fact how much of a role ergonomics plays in my enjoyment of the railroad. Having an open, cleanly finished presentation on the main floor of the house is very inviting and contributes to my running more often.
Some of the more significant planning issues can be hidden in plain sight. Not seeing them ahead of time can lead to unexpected but necessary periods of reassessing our approach to the hobby. Tony Koester wrote a particularly thought-provoking piece in the April issue of MR.
His point in the column was that, despite what we “think” we know about ourselves, most of us are driven by the satisfaction of building stuff (as opposed to having a finished model railroad used solely for operations). Most of us don’t look ahead to what happens when we finish our railroads, and there are no more projects. I certainly didn’t. Logically, we know that’s out there, but it really doesn’t sink in.
If a layout is even medium-large, that “stick-a-fork-in-it/completely finished” date seems so far in the future. It can sneak up on you, though, because if you are consistent with your building, that day will come. Then what? In his editorial, Tony gives numerous examples of folks who don’t miss a beat. They seamlessly transition to the next layout. Out with the old, in with the new. On to the next adventure! Sometimes that makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t, even for the same person.
A problem arises when you enjoy the building process, finish the layout, but are still just as captivated by your theme as when you started. That happened with East Rail 2, The Downtown Spur, and LAJ layouts. It was a “now what, didn’t see that coming” moment that I wasn’t prepared for.
I did consider tearing down one of the other layouts and starting a new one, but just couldn’t do it. There were too many fond memories, and I still really liked what I had in front of me. I have the space above my shop for a fairly large fourth layout and was seriously considering that. I ran it by close friend Tom Klimoski, who gave the unfiltered feedback of “Are you nuts? That’s a terrible idea! It’s just too much”. I came to my senses on that and abandoned the idea….for now.
The solution came to me slowly and entailed an entirely different approach to the hobby than anything I’d done before. I’ve had to shift from being so go, go, go, goal-oriented to enjoying the ride, enjoying the process. The objective is no longer one of checking a box off on a “to-do” list and moving on to the next task. That shift takes some major, major getting used to!
Now it’s not about getting things done but savoring the experience. Experience being defined as small projects, research, operations, and simply looking at the layout and feeling transported. How long even the smallest task takes me is meaningless. I’ll say it again, that’s been a mental shift for me that has taken some serious adjusting to.
So far, it’s working. Lately, I find myself spending far more time actively engaged with my layout. I’ve also been getting far, far less done! As crazy as that sounds, as counterintuitive as it feels to me, the slow progress is intentional. If I want to spend an evening or weekend putting new trucks and couplers on a car, so what? The process is relaxing. If I go back to my old ways, I’ll simply work myself out of a job.
As part of this adjustment process, here are some things I’ve done:
-I built a short extension module on the LAJ layout to expand operations and give me more things to build on a layout which, previously, I’d considered totally done.
-I switched era’s to the early 1960s as it was a period with more active industries and intense operations.
-I find myself spending more time on research.
-I’m more focused on rolling stock. Since I don’t need that many cars, I have the luxury of spending more time on each one singularly.
-Try to do better work. The “good enough approach” championed by Tony is entirely pragmatic and applies to a ton of situations. For smaller layouts, you have the luxury of spending a lot more time on upper-tier craftsmanship and more scenery layers.
-More details. They have to be intelligently chosen details that fit your scene and enhance it, not “detail dumping” a ton of crude cast metal soap carvings. My buddy Tom Johnson is a master of this, and I follow his Cass County Facebook page closely not so much for the details themselves but his strategy for stretching hobby time and enjoying the ride.
-I spend more time researching, selecting and detailing automobiles. What color and type existed in my era and in what percentage? What types of license plates?
-Part of the research I’ve been doing relates to how the prototype did things operationally during that era. Retired rails on the forums have been very generous in that regard.
I do have one caveat. This “stop and smell the roses” approach works better if you do have at least a portion of your layout done. You do need some critical mass. It’s like a jet on takeoff, you go like hell to launch and then throttle back when you hit cruising attitude.
All of this falls into the category of a first-world problem. It’s an approach that I find satisfying for now. If I eventually tire of the existing layouts, I can always start something new if and when that day comes.
A view of the LAJ layout room facing the other direction, with the layout to my back. The alcove holds a small library of books and reference magazines I refer to most frequently. I have more shelves in the basement for the remainder of my resources. I like spending time in the room and just enjoying the experience of having the the 1960s LA scene wrap around me.
Since the last update, I’ve been working on the final details on the far left side of the extension model. Above, we have a scratch-built tree placed to slightly screen the view where the primary roadway meets the “T” intersection. I also scratch-built a crossbuck using Tichy parts, stripwood for the post, and NBW castings.
Looking at the back of the structure, we see: a transformer pole, added vegetation, pallets, drums, and light debris.
Here’s another view down the street taken from a more perpendicular perspective.
Vacant lot on the extension model of my LAJ layout.
The key to realistic composition is to model the typical, the ordinary, what the eye subconsciously expects to see. In our world, a common element is the mundane vacant lot. Personally, I find these trickier to pull off than you’d think.
A typical open lot on the Santa Fe in Los Angeles. Studying photos answers a lot of questions. This is the one I’m working off of.
After years of trial and error, here is where I am on the learning curve. By sharing this, hopefully I can shorten your curve!
Some observations:
-As the base layer, you want to work with extremely fine material. This means grout (sanded or unsanded) or powders as opposed to ballast.
-You want to strive for subtle variations in color, and you want the transitions between these variations to be feathery, with no hard edges. The color variations should be very slight, just a hair of a slant in hue one direction or the other. Nothing harsh.
-You want just a hint of variation in texture on the top layer. Not much. Just a few larger grains here and there.
-Working with fines is tricky. You want a perfectly smooth surface with no brush marks, no hills and valleys or high spots, and no adhesive “craters.”
Key materials ( in no particular order): Fine mister bottle, large bowl of your base grout mix, smaller cups of slight color variations, a soft fan brush, Arizona Rock and Mineral “Beach Sand”.
Here’s the step-by-step of how I did the lot in the lead photo:
-Mix up a decent-sized bowl of your base lot color. For LA, I used PolyBlend “Haystack” for the bulk of the material. As is, the color was a little too bright out of the package. To knock the edge off, I mixed in a bit of PolyBlend “Natural Gray” until I noticed a slight color change to “slightly grungy”. This will be the bulk of the material for the lot coverage
-To give slight color variations, I poured a bit of the base color into a separate cup and added a little more Natural Gray to make it darker. I poured more base color into another cup and added a bit of PolyBlend “Coffee Bean” to give another hue. Just a touch until you see the color changing.
-Now for the application. Make up a dilute mix of matte medium (I part medium, 2 1/2 parts water, a tiny drop of dish detergent). Using a wide, flat brush, spread a thin layer of medium over your work surface.
-The grout application method is crucial. Do NOT use a cup or spoon! Taking the finest mesh sifter you can find, lightly sprinkle the base color of the lot over your surface until you have full coverage.
-Now, go to your two color variants and lightly sprinkle a bit here and there from fairly high up (twelve to fifteen inches). You want to avoid noticeable edges in the color transitions. If you so see the edges, soften them with another sprinkling of the base.
-For texture variation, I took a tiny finger pinch of Arizona Rock and Mineral “Beach Sand” and dropped it here and there from about eighteen inches up.
-To get a final adhesive seal, obtain a very fine mister bottle. Further dilute your matte medium mix by a third to a half, and spray it over your surface.
It’s common to see gravel piles here and there in industrial lots. Using a medicine cup, I poured a few using Arizona Rock and Mineral “Northern Pacific” HO ballast as the blend.
Still to be worked out are the tire marks in the gravel. Not easy! I’ll experiment with a few methods on test samples first. i.e. the layout is NOT the place for testing! I also need to add some vegetation, old tie stacks, etc. Stay tuned.