Railway Museum RailExpo 2010

My local club, The British Model Railroad Club of Montreal, attended the 2-day show at the Montreal Railway Museum in Delson, Quebec, just south of Montreal again this year. We exhibited our new NCE DCC, club-layout, that although it's not finished does have some scenery completed and was happily running very well.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that over the past 18 months 2 new HO clubs, The Richelieu Valley Railroad,  http://richelieu-valley-rr-english.blogspot.com/
and the Frontiere Montreal Border railroad Club, have come into being on the island of Montreal, increaseing the number of HO/OO clubs from 5 to 7. Both of these new clubs had very nice small layouts on display and I found it heartening to see younger, 20-somethings participateing.

This is the new module I've been working on for our club layout...the building is made from DPM modules and weathered using  powders, the milk wagons were also weathered using powders.              
  

This next pic is of the exit from the station area showing the entrance to the goods siding and the branch-line.

Below are 3 pics of the small layout that the new club, Richelieu Valley, was exhibiting.

These next 4 pics are of the new exhibition layout by the Vermont&Essex club...it's a port scene that they built in about 15 days...very impressive!

Finally a pic of 4 of our club members...

                                  John K, Dave W, Nigel P, and Jolly John M.

Weathering

Up until now I have done all my loco/wagon and carriage weathering using weathering powders and dry-brushing and have always been more than satisfied with the results...I really think weathering powders in particular are a real boon to modelers.
But being the adventurous type, and having received and watched the Right track #11 DVD, Weathering Techniques with Tim Shackelton

I decided it was time to try weathering with an airbrush.
I had an old Badger 200 bottom feed single-action airbrush

so I dusted it off, got some Modelmaster and Humbrol paints and went at it.
First I did a Hornby J94 I had just recieved...what a pig...I know it has a good reputation for slow-running but mine was a piece of junk...the wheels were out of quarter and all 6 pick-ups were covered in grease due to over-lubeing at the factory...needless to say it ran like a 2-legged dog until I did some work on it...its still a bit jerky and noisy but hopefully that will work itself out over time


Anyways I blackened the rods and wheel-rims with Neo-lube: 
http://www.p-b-l.com/pbl2002/Neolube2.html


What a great product and so easy to use. 


I added Kadee couplers, a DCC chip and a loco driver and then got to work using various shades of tan for dust and blacks....I'm reasonably pleased with the results  but I know I still need tons of practice with the airbrush to get really good results...while the airbrush was out I gave 2 new Dapol milk-wagons a bit of a dirty up also.


I still need to touch up the wheels and running gear of the loco and wagons, add some lamps and fire-irons to the loco and hit all 3 with some powders but I am having fun and that is what's important...anyways here are some pics

More Rust Stuff

Following on from the last post and the work I did rusting the Hornby Terrier I thought I would talk about a rusting technique I came across about 8 years ago.
It was quite simple and involved a 2-part product called Instant Rust that was marketed by a company called Modern Options (www.ModernOptions.com).
It is now sold under the name of Sophisticated Finishes Rust Antiqueing Set (www.Tricoat.com).

Just paint on the metallic surfacer, let it dry for 24 hours and then apply rusting solution and let it dry and your done. If after 1 application of the rusting solution you don't feel its rusty enough just paint on some more rusting solution.

Now like all techniques I would advise practicing on a cheap spare wagon or on some scrap plastic card until your comfortable with it. The only other caveat I can think of is that it can appear overscale in 4mm/OO/HO if you're not careful.

Here are a couple of pics of a pair of HO gondolas I did 8 years ago....be advised that I'm no photographer so the pics don't do the gondolas justice...they really do look much better in real life

Here are a couple of pics of a pair of HO gondolas I did 8 years ago....be advised that I'm no photographer so the pics don't do the gondolas justice...they really do look much better in real life