PM_Cocoa

BY GREG MARTIN

The Concept

Model Railroading has in the past fifteen years evolved into a hobby of realism. The Modeler has shown that he expects more from his hobby than in the past and this isn’t his father's hobby anymore. What most modelers are looking for is a respectable amount of authenticity but he absolutely demands realism. What we expect is that what we have created is convincingly real, to his eye and the eyes of his colleagues. With this in mind we now find ourselves testing our skills at detailing locomotives, rolling stock, structures and the scene, but also to operate like the actual railroads and we want special effects like sound. Perhaps to this point our biggest compromise in our layouts is lighting. It is the one part of Mother Nature we cannot seem to fit into the layout room. Unfortunately without it, our eyes loose the details we have so diligently worked to add to our modeling. Dealing with a scaled down subject often the details we do add are lost to the lack of natural contrast that exists in the full scale subject and our models appear flat and lifeless even though the tool maker has worked hard to insure that the he has accurately replicated his subject. But alas, there is a solution to this and it is a fairly simple resolve.

I have practiced this technique for well over 12 years and it has gained several nicknames and for me several awards. As with almost any other technique in this hobby it comes with some investment in some special equipment or tools, but thank heavens the investment will likely cost less than your favorite locomotive. I have provided a list of tools as follows and they can be found at nearly any art supply dealer. We will need Black India Ink, a fine tipped inexpensive drawing pen, at least two packages of CONT� Crayon (dark and light sienna), White Charcoal pencil, a common #2 Soft graphite pencil, a pad of Post-it� and a set of colored pencils (the more colors the better). Some options are white and black CONT� crayon, black charcoal and different colors of ink.

HIGHLIGHTING

Let's begin by looking at a very finely detailed piece of rolling stock that has been completed and would normally head to the bench for some common weathering. Now I can't blame anyone for using simple weathering techniques like airbrushing, using the Q-Tip technique, or the powdered chalk technique. But as you can see the details are rather flat and the subject is rather lifeless. This car needs something and as I was working on this technique I was convinced that at this point it was not just weathering. I was looking for something that whether I was standing 12-inches or 12-feet away from my subject that I could see the same amount of detail as I was seeing on an actual subject. So I nosed around and like any good Railroad Modeler I snooped around to see what the military modelers were doing about realism as I had enjoyed years of military modeling and one of my favorite things was painting figures as well as aircraft modeling. But I had been out of it a couple of years and so to my discovery many modelers were using a technique they referred to as the "Verlinden Technique" where a modeler would lightly airbrush a coat of thinned black along the panel lines to offset and accentuate the area. I looked at this and thought to myself that the concept was good but just as in drawing or painting a picture if you want to truly accentuate the detail then enhance the area with black and believe me this example shows why it needs to happen.

So I experimented and this is what works for me and will work for you. Looking for every detail that stands off the subject with your India ink and drawing pen trace or draw along the area to draw your eyes attention. In the case of rolling stock it is nearly every detail that forms a right angle. Over the years I have learn that India ink may work on the panel lines of a box car but on a light colored car like a yellow reefer or a cement gray colored hopper you should, in most cases substitute a standard soft graphite pencil to enhance the details but with less contrast then the India ink provides.

In this next photo you can see the comparison of an ACCURAIL Car that has be highlighted completely and a car that has not. Take a look… As you can se there is a dramatic difference in what your eye perceives as detail in the car on the right that has been highlighted in this case with the India ink. I found every possible detail that I could and enhanced it with the ink. This car, as a matter of fact, never had the grab irons removed and replaced and as the car is finished you will see that there my very well have been no need to as the shading with subdue the boldness of the black. Take a closer look at the car with the ink highlighting. Gosh, some of you might say this is really a nice and I like it so well I will stop here, well keep following along we are just beginning to have fun. One sidebar to all this is that through observation I have noticed that as you add the ink the car suddenly appears darker. Although the detail certainly is much clearer and this "look" would certainly be appealing under most any lighting indoor or out, it to me needed more, something to bring the color back into perspective. If you look closely you will notice that the fish belly underframe has not escaped the pen and the advantage here is that you help enhance something seldom noticed, but in the future it will catch the exploring eye. Are we going to weather the car now? No, not yet. We are only about half the way there.

SHADOWING

Now we will move into the Shadowing portion of this process. I accomplish this by the use of contrasting colors of usually the same basic color. When you are using a pre-decorated car such as I have with all of these cars it is not possible to start with the exact color the manufacturer used, so close will work. I use basically three colors one is a constant, TESTORS Rubber, and then the basic color with red added to it and the basic color with orange added to it. I refer to these colors as "plus-Red and Plus-Orange". These two colors will need thinned much to the degree one might thin for weathering, remember we are adding a shade here not painting with the intend to make it as opaque as a new paint job. I start out with the Plus Red color and look to shadow the car from the top down. Apply a Post-it� to the rib to create a defined line between panels sections. At the roof I start at the panel to the extreme right and with my airbrush I spray along the walkway or peak of the roof and follow the panel down at the first roof rib allowing some of the overspray to fall onto the Post-it�. I continue this the entire length of the car and spin the car around and follow through with the opposite side in the same pattern. Then with the "plus-Red" still loaded in the airbrush I use a similar technique along the side of the car body. If the car has steel sides then I align the Post-it� on the panel line and moving again right to left I spray onto the panel in a random mottling pattern staying as close as possible to the left side of the panel. Again, I start along the top of the panel and down the seam. In the case a wood sheathed car such as these double-sheathed cars I begin right to left in a totally random vertical patterns never starting at the same height and spacing the pattern sometime closer together and at other time further apart.

Now with a quick change of color I spray the Plus-Orange color in reverse starting again at the roof and covering the roof rib spray down the opposite side and then along the lower edge of the roof. Again allow some of the color to overspray onto the Post-it�. Then follow the same process on the sides except work in opposite direction and work from the opposite side of the panel. What you should now have achieved is an overspray of Plus-Red light overspray to the right of the panel on both sides of the car and a Plus-Orange overspray to the left side of the panel.

VARIATIONS

This technique works especially well on welded cars such as a Pullman Standard boxcar or covered hopper. The difference is that in order to better define the weld bead (scribing doesn't count) and individual panels you will need to first highlight the weld-bead with the graphite pencil and then with a contrasting color such as orange colored pencil for a boxcar paint freight car red. Look closely at the photo of my PRR X-45 boxcar and note the new panel lines. These weld-beads were simulated on a perfectly smooth car. The effect works well and doesn't not force the viewers eye to search for detail the detail comes to the modeler rather boldly.

WEATHERING

To finish off the model I weather the cars with what I would consider an appropriate amount of weathering to make the car look in service. For me this represents the use of TESTORS #1188 Rubber to simulate road grime and the use of Cont� crayon to represent the rust streaks, dark for old rust and light sienna for fresh rust. Here are a couple shots of actual cars taken recently in Salem, OR of welded cars that you can view as examples.

For structures the basics are the same as you start your structure with a common color. In the case of these walls from the TRAIN STUFF Inc. Wilmington, DE train station I first applied a coat of "brick red" to the entire structure, except the foundation stone. The tiles and cornice work on the actual structure were made from Terra Cotta stone and had the same basic hue as the brick (red clay coloring) but softer. Also this stonework contrasted within itself, and architecturally speaking added much to the ascetics to the building, a wonderful touch wouldn't you agree? As you can see the natural outdoor lighting creates shadows to highlight the detail that Bruce Smith wanted to capture to aid in his modeling of the station. These shadows are what we are after to compliment our indoor lighting, as we can simply not duplicate the intensity true of outdoor light in our layout room.

After the basic paint had dried I began adding the highlighting by using a well-formed #1artist paintbrush and Floquil's Tuscan Red, slightly thinned to the consistency of ink, for highlighting the surrounding tile work and below the cornice work and once again any portion of the building that might force a detail towards your eye. Then I took several different brick colors (utilizing several freight car red colors) and thinned them down to a wash. These washes were randomly applied horizontally and then vertically to the brick to achieve a look that would duplicate the natural brick courses resulting from the mason working forward and upwards at the same time. I then moved to the tile work that surrounded the windows and the cornice stonework. I utilized the basic brick color to the work down the Terra Cotta stonework and reduce the contrast. It helped in this case that the building was created in a beige color, which allowed for better blending and if the paint got too thin it changes the color slightly adding to the effect. Once applied we need to make the colors a bit subtler, so reducing the intensity with flat white helped change the effect. The more violet hues were the reaction of Tuscan Red and white with a slight bit of TESTORS Rust. Other shades were added using white, gray and rust as well as freight car color. Although the building is not complete, as the granite foundation stone needs lightened, I jumped a bit forward and with the India ink added super-highlighting under the cornice work, and where the tile stonework and the brickwork came together to create a more dramatic contrast. Continuing on I will use some White Charcoal to enhance some of the individual tiles and colored pencils to create some of the spaces that help separate the individual Terra Cotta tiles and cornice work Although this station made this technique simple, you can apply them to any structure of any composite, wood, concrete block or Cut Stone Granite. In the case of wood lap siding (AKA clapboard) substitute colored pencils for paint after the basic color has been applied. Now that the building is nearing completion, with your Cont� Crayon lightly just strike the tops of the brick in a horizontal direction. This will draw the color and give the bricks the added contrast that you have provided the rest of the building. Enjoy this simple and quick moving technique and use it liberally for all of your next layout needs.

Although many may say that a scene should show some effect of atmosphere, such as a graying of structures. I believe that this is reserved to backdrop and background subjects. What I think is needed in a layout is a strengthening of the foreground subjects to attract you eye to the details and distract your focus from the background. This will keep the onlooker's eye busy with all the subjects at hand and not hunting for the details. What better way to achieve this than with this Highlighting and shadowing effects? If you think that this is reserved to animate objects wait to see what a variation of this technique can do to roadbed. I'll see you here next year.