All good information on the adhesives, thanks guys.
I have finished the Dolbeer and will post a couple of pictures but first wanted to comment on the service provided by Mike, the kit supplier.
When I started assembly I found a badly warped part that I didn’t feel was salvageable. I contacted Mike, sent him a picture and 3 days later I had the new part and a little bonus in my hands. No charges at all. Now that is service that is not found much these days.
The pictures of doing it my way, several changes and deviations from the original kit.
She came out great, Rick!
There is one other 1:20.3 Dolbeer up in my neck of the woods that I have seen. I’ll try to remember to get a shot of it next time I’m there.
As to a flat car load, they look good. But check your clearances. I made my 7/8 with a removable stack so I could haul it, but I still need to make a depressed center flat car. I need 1/2" less for one of my bridges.
I also made the afore mentioned 1:20.3 model a removable stack after the owner knocked the boiler right off of the skid once.
Thanks guys.
John, no flat car load for this one. It will be sitting out in the woods unused and forgotten. My RR cutoff date is 1939 so a Dolbeer is pretty much an old Model “T” when it comes to log skidding or loading
Thanks Cliff, I too wish I had some painting and weathering skills, but till then I just keep trying.
To answer your questions.
The sled was built from cedar and stained with my typical alcohol/black leather dye mixture as a base.
The basic coloration I used on the “metal” is explained here.
After everything was finished and dry I followed up with oil paints and oderless paint thinner washes. The colors were;
Lamp black and Payne’s gray for grease and oil, Raw Umber for dirt and stain, and Titanium white for old water stain and haze.
The raw umber is what gives the wood sled the variation in color
That’s pretty much it.
Weathering. One of my lesser skills. I can stress wood and ink wash, but that’s about it. I wish I knew how to do it as good as the experts on this site.
I use the “ten foot rule” on all my model building. They are definitely not museum pieces by far.
Half the fun is deciding what ‘weathering’ means for this particular model. Where would a steam donkey have oil and grease? Where would it collect dirt? (These are rhetorical questions!)
I find a good set of color photos of prototypes are needed so you can decide where the oil goes, what’s dirty, etc.
First step is deciding where the wear, drips, runs and puddles would happen. Then just play around with colors that approximate what nature and use would leave behind. When I was weathering my shack for this year’s Mik, I just kept playing around until it looked worn to me. There was no plan in advance, just wing it!
Colored pictures would be a great resource but pretty hard to come by of pre 1940 equipment.
A lot of weathering is just “think about it” On a Donkey where would grease and oil be? on and around gears, bearings, shafts and other moving parts.
On a structure where does it weather the most? Along the bottom 2-4 feet where the weather always hits the siding, below windows where the water sheets down, etc.
I think what good painting/weathering boils down to is observation of the real world and a good/great sense of color.
Now if you want to see real model painting and weathering take a look at this link and scroll down to post #123, click to enlarge picture.
FWIW, here’s a short vid I took a month ago. Pretty clean donkey here, but you might predict where the stains would occur after years of usage out in the woods.
Memory is getting foggy here, but I think raw umber is a good way to mimic the stains spent steam cylinder oil leaves behind at packing glands, piston rod surfaces, etc.
