Large Scale Central

Clerestory windows

Modeling
#1

Christmas shopping done, grading all done, onto a project

I got some old Bachman J&S coaches in a trade a while back. One was B&O Blue, the other was undec. green. I want to get them up to speed WITHOUT SPENDING ANY MONEY!!! Using only what I have on hand.

The Bachmann cars come with an odd pink color for the clerestory windows. I’m thinking of replacing them–one car is missing one “strip” anyway, and I have some lexan sheet, but what’s a good way to opaque the “window?” I thought of spraying the lexan with krylon matte or testor’s dull-coat (have both already). But they don’t get all that opaque that way. I’m going to light the cars with LEDs and I don’t want the LEDs to show through the clerestory, or at least to show only faintly.

Any suggestions?

#2

You could try scuffing it up with fine sand paper or painting it with a bit of super glue.

-Brian

#3

Mike:

I would rub it on one side with fine steel wool. If you put the steel wool on the end of a dowel, you can make swirl patterns on the surface. That, along with some judiciously applied masking with stripping tape could approximate etched or sand blasted patterns on glass.

Happy RRing,

Jerry

#4

Gee just leave them clear…not all of them were frosted ya know…or paint them over completely…

#5

Good point Bart, but he wants to hide his LED’s. I’ve seen a lot of restored cars with painted over windows, but again, I think Mike is looking for the nice effect of the lighted clerestory.

Why the heck DID Bachmann pick pink??? I have a few of these myself and thought the windows looked a bit odd.

LED lighting is nice because it uses very little power, but if you can don’t use white LED’s. I have a combine fitted with white LEDs and it looks like a modern car with bright fluorescent lighting. If you can find a nice bright amber that wood look more like electric light or even earlier gas lighting.

On the coaches that still have bulbs I lined the roof with tin foil to make them brighter inside.

#6

Thank you all!

Yes, I want a glow from the windows but I don’t want to be able to see the LEDs themselves or to much of a “hot spot.”

I have a bunch of “Warm White” leds from a Christmans light string. They still look a little flourescent. I’ve been painting them with tamiya clear yellow or even with some Floquil “reading yellow” that I have in the shop.

The pink is odd. The Bachman J&S coaches are really pretty toy-like, but theyr’e fun to mess around with

#7

Well I nearly finished them today, go them repainted and crudely lettered. Nothing major, just a repaint and reletter The sandpaper idea was great–I ran the lexan strips over a sandpaper drum. I like it much better than the pink although it needs to be toned down a bit

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/lownote/_forumfiles/green640.jpg)

I got them lit using some plunger pistons and some leds stripped from a set of Christmas lights. The drumhead I made using clear inkjet sticker paper A local guy threw these cars in when I bought a beat up old annie from them. One was B&O blue and the other was in pieces and half painted. Some of the handrails are missing, so I’ll have to make some

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/lownote/_forumfiles/green2640.jpg)

Now to close up that UNBELIEVABLY wide spacing between the cars…

#8

They sure look much better without the pink “glass”.
I will do the same with mine when time allows.
Ralph

#9

That looks great Mike !

I actually like the J&S cars. They could be a bit longer, and yes they are spaced way too far apart, but that worked good on my R1 curves on the old indoor layout. A pair of ET&WNC J&S cars, a coach and a combine, where my first LS project. I painted the interiors to show some detail added light reflectors to brighten the coach and a bunch of passengers were hot-glued into the seats. On the combine I added battery backed up constant LED lighting, did the same interior job and added passengers and some freight. On both I painted the porch floors and step tops, weathered the wheels and painted the roof.

#10

NIce work, Mike. What is the paint? You know type and color. I’m looking for a faded Pullman.

#11

The paint is great–it’s Rustoleum “high heat” spray, in “green.”

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=112

Brian Donovan hipped me to this stuff. It’s at home depots. It goes on really well, resists dripping, covers well and dries quickly. And it has a nice texture to it. Very matte. They make a black and an almond, both are excellent

The roofs were done with Krylon ultra flat camouflage black.

I did a little experiment this morning with trying to close the gap. I managed to take nearly half an inch off one coupler tang, but I’m not sure what adhesive to use to hold it together. I’m trying laquer thinner, with styrene reinforcements, and it’s setting rght now. I’m not sure it’ll be strong enough

#12

That does look nice. I went with a glossy finish on mine, but I also reduced the distance by body mounting some Kadee couplers.

(http://www.jbrr.com/assets/images/OnTrestle.jpg)

#13

OK, I wasn’t going to push my pictures in your thread, but since Bruce did. This is one of the ‘ugraded’ J&S cars…

(http://photo.cvsry.com/side_640.jpg)

(http://photo.cvsry.com/Platform-2_640.jpg)

(http://photo.cvsry.com/rear_6400.jpg)

#14

Wow john, those came out great! I like the glossy finish too. And the detailing really makes it

Nice work!

#15
mike omalley said:
The paint is great--it's Rustoleum "high heat" spray, in "green."
Green! I gotta find me some of that. My store just has the almond and black. The cars look great!

-Brian

#16

mike omalley said:
Wow john, those came out great! I like the glossy finish too. And the detailing really makes it Nice work!

Thanks. The green body and red trim around the windows is the Bachman factory paint. I painted the roof, porch floor and step treads plus the interior seats, floor and details. I wish I had a good interior shot. I was pretty pleased with them. EDIT - I found some interior shots of the combine made when I was working with Jason Slenker testing his constant LED lighting kit… [url=lsc.cvsry.com/Combine-Before_1_1024.jpg]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/Combine-Before_1_640.jpg)

[/url][color=blue]Original lighting enhanced with reflective ceiling FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/Combine-Before_3_1024.jpg]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/Combine-Before_3_640.jpg)

[/url][color=blue]Original lighting enhanced with reflective ceiling FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/Combine-Both_1_1024.jpg]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/Combine-Both_1_640.JPG)

[/url][color=blue]Both Original & LED lighting FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] I’ve never been real happy with the look of the white LED’s in a wood passenger car. They would be great in a modern car.

#17

I never paid much attention to mine until this thread popped up. The coach has the pink clerestory windows and the Baggage/Mail car has green clerestory windows. The 2 Sierra cars are clear.

#18
mike omalley said:
Wow john, those came out great! I like the glossy finish too. And the detailing really makes it

Nice work!


That is why the high class passenger cars were called “Varnish”, because they actually did put varnish over the paint job for protection. Usually 6 coats as the base, but it had to be maintained, constantly.

If you ever have a chance to see the coaches at the EBT, they have definitely lost that luster.

#19

An excellent exterior sealer/varnish is called “Man of War” I believe…I used it on my new/old front doors for my house and it takes a beatin’. UV protection for fade sucks but my house front doors face direct south and get tons of sun.

#20

Inspired by John, I painted the vestibule floors and added some safety yellow stripes to the steps, and painted the seats a bit. Managed to narrow the space between the cars by nearly an inch, cutting the tang with a razor saw and then reattaching the two pieces with Dev-Con plastic weld and styrene reinforcement, I ran these two cars for hours today, into the evening. They really are pretty nice. The LED lights worked out extremely well. In the coach, I used four warm white Christmas leds and then painted them with floquil “reading yellow.” Using a capacitor in the circuit got rid of any flicker At twenty volts the effect is about perfect

The plunger pistons for power add a LOT of drag though. I may have to swap them out for ball bearing wheels.