Large Scale Central

Do we know that Mac McCalla passed? I't's said?

General Discussion
#1

According to that other train site (maybe this one too, if I missed it), weathering guru Mac McCalla passed away recently. Lots of nice condolence posts from some of our guys (Todd, Kevin) who do double duty. When I first Googled the McCalla name I got a hit from some funeral home in the South about this 93 year-old which wouldn’t be Mac. More Googling revealed that a person by the name Mac McCalla who lived in So Cal, did indeed die.

Do we know for sure? If it’s true, I’ll post my Mac story, which I wrote for those guys but couldn’t post because I forgot my nom de website and they asked me questions I couldn’t answer so now I am ticked off and won’t go back. Plus the page where they asked you to post your identity number or something, was set right in the middle of an ad for that car insurance company with the woman who everybody thinks is so (choose one) Hot, cute, funny, etc. Last thing I wanta do is click on something that enters my email name/address into some database that will dog me every time I click on something, offering stuff I don’t want.

Oh, sorry. If indeed Mac is gone, then RIP. He was a nice man.

#2

yes its true, a loss of one of the great ones in the hobby

#3

I attended one of Mac’s seminars at the Chicago convention back in 1998 or 1999 and bought my first double action airbrush at the show. Mac was a representative for Badger at the time. He certainly was an artist at weathering. I wonder if all the years of using solvent based paints without a respirator was a factor in his demise ?

#4

Well, Gary, I don’t want to say…

On the other hand, I’m not one of those guys who walks around wearing a mask when I’m cleaning a sink with Lysol. But then, I grew up in the industrial east (think Bethlehem Steel, Hooker Chemical, Love Canal, Chevy, Harrison Radiator, etc), so noxious fumes mean nothin’ to me. Plus, I’m not a mouth-breather.

Here’s what I wrote for “those guys.”

A great loss to our hobby. He’ll be missed for both his talent and his helpfulness. About 16 years ago when I was starting out in large scale, I spray painted a boxcar by dumping way too much paint on it, although it did give it an unique patina. Frustrated, I called Mac for advice. “How much paint did you use,” he asked? “Almost a bottle,” I said, to which he replied, “Hell, I could paint a whole train with that.” So he invited me over to his house, a typical So Cal tract home in Huntington Beach, where the walls of each room were lined with shelves crammed full of weathered rolling stock and locos. One small room housed a small, large-scale layout that pretty much filled every square foot of the place. He gave me a quick lesson in weathering technique–on the workbench in his garage, which at the time housed his white-and-blue Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am with the screaming eagle hood emblem. Last time I spoke to Mac at the Anaheim train show in January, he said he’d sold that car some time ago. Anyway, a neat guy and a true personality. BTW, I believe he was divorced, and may have had grown kids.

#5

Wow! that’s a name from the past and as others have stated a real modeler. His work was amazing. I don’t use an air brush, but he improved my painting skills. He was always quick with a smile and a friendly conversation.

#6

Mac was truly a master. I didn’t really know him, but attended several of the seminars he gave at ECLSTS over the years. He was directly responsible for my purchase of an air brush that I don’t use often enough. I went looking for his website “Make them old and dirty” a while back and couldn’t find it.

He will be missed. RIP Mac.

#7

Gary Buchanan said:

…I wonder if all the years of using solvent based paints without a respirator was a factor in his demise ?

I looked up one of his youtube video presentations and he was using water-based paint.

Aside from the airbrush approach, which I won’t even attempt, he seemed to have an artistic feel for weathering.

edit…I should mention I had never heard of him before this; too bad for me from what I’m reading.

#8

A very cool guy. I met him when he was doing HO seminars. A real, nice, down-to-earth guy who didn’t mind telling you all his secrets. The one he couldn’t helpfully pass on was his huge talent and an eye for just how much to do to make a loco or a piece of rolling stock (or a structure for that matter) look like a million in just a few minutes. RIP Mac.

#9

Badger markets a line of water based paints or did at one time but at the seminar I attended he was using solvent base, by the time it was over I was getting a buzz on and I was sitting towards the back of the room. Certainly no reason to believe it was related to his death, just pondering. I have never mastered using water based paints for modeling as airbrushing requires some changes in habit which I find harder as I get older. I do use exhaust ventilation and if doing large areas a Niosh respirator as well. In any event I was saddened to hear of his demise !

#10

Joe,

You could of asked me…

I posted the info on the other forum as soon as I received the sad news. I had been in contact with the Del Oro Pacific Group as they will be setting up one of their largest displays at the 2016 National Garden Railway Convention. We were looking forward to Mac McCalla holding one last weathering clinic at a National Convention. I received the sad news in an email Sept. 10th from Del Oro Pacific President Dennis Packer that informed me that Mac passed away the day before. He will be missed…

Joe, we gonna see you up at the convention?

Russell Miller

NGRC 2016 Chairman

2015 BAGRS President