I was never good at putting on decals in N scale, so I won't try Z. I'm trying to keep my painting simple. One body color, and if needed a second for the roof and sides. I've also found that I get hung up too much on imperfections. Keeping things simple fights that. Really, as long as I have the right locomotive pulling a passenger or freight train, I'm okay with not doing too much beyond painting my rolling stock.
I have 3 new freight car designs to show off: a 36' double-sheathed boxcar; a flatcar; and a bay window caboose. I'm going to post these designs at my Cults 3D store next week, I think. I'm also going to feature these in a November video. I'm thinking about making two, one for these freight cars and one for the new passenger cars. Of course I'll post here when my videos go live. Happy November everyone!
Nice work! Those 3D-printed cars are a great way to increase the fleet quickly and inexpensively, other than the time involved to design, print, assemble, paint and decal them. Are you planning to "snow" your track over? If you do, might I suggest (if you can find it) Arizona Rock & Mineral marble dust? It makes great snow. Fixing it in place is challenging, though. You have to be very careful with glue application. I can describe it better if you like.
Thanks! Actually, the snow effect is paint. Lots of "Snow White" acrylic paint. I set down some Woodland Scenics Earth ground cover, and began putting down paint. I did some tests of my first Z layout and liked the effect, so I did it with this one. It was a fun way to get a snowy, wintry look without having to spend too much money. I guess you could say it looks like it's been a couple days since it snowed. Everything's off every roof and the road is clear, but it's still too cold for anything else to have melted.
Artist gesso can work as snow on things, such as roofs, mailboxes, etc. Lightweight Hydrocal works well for snowy trees. Snow them off-layout...
I decided to make a wood baggage car. I also decided to try them with Archbar trucks. They run well, so I'm putting Archbar trucks on my wood passenger cars. I had one to put on the coach. I'll put another pair on the combine, the print and paint a second coach. I think it'll be fun to have some variety when I run passenger trains with those cars.
I recently designed, printed, and painted a 4-window caboose and a center cupola caboose. I think I might run a caboose train in an upcoming video.
I have another new design to show off, a Frisco dining car. I don't know when I'll run it in a video, but I am glad I made it. I'll have the design up at my Cults shop soon.
I enjoy looking at the photos of your works. So have you changed your thoughts about trying to decal them? I know you said you weren’t interested before but I just wondered if you’re thinking about taking that shot yet?
Thanks! Sorry, no, haven't changed my mind. I made an attempt to paint the red window band on an old car, and it didn't turn out well at all. So I won't be putting on decals on my cars.
I decided it'd be fun to design and print a few 70-foot passenger cars like the old "blue box" Athearn HO cars. I started with a few streamlined models: a baggage car, a coach, and a diner. I'm planning on designing and printing a few 70' heavyweight cars. The photo is of the coach; if anyone wants to see the others I'll post more pictures. Otherwise, I'm hoping to post my December video Sunday morning. I'll share it here when it goes live.
Thanks! I used Micro-Trains #959. I use those on all my streamline passenger cars. I'm looking at the 6-wheel trucks for any heavyweights I design and print.
