Minitrix 15401 Gas Wagon Set - weathering and stuff

I purchased a set of Minitrix's 15401 Gaskesselwagen-Set at Opherline when I was in Europe in February and received another set for my birthday from my wife as we decided to head north and do a little shopping at the EuroRail Hobbies shop!  So now I have a 10 wagon set of 'gas wagons'! Almost a real train!

These 5 car sets seem to be a good value; they are standard Minitrix quality (which is good) and retail for just over $100 USD, which turns out to be a bit more than $20 USD per car!  I think that's pretty good these days!  They also come nicely packaged in an attractive box and with individual cases for each car.

My only problem is that they are too pretty and need some dirt and rust! So off came the bogies, wheel sets removed, and away I went with a variety of washes, powders and some air-brushing to try and mimic some of the great weathering I've seen from others.

I'll skip sharing photos of 'how' I did it because I basically just used all sorts of techniques that you can find through any search of the web or YouTube.   Below are three of the wagons, the wagon in the foreground was untouched, while the two in background were given different types of weathering. I noticed in the various photos I looked at that sometimes the roofs would get really dark on some wagons, while others still stayed fairly white.

All wagons -except for brand new ones!-  show some rusting at the various rivet and joint areas.  I used a 'rust' wash from Vallejo for most of the rust streaks.  When I wanted a bit heavier rust pattern, I would mix in a bit of a rust weathering powder.

In general, I think they turned out really well and I like the look of this train a lot! I also weathered two VTG Gas wagons that I had purchased a few years ago and which I think will look fine as part of the train...for a total of 12 wagons!

But here's the problem....these wagons are heavy!  I first tried to pull them with a Kato Class 66...no luck!  My Arnold BB 25500 had no luck!  Wow! I only found one locomotive that could pull this train alone with any confidence that it could also make my 2% grades as well!  That locomotive was a Bachmann HHP-8 (what!? You say? Isn't that an American loco? Well, yes, sort of...but its cool and I have secret plans for it in the future...stay tuned for that!), anyway.....ultimately I'll have to figure out how to use my Roco Multimaus to program a multi-unit lashup to pull this train of 12 cars!

To paraphrase what others have said before, weathering is an act of faith.  Each time I weather a car, I am usually pleased with the results.  I think the most important part is having a good reference for what you want your results to look like (I had several photos from the web I printed out as reference), and some good materials to work with.  The various washes and powders that are increasingly available at hobby shops seem pretty fool proof if you apply the materials with care and aren't in a hurry!

Okay, that's it for now!  From a now dirty and rusty Quinntopia...Happy Modelling!

N Scale Cars with Lights from China!

 

Okay, so I've got lights in my trains, lights in my buildings but no lights in my cars! Is this one of those final details that will be sacrificed in the name of cost/time in this scale?  For years, that is what I have been gradually accepting.  Yes, their have been cars released with lights installed, but these tend to be fairly limited and very expensive!

Well, the industrious Chinese are at it again!  I was asked a question about these a couple of months back, and hadn't really paid attention to them until someone pointed out the price....about $2.00 each!

So I ordered myself a pack of 10 to check them out and installed them in my 'passenger terminal' backscene area you see picture above.   I ordered mine from Everest Model on eBay, although they currently have nothing for sale, I would recommend searching on eBay as I suspect someone else may aslo offer these at some point. 

The cars come in a plastic bag, no fancy packaging.  Which is nice considering the price! :-)

The wire leads to the four SMD LED's in these cars are naturally soldered oh so delicately, so take care not to accidently disconnect the wire form the SMD, like I did in the car below! But, this car now makes the perfect subject to take a look at what is going on 'under the hood' as we say here in the US.

The bottom of the car is a black plastic material that comes off with some gentle prying. 

The yellow wire is attached to a resistor with 'green/brown/black' color coding, which seems to indicate these are 51ohm resistors.  Which is both advertised and seems to work fine with 12v DC power.   I have to say that I was honestly impressed that these vehicles come with 4 SMD (LED's) installed: 2 white in the front, and 2 red in the back! 

Of course, what really matters is how they look!  Well, with some minor image adjustment with the camera to capture the overall look (these LED's are quite bright!), they look pretty incredible!  Now, the cars themselves are really nothing to get excited about, but they do seem to be better than I was expected. 

The white and red lights appear just where they should with only a very small amount of 'bleed' into the car interiors!  And look at those headlights in the below photo! Wow!

So I have a couple of thoughts with these....I like them a lot, but they are rather plain and a layout full of these could look strange. I was thinking of removing the wiring and LED's and installing them into a Wiking, Busch or other vehicle, but that's essentially like doing the wiring myself.  No thanks.  Some paint and other details might be enough to avoid looking too uniform, but again, its still a basic, boring, sedan.

Stumped

Hello again modelling friends! As you can tell from the title of this post I've hit what others might call 'writers block' with the layout.  And its this blog that's to blame.

Let me explain.

One of the many benefits of blogging about your hobby (trains, slot cars, war games, doll houses, exotic fish collectors, etc...) is that it gives you a nice overview of where you've been, where you're going, tracks your progress, documents things you want to refer back to later and (most importantly) connects you with others with similar or other interests (one of my personal rules about this blog is to keep a certain amount of discipline with regard to the content - it must be somehow related to N scale, European or Japanese modelling, or the pursuit of this hobby - I also have a small slot car track as well as a passion for Gerry Anderson and other sci-fi models, a growing love for the Naruto anime series, etc... but you won't find me posting about that here!).

A certain form of self-awareness also is created as you sit down to compose your thoughts on what you did in your hobby for 'the blog' and as you write it down you can't help explaining why you did it a certain way, or what others might suggest when you post some embarassing bit about your sloppy/rushed modelling job!

It was actually something I only thought of while posting on my "Model Power" kitbash back in the middle of March that has cuased me to fall off the cliff of creativity and cease all layout activities!  Here is the original comment I made in that post:

I am having a bit of an internal debate on the why/how of the actual need for a building in this location as I could just as easily have the street above the passenger terminal merge into the other road.  

Here's the photo that accompanied that comment for some context:

The truth is, I REALLY did not think about why I was adding a building to fit that triangular spot until I started writing up the post about my Model Power kitbash attempt.  So once I finished this post, I started thinking more and more...."why would a building be here? It does make more sense to have the street continue through to the bridge".

The problem is that I've already put in a lot of time into the Model Power kit bash, street arrangements, sidewalks.

So I have gridlock: I am stuck between doing what I now believe to be the 'right thing', means scrapping a lot of work, time and effort from the original flawed (I now believe) plan.

Does that sound familar my fellow hobbyists?  I think this is the hardest part of the hobby, and maybe the reason a lot of people 'stop' at some point.  You invest a lot of time and energy, attempting to do what you think is the right thing, only to discover you did it wrong (need examples?  Too many switches, too much track in tunnels can't be cleaned, baseboards not even, not enough wiring to track, etc...etc...  fortunately I have learned or am in the process of learning more of these all the time!) and it just can be sort of discouraging after a while.

And that's why we need to be tenacious.  And this is why hobbies, any hobby, is good.

Tenacity is, frankly, not something that comes easy any more in our society, its just so much easier to 'give up' on so many things of rather trivial importance.  But I also think that this can result in a bad habit.  So that it becomes easier and easier to give up on important stuff as well. 

Okay, I may be reaching here, but I think 'tenacity' is a key character trait that our hobbies can both develop and require and share in common with other activities, like sports.  It is seldom recognized or understood in most hobbies however, although we can all appreciate some of the amazing results of people who have 'stuck with it' through all sorts of trials!  And therefore, the tenacity we 'learn' in our hobbies has a positive impact on the rest of our lives? 

Personally, I know that if I don't get back into that train room and decide to 'heck with the Model Power Kitbash!' I may never go back!  And then the whole investment is 'wasted' (okay, that's a bit over the top, but you get my point I hope)!

So that's a quick update on the layout.  And explains why all of my blog posts for the past month and a half have been about cars, hobby shops, loco reviews....anything other than layout updates!


If all goes well, my next post will be about the destruction of the Model Power kitbash! Hoorah!

Another Manhattan Hobby Shop Visit & Review

About three years ago I posted a review of a hobby shop in midtown Manhattan.  At the time I thought this was the only remaining hobby shop left in Manhattan.  As it turns out, this is incorrect.  Gotham Model Trains is located a few blocks south of the Times Square area, technically not too far from Red Caboose.

As you might have guessed from the above photo, I caught the M Line to get to Gotham Model trains, alighting at 34 St - Penn Station in the 'Garment District' where a short walk over to W 35th Street is an easy 5 minute walk to the building where Gotham Model Trains is located.  Below is looking West on 35th:

Continuing to walk west on 35th....

Finally arriving at the addres at 224 West 35th....where's the store?  Does that cryptic sign on the right mean I was too late? Has another hobby shop fallen by the wayside? No, not really....in this case you need to enter the lobby at 224 West 35th....

And then take the elevator to the 13th floor!

On the 13th Floor, you will find a clean lobby, with a well-marked entrance to the hobby shop!  Street level real estate apparently being well out of reach for a hobby shop in modern day Manhattan (even the aforementioned Red Caboose is in a basement after all!), this high-rise location seems to make sense! however I would have missed it if I hadn't decided to take a chance and go into the lobby and ask the doorman!

I was pleasantly surprised to find a well-stocked hobby shop up here on the 13th floor!  As you can see from the photos, scenery materials, paints are available. 

Probably of more interest was what appeared to be a very nice collection of HO brass locomotives, as well as a nice selection of European HO gauge materials from Marklin, Roco, etc....  This I did not expect!  They aslo a small but very nice HO layout on display!

A smaller selection of N Scale items included recent offerings from Minitrix, Arnold and others, in addition to a good selection of materials from Kato (not only Unitrack, but several of the more recent and larger buildings were for sale).

Given its relatively convenient location just south of Midtown and nice selection if you're in the middle of Manhattan for pleasure or business, a visit to Gotham Model Trains is probably a very welcome diversion from Broadway plays and overpriced meals!  A special thanks to the friendly staff for their kindness and permission to take some photos for the blog!