Modeling NJT

When put next to that Silverliner, the Arrow looks like it has quite a few things wrong with it.

I wouldnt even try rust olum for plastic on these. Its much larger particles than model paints and its not going to look right. One of my friends really messed up some catwalks on U36Cs by painting them black with krylon....

N-Trizzy2609 wrote:

No ones comparing assembly lines, and two cars are big enough project for me especially this time of year. Finals Session and what not.

I'm just joking around, don't take it seriously. these cars will probably never get done. ever. lol. I might get about four of them going before i run out of time. And i still need to make more pantographs for them.

I have four Silverliner IVs on the way in which I'm trying to build somewhat better then the kits I have now. As for the IHP Silverliner IV. It has photoshop made temporary decals and well as you can see, YUCK. I purposely left bubbles in the IV's so I can just scratch em off when I get a set of new IMW decals. (Though I might slap on a SEPTA meatball with PC logo for a photoshoot before hand then scratch those off.)

As for the Arrow decals, they are sealed into the paint and there's no way to fix that without repainting the train.

All you have to do is poke the bubbles with an exacto blade and apply the solvaset. even though you have paint on the decals, they will still soften and conform with the model, removing any chance they'll come off. I notice your Silverliner II also has a "tent" going on with its decals, around the number board. This is especially important if you are charging people for custom paint jobs, because if the decals don't stick, you get angry customers.

I'm going to switch my silver from this dull crap to either Rust-O-Lium Metallic for plastic or go full blown alclad for the IVs. (Only reason why I'm debateing is because I want to see how well the Rust-O-Lium looks before I drop that money for alclad plaint,) The pinstripe decal idea wasn't half bad. I used a slim sharpie and a little bit of clear coat marker to make them and it only covers 85% of the line. Something for the IVs.

Just go with the Alclad. Rustoleum is, as Approach medium noted, to Coarse in its pigments and it would look "sparkly", not metallic. Whats more, it would require more work to get it set up for use in the airbrush. Meanwhile, alclad goes straight into the airbrush, and only requires 2 light coats of gloss black base coat, and 3-4 coats of Chrome, and you're done. Make sure the paint the faces "Stainless Steel" since these are duller than the sides.

I don't recommend using sharpy markers for anything either. they don't necessarily give the finish or consistency that looks like. they tend to have a "redness" to them in the light. if you absolutely had to do it by hand, i'd use a small paint brush, with most of the paint wiped off, and just run the side of the brush along the ridge, so that the bristles are directed away from the rest of the model. if this is done in one smooth stroke, it will paint only the top surface of the ridge black, leaving everything else a lone. a little masking tape wouldn't hurt either.

Regarding the Arrow IIIs, the details in pictures look pretty good. Corrugation is decent, and rooftop detail from what I can see is correct. Underbodies look good. Vestibule doors are too long, but that looks like it was a design thing so that mold-making would be easy, and it's a simple modification with some filing. The stairwell walls should be flush with the body, but that is also an easy fix with some putty and styrene. (Again, a simple change probably made for mold-making purposes.) The only things that could use some improvement in future runs are the ends. The biggest issue is that the end windows are too far apart. On the prototype (Photo references here & here), both the engineer and fireman windows look like they should be centered between the edges of the car sides and the doors. The IMW model's are too far outward by a few millimeters. The next thing is that the end doors are too shallow. For reference, IHP's has them at the correct depth. Also, the grab iron on the end door looks like it needs to be flipped to face the other direction. From what I've browsed through so far, I can find on RR Picture Archives, the Arrow III end door grab irons all seem to curve rightward rather than left. Marker lights are in the correct spots, and the ditchlights look alright too. (Note that marker lights on the Arrow III are farther outward than those on the Silverliner IV.) The bezeling on the sides looks like it could be a bit sharper, but it's not bad. Overall, the Arrows are pretty good looking. Let me also add that I like the exclusion of molded-on grab irons which will make it tremendously more easy to add them on in the superdetailing process. A few simple tweaks in the next run would make these models look pretty spectacular. Plus, they would also benefit the quality of the married pairs when they're released as well as the Silverliner IVs when they come along.

I've experimented with the rust-o-lium metallic finish color on two different models and was also a little skeptical beforehand but the end result was great, very smooth finish with no runs or blotches and the color looked like stainless steel, no sparkly finish. The trick was that I just took my time and always made sure there was enough distance between the spray can and model. So it might be worth to at least try it on a test model and see how you like it.

c604. wrote:I've experimented with the rust-o-lium metallic finish color on two different models and was also a little skeptical beforehand but the end result was great, very smooth finish with no runs or blotches and the color looked like stainless steel, no sparkly finish. The trick was that I just took my time and always made sure there was enough distance between the spray can and model. So it might be worth to at least try it on a test model and see how you like it.

Might not be a bad idea for me to experiment with this on these Comet Vs that i have, since they are in my opinion not worth the price of the Alcald.

c604. wrote:I've experimented with the rust-o-lium metallic finish color on two different models and was also a little skeptical beforehand but the end result was great, very smooth finish with no runs or blotches and the color looked like stainless steel, no sparkly finish. The trick was that I just took my time and always made sure there was enough distance between the spray can and model. So it might be worth to at least try it on a test model and see how you like it.

I painted my Bosie Budd RDC Cab Car with Rust-O-Lium silver paint a few months ago and I sold it within a week for $45. I usually use Trymia (idk how to spell it so forgive me) Silver Leaf or Tryimia Chrome (Used on my R32s) and it look just fine but like GEC pointed out long ago Alclad just looks that awesome and more realistic to real stainless. Sadly, I have to make a choice between the Alclad and the Rust-O because if I choose to alclad, my Silverliners will look like Britney Spears while the rest of model look like a fat southern cousin of hers plus why do I wanna pay $6 for a 1oz bottle of Alclad when I can get 12oz Rust-O Metallic for the same price at Lowes. GEC is like being a good model mentor on this project, shout to you and your 15 Arrows. =D

Now I need to make a stem pantograph and I'm probably going to merge Sommerfelt two 968 pantos but my big problem with the Sommerfelts is that they are highly oversized for MU cars. So I hope it don't look like I'm putting a sombrero on a baby.

c604. wrote:I've experimented with the rust-o-lium metallic finish color on two different models and was also a little skeptical beforehand but the end result was great, very smooth finish with no runs or blotches and the color looked like stainless steel, no sparkly finish. The trick was that I just took my time and always made sure there was enough distance between the spray can and model. So it might be worth to at least try it on a test model and see how you like it.

I've heard of people decanting the spray rustoleum out and then spraying it out of an airbrush for more control. I use Rust-o-lium metallic finish at work to repaint Blower lobes detroit diesels, and while it certainly makes a part look silver again, I'm not so sure how confident i am in it's ability to accurately match the metallic appearance of the Arrows in scale. Might have to try it sometime.

N-Trizzy2609 wrote:
GEC pointed out long ago Alclad just looks that awesome and more realistic to real stainless. Sadly, I have to make a choice between the Alclad and the Rust-O because if I choose to alclad, my Silverliners will look like Britney Spears while the rest of model look like a fat southern cousin of hers plus why do I wanna pay $6 for a 1oz bottle of Alclad when I can get 12oz Rust-O Metallic for the same price at Lowes.

This is called "Progress". Older models are going to fall back as bigger and better things are developed. Properly sprayed, a bottle of Alclad will last for a while. I've seen models sprayed with rust-o-lium, and while they certainly are more metallic than most other silver paints, but it doesn't beat the alclad II.

You gotta make a decision at what level you want to go. If you can afford all these models, you can afford the Alclad. I haven't "needed" to buy another bottle of Alclad II in years now, and i started out with three chrome bottles (though i do pick up more bottles whenever i find some).

Now I need to make a stem pantograph and I'm probably going to merge Sommerfelt two 968 pantos but my big problem with the Sommerfelts is that they are highly oversized for MU cars.

Actually, the sommerfeldts are undersized. Almost all european pantographs are to small for american prototypes. I know i've gone through lenths to make them from scratch, and truthfully it doesn't cost much, but you have to be able to work with it.

I've considered selling kits to make Stemman pantographs, but i think once people got them, they'd look at me and wonder why they didn't just make them on their own.

A what if model, NJT RDC in new paint model is a kato N scale RDC-1

I like it!

I usually prefer Disco Stripes to the Disco Smears on older equipment as I like how the simpler designs compliment the bodies a certain way, but in the case of the RDCs, the Disco Smears somehow work. Nice job; it looks good.


Speaking of Disco Smears, it looks like IMW's decal sets are finally gone. Damn. Looks like it's back to Illustrator for when I finally get around to doing NJT stuff.

Wow, that's really neat!

shoot, so much for my other ALP46 or any other plans i had with the modern NJT stuff.

green_elite_cab wrote:shoot, so much for my other ALP46 or any other plans i had with the modern NJT stuff.

Same here. I have decals for a three car set of Comet V's (don't have the cars yet, but I'll be ordering them soon since I'm now back at work) and was hoping to get decals for a fourth and for a few Comet IIM's and IV's.

Does anyone know if Microscale still makes the disco stripes for the Comets?

yes, i check there every few weeks hoping they will have the new paint, yes they have the older NJ transit decals