A journal following the history, design, construction and operation of Bernard Kempinski's O Scale model railroad depicting the U. S. Military Railroad (USMRR) Aquia-Falmouth line in 1863, and other model railroad projects.
©Bernard Kempinski All text and images, except as noted, on this blog are copyrighted by the author and may not be used without permission.
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October 15, 2009

More Clairborne Run Trestle Photos





Here are some more photos showing close-ups of the Clairborne Run Trestle.

I had a question about how I color the wood. Here is the process I used.

I stained the wood parts after cutting them to size. When staining wood in a model kit, you must stain the parts before gluing. Any glue that gets in the wood grain will be too obvious if you stain after gluing.

I used two different kinds of stains. Using different stain gives the wood the mottled look that I find pleasing, especially in a planked structure or railroad ties. The first kind of stain was a alcohol - dye blend sold by Albert Scale Lumber, out of Canada. I used three colors: black, light gray and barnyard red (but the latter only sparingly as it is very intense.)

The second was a stain I mixed at home using a combination of household oil based white semi- transparent stain, tinted with burnt umber from a tube of stain tints and Minwax Golden Pecan. I thinned the mixture with acetone to make it more fluid. This stain created a real weathered gray color, but must be wiped off or it leaves a glossy buildup. So you can't apply it to assembled parts as it collects in the nooks and crannies where it is hard to wipe off. The Mt Albert stains can be added to a built model as they dry flat.

Once the model was built and installed I drybrushed it with a light gray acrylic color called mushroom. It has a touch of green in it. It works well as a highlight color, better than plain white, which I find causes too much contrast.

My experience in building military models taught me to weather everything via washes and dry brushing. This includes the trains, structures, carved rocks, ground cover, and even trees. However, I am very careful in drybrushing figures as the effect is easily over done. One must paint figures more carefully, but that is a topic for another day.

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