Hi Everybody,
Sorry about being away so long. But with the joys of owning a basement covered by living quarters means you have to spend time away from the railroad. But I decided last weekend that I was going to spend this weekend working on the railroad. And so I did.
I began by detailing the ties(for no better word). I was a little worried about using the fine tooth saw on the ties. I was worried that a big group of ties are going to all have the same grain pattern(is this considered rivet counting?), so instead of using the whole length of the saw blade, 6 inches long, I found that by using only an inch or two, I would have better control over how the ties, even ones side by side, would be different.
What do you think? I didn't find myself trying not to do the same thing on each tie. I found it quite fast doing the gouging and adding checks. With the ties in their natural wood the results can't be seen as well as when they are colored
This is the "Early American" minwax stain I decided on. I thinned down the stain with mineral spirits to make more of a wash than a stain. I then started coloring in different patterns to see how they would look. In the end, the coloring all came out the same.
I also used a black wash I made as well as a light gray and a earth wash. After doing all the ties differently and as you can see in the above photo, they basically all the same coloring. So I decided on the following,
First coat is a coat of the black wash. One or two coats.
Second coat is the brown stain. The amounts vary from tie to tie.
Third and Fourth are washes of the gray and earth. Don't forget to do the sides and ends of the ties too.
I let it dry for a while here. When I came back there was too much gray so I kind of dry brushed some brown stain on to cut down the gray. By kind of dry brush, is after dipping the tips of the brush into the stain and squeezed out most of the stain on the jar lip. And to mash it all together with a wash of black.
I am using the light from the same light that will be used to light the railroad. Right now I only have one bulb, one of the compact fluorescent lamps. The lighting should go up soon too.
Now these tracks are going to be buried under dirt and ballast so I was able to practice on these ties before going out on to the rest of the railroad.
Another piece of news. The track will be ballasted with cinders. My friend Phil Opielowski, the builder of the mill, told me where real cinders can be gotten. We're going to try and get to the location this week, which happens to be Templeton, MA. The Ware River branch past threw town and the station area is still covered with cinders as well as the roadbed. As the Hopedale has past the change over from steam, the roadbed and ballast is still cinder.
See ya next time.
