WOW!!!

I remember when these units were new but I know that is no longer the case.  Great work!  I especially like the coloring of the underframe, truck side frames, and the fuel tank.  I think you captured the color of the cab interior very well, too.

Robert

CSX 7826

Thank you Robert! I appreciate the kindness!

Nick Campbell

Great Job and Article!

Hey Nick - what a labor intensive job detailing this beast, but it paid huge dividends, and the weathering just makes it even sweeter! I know you showed us this over at The Weathering Shop, but this article dives in and gives us the behind the scenes work and effort. Great Job

Terry

CSX 7826

Thank you Terry! I did indeed show the detailing on The Rustbucket but not the weathering.  I wanted to save the whole enchilada for this article. What a suprise for it to be the cover article too! Thank you Joe and Patty for that!! 

Nick Campbell

Great job Nick!

that article was great Nick. I really enjoyed it. All that work really paid off. The color you came up with for the grime is right on the money.  Can’t wait to see what else you have coming for us. 

WOW is right!

I was expecting an article on just weathering, but Nick darn near remanufactured the locomotive in the process!  As a sucker for extreme detail, this article was a joy to read.  In these days where you can just buy a super-detailed plastic locomotive, it's refreshing to see that someone still has the skills to actually put the "modelling" back into the hobby and create a super-detailed loco.  I only wish I had that much modelling talent.

CSX 7826

Steve and Todd...thank you both for being very supportive and kind with your comments! Steve, I do have a few things in the works and hope you will dig'em when I complete them. Todd, I am glad you enjoyed the detailing I did on this model. I have a limited skill set and an even more limited set of tools on a thin budget. This is why I feel that anyone willing to go slow and pay attention to detail can do what I did here. It's all about studying the prototype photos and picking up techniques that can be found here on MRH, The Weathering Shop and The Diesel Detailer. If not for the great tutorials from modelers far more advanced than myself on those sites and this one I would be lost and not nearly as effective a modeler. 

Thanks again ya'll! Nick Campbell

Outstanding article. This

Outstanding article.

This article would have to be one of my favorite out of 3-4 articles over the  5 years of reading this magazine, that I have enjoyed.I use to download it but now days just skim thru it. Will try out your techniques when I start  weathering my fleet of CSX loco's.

Phil

Great content-

just have to say, editorially wise, that 50 pages is a heck of an article length in one go.

Could have been serialised and other articles given a chance.

No I'm not a modeller on this scale but appreciate the artistry shown.

regards dave

CSX 7826

Thank you very much Phil! I'm honored that this article ranks among your favorites in a magazine that is always full of great content. Please also check out the tutorials on The Rustbucket forum at The Weathering Shop. I literally learned almost all of my weathering techniques there. 

Thank you for the appreciation Dave! I will state that, although it is quite a large article, they did reduce it somewhat from the original length that I submitted. 

Thanks again everyone! Nick Campbell

CSX 7826

Nick,

Superb sequence set of images.  Thumbs up.  I'm hoping this photo of a raw CSX style antenna straight outta of the mold shows up on here.  https://tonysissons.zenfolio.com/p863008052

Cheers, Tony S

Weathering is the ultimate personal touch!

Nick,

     You-da-man!  Great full modeling article, you captured everything needed to show all readers how "do it yourself" modeling is what this "Worlds Greatest Hobby" is all about.  Details-Details-Details...

You covered, upgrading a plastic model, painting, adding details, making of parts, sanding, measuring, working with brass, research, picture taking, diorama scene setting, electrical wiring, drilling,  led lighting, weathering, decaling, working with plastic, gluing, assembly, layering, clear coating, attention to details, superb detail article writing, and overall professionalism while capturing ones attention and motivating others to build their own version.

If I forgot anything please forgive, model railroading helps one develop a ton of skills which is only learned by doing. (For me), practice makes perfect and weathering is perfect to hide my mistakes in plain view ha.  Your reference to weathering techniques are highly informative & the whole article captures one's imagination overall.

Nice job Sir! Can't wait for your next article. Perhaps a sister unit? ha. 

Thanks, Joe Fugate for providing an unlimited medium for modelers to present "all the attention to detail" one can learn from.  MRH r-o-c-k-s.                               Thanx Thom...

CSX 7826

Thank you very much Tony! The photo of the antenna didn't show up here but I checked it out after copying and pasting the link. Very nice...it definitely looks the business! Furthermore, without your awesome detail parts this loco would have not been nearly as accurate...big thanks my friend!

Thom, you are too kind. I truly appreciate your very kind assessment! I agree with you in that model railroading is the world's greatest hobby AND that MRH absolutely rocks!! I do have another locomotive in the works which I am fully documenting. It isn't a sister unit though. It's a Southern SD40-2...Athearn RTR model. It is getting quite the detail workover and will be weathered from prototype photos of course. Hopefully once I'm done with it (sometime next year) MRH will consider publishing it.?

Thank you all again for taking the time to drop some love here on the article! Nick Campbell

Echoes of Protomodeler

Nick,

Reading through the article brought back great memories of the now defunct Protomodeler website.  The builds on there were well-documented with photographs and were top-notch, just like your 8-40CW.  It's a shame that it's gone now....would love to bring it back.

Fantastic job on your model.  Love the attention to smaller details.  The flange lubricators are great....after seeing your first use of them I went ahead and started adding them to my models....BNSF uses them quite a bit.

Also great weathering.  I'm going to have give gouache a try.  Butch Eyler and Dave Schroedle both use it extensively and I like the results.  Time to experiment!

-Kevin

CSX 7826

Thank you Kevin! I agree with you about Protomodeler. I always enjoyed visiting that site and getting my learn on. I always had to post in the less than proto areas because my models were eyeballed and not precisely measured. I also appreciate that you are adding flange lubricators...they're a nice detail that many locomotives have. I certainly wish someone would produce them because I don't like making them. haha Definitely try gouache. It has it's place in the weathering arsenal and I know you will use it in an outstanding fashion. I certainly miss your interaction at The Rustbucket my friend and can't wait to see another absolutely killer model from you!

Nick Campbell

Questions

Hi,

What is "damp acrylic paint"?,  what are "pin washes"?

Thanks.

Bob.

Damp paint and pin wash

Pin Wash

Pin washes seem to work better on satin or gloss. Flat acrylics and/or dullcoat has a tendency to resist flow.

Terry

pin washes

Weathering

Nick

Hey, Joe Gibson from Train Buddy crowd

Nice to see some one I know is getting recognized for their talents

Keep it up

Joe

Thank you!

Thank you!

CSX 7826

RDN, I think the others gave you a lot of good information before I saw the question from you. I will add one bit however. Where Joe stated that my damp brush is also known as drybrushing and is used for highlights, I use it for base colors. This is because I have a bit more paint still in the brush than a drybrush technique. This enables the paint to flow but not puddle. There is too much paint in the brush to highlight but not enough to splatter or pool.

Nick Campbell

CSX 7826

Thank you Joe!

Nick Campbell

I love how you say the model

I love how you say the model has problems and I'm over here thinking my locomotive weathering has failed! Keep up the great work, I was excited when I say the "coming next month" feature in the August issue.

On a side note, I've always wanted tony's parts, how do I go about ordering?