Road Runner Division

ROAD RUNNER DIVISION

(previously scheduled as April 2013 update)

Less than 45 NMRA members are strewn across the 65,000+ square mile Road Runner Division geography of southern New Mexico and far west Texas. Monthly meetings are often held in the historic Las Cruces (NM) Railroad Museum beside the BNSF line to El Paso. A few months ago, a blog was created through Google to improve member communication and to promote Division activities. Region members are welcome to review at this address: http://nmraroadrunner.blogspot.com/

Our recent meetings have focused on sharing the latest projects and techniques of the membership. Everyone is encouraged to bring completed models and works-in-progress to show and discuss. Presentations on weathering, Free-mo modular standards, and designing small layouts have been well received among the members. Meeting attendance has ranged from twelve to eighteen, with some people travelling as much as two hours from their homes. Once or twice a year, a home layout is open in conjunction with the meeting and the annual picnic offers a change the pace.

Superintendent Mike Weiss opened his layout to the members in March. His layout has almost doubled in size since the last member visit.

Each year a couple of popular vote “contests” are held. A specific theme is set a few months in advance so members can prepare their entries. Weathering was the April theme and nearly 40 models in N, S and HO scales were displayed for consideration. After members reviewed the entries and voted, each of the modelers described the techniques applied to the various models. A light spray of grimy paint or a dilute paint wash was a typical starting point. Modelers then described adding layers of powders and other techniques to achieve their goals. Here are a few of the weathered models.

Mike Fifer displayed an N scale work train and a box car. Mike employed techniques using an overspray from an airbrush, dry brushing, and Bragdon powders to weather his cars. On the box car, he used a q-tip to remove some of the powder that had covered the reporting marks. Mike’s train won second place and his box car took third.

The following entries may not have captured the vote, but we all learned about different weathering techniques that were applied to the models.

Steve McDaniel used several Bragdon powder colors to achieve the final appearance of this Santa Fe diesel.

Lynn Daugherty used grey primer to paint the corrugated metal parts of this S scale mine structure, then he applied Bragdon powders in varying amounts to give each panel a different look. Lynn installed the corrugated panels only after each was weathered.

Mike Weiss used a very thin wash of white to age the dark black color of this HO scale coal hopper. A thin wash of terra cotta color craft paint was used to bring out a rusty interior and add rust highlights to the car sides. He finished it off with some grimy Bragdon powders.

Eric Hansmann started on the roofs of to these two HO scale box cars. He used a light grey paint to create the impression of paint failure on the galvanized roof parts, then earth and grey color paints were used on the running boards to represent a couple of replaced boards that were left unpainted. An oil based burnt umber wash was applied. When the models had dried, additional highlights were added using Prismacolor softcore color pencils. An application of fine powders blended the work together. Raw umber Pan Pastel pigments were used on the WM box car and plain dirt was used on the C&O car. Small paper scraps were glued to the tack boards.  

Submitted by Eric Hansmann