STAP with Battledroid finished

S.T.A.P. with Battledroid is finished. Chipping technique in STAP looks really good, maybe better than the chipping technique used in Battledroid.

I used Vallejo Model-Air color for airbrush, and I have to admit these paints are great. No need to dilute, great application and adhesion, and metallic colors are just awesome!!!

I did some washes with acrylic black paint diluted in airbrush cleaner. I use the acrylic paint that comes in tubes, like oils, for washes. Texture is very similar to oils and it has a really weathered finish.

I also did some drybrush, mostly in dark grey parts of the STAP with aluminium color. Engines' noozles (reactors) where filled with magenta ink (from citadel) and drybrushed with metallic color. It has a red shiny finish with which I'm really satisfied.

STAP with battledroid: Chipping

My railroad model doesn't advance very fast because of my other hobbies, I have to split my little free time between them. I like bonsais (http://verenverde.blogspot.com) and build plastic model kits. I like to build StarWars related models. But everything has application in the railroad model, because many buildings come in plastic model kit that you have to mount, glue and paint. That's the reason I'll post also in this blog some of my work in plastic kits. All techniques can be useful for railroad model buildings and scenery.

This is a very useful painting technique in plastic models, and I practiced it for first time in my STAP with Battledroid. It consists in the following steps:

1) Base paint with a metallic color, in my case Aluminium



2) Then airbrush again with gloss varnish:

3) Paint normally with your prefered color
4) Before it's completely dry (but not wet) use adhesive tape fixing it to the new paint layer and quickly strip it out. It will remove your last color layer and aluminium color will appear. But aluminium will suffer no damage because it was protected with the varnish.

 

You can also use some sharp tool to create those wears in the edges and create scratches:

The only difficult thing is to find the right drying time of the paint to start chipping, and the type of adhesive tape because not all have the same "traction power". I suggest you to start with some wasted adhesive tape (fix it to the table some times before try it in the model) or it can occure it removes too big pieces.

But definitely the effect is much better than painting chips with any other technique, like with darker or lighter halos.

Cité du Train

I go to visit my sister, who lives in Paris, as often as I can. Last May I went there to spend four days taking the advantage of a long weekend. As she knows my passion for trains, we decided to visit the Cité du Train which is the biggest railway museum in Europe with more than 6000 m2 where the railway story is presented in a cinema set.

So we took the TGV from Gare du Nord heading to Mulhouse.

If money is not your problem (not my case) you can eat at Le Train Bleu restaurant. This is a luxury restaurant inside of the train station and its name comes from the luxury express night french train operated from 1886 to 2007, also known as Calais-Mediterranée express (don't get confused with The Blue Train running in South Africa). The only dangerous thing eating in that restaurant is stiff neck, once you see the gorgeous ceiling.

From Mulhouse station to the Cité du Train you can take a modern tram until the museum entrance.

And once in the museum you can spend a full day inside. There's a pack to visit also a car museum, but it's too much just for one day if you like trains.

In the first part of the museum the story of “The Golden Age of Rail” (1844 to 1960) is presented, with the aid of permanent animations, audiovisual displays, and “son et lumière” shows. 

Very curious things can be seen here, like a representation of a scene from "Murder on the Orient Express" in a original dinning car or a "railway bicycle":

Other part of the museum, even bigger than the previous Le Parcours Espectacle, is a collection of locomotives and wagons covering all the history of trains in France. Beginning from a 111 type Buddicom nº33 "Saint-Pierre" and ending with the TGV who has the current speed record with 574 km/h on normal tracks, you will see an incredible amount of different rolling stock.

The smallest part is dedicated to scale models, but nothing better of what you can see in dedicated events and mainly in HO.

The last part shows you the different engines used across the history of trains: