Piko Harz Kamel now has full set of lights, sound and been weathered

[dunnyrail]

After much delay (it has been on the bench since December) I have finally completed Chipping and Lighting my Harz Kamel. She has a been fitted up with a Massoth eMotion XLS decoder. Having been on a trip to the Harz mountains and seen Kamels again, it was noticed that some are fitted with a Flashing Light on the Cab Roof. I was keen to have this, but after an aborted attempt with a Flashing LED I decided to put a request out in this forum. Muns came to my rescue as seen below on this link:-

http://www.gscalecentral.net/m138704

I have also fitted red lights to complete the lighting, the white lighting being already on board. All has been wired via the Chip for complete control. Here are a few pictures of how I do this, using 1mm KS Tube, Veroboard and LGB 24v Bulbs. I wanted to be able to replace faulty bulbs, so all of the ones that I fitted are replaceable should they fail. They just push into the tube, being kept in place by friction. I hope that the pics make it clear how I do this.

Here is a picture of the loco in the workshop, you should just be able to make out where the flashing lamp is on the cab roof.

Finally here is a short Vid on Utube showing it all in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAql...that I messed about with just ask. JonD

 

[nygma]

It looks great. Can you tell us how you did the weathering? Also can we have some more pictures from the garden?

 

[Phil]

Now thats a nice neat and tidy job there you should be very proud jon.. when do you start taking orders?

 

[dunnyrail]

Ok Phil and Nyma, many thanks for your kind comments and yes I do take pride in my work. Being happy that I can generally work to a common standard of mediocrity which works for me. So your wishes are my command. Here are some pics in the Garden taken just now:-

As for weathering, this is not such an easy nut to describe. First there appear to be many in the smaller camps that think just by sloshing dirty paint thinners over a loco is weathering. Well it tends to look awful. Particularly if the thinners are TOO DARK. Now don't get me wrong, it does have a place but needs to be done with subtelty as does all weathering. So let me give you my top tips.
1 - Be subtle, you can always add more but taking away is not so easy.
2 - Do a thin wash of Light Grey mixed with some rusty brown, Tamiya Hull Red works well for the rusty effect. Mix very thin so that you can barely see the colour Just taking off the plastic sheen works well here.
3 - Dry Brushing, use light varying colours such as again Hull Red, Grey, Matt Black and even Matt White. Yes White is great for highlighting details as is the Grey. Again be subtle, load the brush with a small amount of paint and then wipe it all off with a cloth till you are hardly putting any on. Remember build up gradually. Use thicker amounts for Chassis Dust, Rust and dark wethering.
4 - Do a bit, let it dry and come back for more, even next day if you want to. Gradually build the effect rather than just slopping it all on in one hit and hoping that it will work.
5 - Follow a Picture if you can, try to emulate the subtlety of what you see in that picture.
6 - Be Subtle!!!
Hope this all helps, show us some of your efforts
JonD

 

[dunnyrail]

Whilst I was in Germany last December I did look at the Kamels with the additional buffers and thought hmmmm. So here is my updated Kamel. Probably not too many like this one now.

JonD

 

[Madman]

Nice work. That engineer certainly gets around. Or he has a few look alikes

 

[mike]

very nicely done, its certinly improved the beast

 

[jameshilton]

I have to say that's very impressive. I don't like weathering with a single medium, be it washes, dry brushing, powders or an airbrush. You need to use different techniques for different effects. The Kamel captures the look (especially with the Harz photos on the forum recently) very well indeed. No mean feat in G, as consistency of finish is a lot harder than in the smaller scales that I'm usually used to