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Personally, I like solvent-based paint for painting things that need decals to be applied. It just seems much easier to lay down a much thinner coat, plus you can use enamels such as Scalecoat, which gives you a nice glossy surface that decals need in order to adhere to properly. For stuff...

The progress looks good! I've always liked the classic Conrail scheme, with the simple Escargot logo.. The newer Conrail Quality logoes looks too complicated for my tastes. :p

If you have access to a photo-editing program, you should: 1) resize the image to 640x480. 2) Increase the JPEG Compression to bring the byte size of the image down below 68K. I know Adobe Photoshop can do this.. There are other programs out there that can do these things as well. Once...

My favorite material for making roads as a matter of fact. :thumb: I find drywall compound the easiest to work with because you can smooth it out with just a simple wet sponge, even after it has set. I used to use plaster, but I hate having to sand it smooth after setting.

A parking lot is the easiest thing to build, man. If you are going for a parking lot in a rural location (the kind you find in front of a countryside general store), just a patch of bare dirt will do. If you are going for something a bit more suburban, a lot of crushed gravel might work (you...

Something very useful for organizing your tools and instruments: A fishing tackle box like this one: :thumb:

If you like that Chessie GP38, you are in luck, because Atlas offers a Chessie GP38 just like that in HO Scale: http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/dto/item150-9155.html Hope this helps! :thumb:

Hey, another fellow fan of the Escargot. :D Welcome!

Yep.. That's what they use on the Cascades trains... The Talgos do need one more modification: The end cars have roof-mounted aerodynamic fairings which you will need to scratchbuild. Not hard to do though. :thumb:

Athearn has some nice 72-footer streamlined cars which might work good for your situation. Ought to look good behind some of their Super Weight F7A locomotives. :thumb:

Most of the IHC stuff are actually 85-footers.. BTW Toy Train Heaven has some MDC Roundhouse RTR old-time Overland 50' sets of 4 cars for $50.. Not a bad deal. ;) For the record, I got Walthers Horizon commuter cars in both NJT and Metro North paint, plus Bachmann Amfleets among my rolling...

I think the Chessie locomotive in the below link is a thing of beauty. :D http://www.trainweb.org/chessie/gm50.htm

Yup, passenger cars are usually pretty long. 85 feet is the length I see most often, though I do see some scale 72ft. HO cars offered by various makes too. What era are you looking to model?

Yep, it's quite easy once you know how to do it right.. I think the biggest mistake first-timers make is applying the solder straight to the joint, resulting in a big ugly goober glob of solder on the joint. If you tinned the surfaces properly first, that never happens. :thumb:

Don't forget the F40C.. Basically it's a cowl-body SD40-2 built specifically for commuter service in the Chicago area. :thumb: I'm not sure why EMD didn't just call it an SDP40F.. It looks very similar to the SDP40Fs Amtrak used. Also, I was under the impression that the GP40-2 is...

You want steam locomotive detail parts, you look here: http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=190&split=300 http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=585&split=300 Hope this helps!

The easiest way to get a good-looking SDP40 would be kitbash an SD40 long hood onto a Kato SD45. The SD45 has the cab in the right location (unfortunately, the SD40's cab is placed too far aft). So you cut off the longhood behind the cab, then graft on an SD40 long hood. Build up the long...

AHEM! :cool:

Hi Chrisdapos, The thing with Microscale decals is that they do not stick to bare plastic. It will only stick to surfaces such as glossy enamel or clearcoat. I would use a sable brush and brush on a layer of Testors Glosscote or Floquil Gloss Finish onto the face of the number board so the...

Bachmann makes a 3-axle Plymouth MDT shunter which might suit your purposes: http://www.toytrainheaven.com/.sc/ms/cat/HO%20Locos%20Diesel,%20Bachmann--MDT%20Plymouth Hope this helps!