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Building a TrainGIF, Part 4 
The Body

BNSF 1008 DASH9-44CW, January 2000, Tacoma, WA. David Cooley photo.

Now it's time to paint the most recognizable part - the body. Creating a realistic looking image requires the use of colors that are in between the key colors in the paint scheme. I like to build a color "wheel" to define these shades in advance. I then adjust shadings as needed in the drawing.

I look for colors that are adjacent to each other in the real thing, such as yellow and green or yellow and orange. Then I blend these colors in the color wheel to make a smooth transition from one color to the other. I also blend the key colors to both white and black for highlighting and shading effects. Then these blends are available for me to pick up and use immediately when I am painting, just like an artist's pallette.


Fig. 8.  First I painted the entire cab orange, then added a darker value to the front edge to suggest the angled nose that is in the shade. I then added the green at the top of the nose in front of the windshield. I blended the colors here to help trick the eye into thinking these two colors met at a line. Without the blending, the intersection would be a jagged row of blocks.

The windows are a dark blue with a light blue edge to suggest the silver frames. The road number under the window is impossible to depict accurately when it is this small. A checkerboard of colors blended from orange and green are convincing enough. I toned down the yellow striping to make it look less prominent and added a white dome on top to house the radio equipment (many BNSF DASH9's used these, but not 1008 at the time of this photo).


Fig. 9.  The long hood coloring was drawn by eye without measuring since the outline provided the key reference points. The rear end of the hood is angled and, since it is on the sunny side, it is rendered with lighter hues. The grillwork is just darker shades of the adjacent colors with some variation to keep it from looking too solid. The dark strip behind the cab helps to separate it visually from the hood.


Fig. 10.  The lettering and other artwork on the side of a locomotive can take longer to produce than the locomotive does. When it is very small, the checkerboard technique works well. But when it is this large the actual characters can be modelled using the shades from the color wheel. Put in the boldest portions first, i.e. the wide stem of the "B" and the "F", and then add the more subtle lines and curves. Keep checking how it looks in the actual size image and don't overwork it. On difficult projects, it may be best to take a break for a day or two and then come back with a fresh eye and look it over again.


Fig. 11.  To add handrails or not? I only show them when they are readily apparent. If you look at the photo above, the shadow of the handrail is more prominent than the actual handrail! I typically use a color that is just a shade off the body color to suggest the railing. Too strong of a color will make the handrail look unnaturally thick. For the railings on the ends I use a subdued variation of the railing color to keep them from appearing oversized. It's not possible to blend them with the background since that will end up being transparent.


Fig. 12.  Voila! The right side is finished - at least until I spot something I want to touch up later. Building the other side is easy - simply copy the file (don't forget to rename it) and reverse it. Then touch up the lettering and details as needed to reflect the differences between sides on the real thing (Note the absence of the air reservoirs in the fuel tank). And remember to change the shading and highlighting that suggests the light source.

These DASH9's are now ready to be delivered and put into service on the Internet Railway!


Previous 1. Intro 2. Outlining 3. Underframe



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Copyright 2004 David J. Cooley