Reference photos for modeling and weathering - structures

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I often find myself looking for good reference photos for specific things, such as old doors, windows, roof details, etc. So I’ve decided to put together some pages of photos for modelers to use as reference.

Doors:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Doors.html

Windows:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Windows.html

Roofs:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Roofs.html

Weathered Wood:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Wood_Textures.html

Weathered Metal:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Metal_Textures.html

Sidewalks and Concrete:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Concrete.html

Steel Drums:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Steel_Drums.html

These are just a start. Eventually I want to add more photos, and more topics. If you’d like to recommend a topic, just let me know.

2

Excellence reference for weathering…

I’ll chip in another type of reference–your eyes and your camera—a unbeatable combination for weathering research.

Thanks for posting.[tup]

3

Thanks Ray, the weathered wood and weathered metal examples are particularly useful to have readily available like this.

Dave Nelson

4

Ray,

Great idea to document these examples.

My contribution is rather modest. It always is harder to find color photos on older subjects, which tend to be offer more useful examples than B&W images. Color photography wasn’t widely available until the 1930s and cost was always a factor compared to B&W. Shorpy is mainly known for its B&W images, but they also post quite a few color ones. Here’s a handy link:

http://www.junipergallery.com/large_format_kodachromes

Many of the oldest ones are colorized, so not as good. But others are rare glimpses into the past in full color.

5

Gidday Ray, to chaps like myself from foreign climes, reference resources such as yours are worth their weight in gold. Thanks for taking the time, and sharing.[bow]

Cheers, the Bear.

6

I’ve done a lot more work on this… first of all, I created a Modeler’s Resource page to list all the links to specific topics:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Modelers_Resource.html

I also added a lot more photos to the existing topics, and added several more topics, including Utilities (electric meters, fuse boxes, etc.); Cooling (swamp coolers, old A/C units, fans); Valves (pipes, fittings and valves); Signs; Windmills, Mailboxes, and Hydrants.

A couple of these topics don’t have very many photos yet, but eventually there will be more. And of course I’ll add more pics to all the topics, and new topics, as I get them.

BTW, so far most of these are reference for modeling or weathering buildings, or creating clutter, etc. But I do plan to add some topics that are more directly related to railroads.

Enjoy!

7

Ray,

First of all, Nice work and photos! I noticed most of yours are from the west and possibly old ‘ghost towns’ of sorts.

This got me to thinking about reference photos, and I have a bunch that I have collected over the past few years. Why not gather photos from other fellow railroad/model railroad enthusiasts and put them into one collection so we can all share this great source of info. I don’t know how this would be done other than to put them on a website open to everyone.

I am just throwing this idea out there to see what others think about it.

-Bob

8

One of my hobbies is playing around with 3D computer graphics. There’s a website that a lot of use called CGTextures.com that has loads of textures. Concrete, doors, windows, walls, etc., etc.

http://www.cgtextures.com/

Steve S