Looking for graffiti ideas?


Awesome video. I know most people will say its illegal, shouldn't be on models blah blah blahhhh. But its there and will always be there. So why not model it. To me the cars with entire sides with artwork are like murals, not just grafitti. One's where someone just tagged up, thats garbage.
 
Yeah I agree. It looks so real when its added to a model. It dont have to be on EVERY car but any inner-city car is going to get tagged and if you model modern it has to be there. I have a few weathered cars and when someone comes in to view my layout they always point out how real the graffitied car looks. Some of the artist know not to cover car numbers/logos or their art wont stay long and others just tag fast. You have to do the cheap gang scribbles who tag over others which your right thats garbage but it is easy to reproduce and makes it to alot of cars.
I plan on making my friend who is into HO also, a graffitied car with him and his wife's name and marriage year on a car for a cool gift.
 
Yeah grafitti is just a fact of life now on rail cars. I remember a day when (in Canada at least) it was not common, but these days it seems the cars w/o it are the ones that are not common!! Heck I remember when the Cdn Gov't grain cars were new and clean and not hulks of rust and damage and grafitti.... ok enough of aging myself. :rolleyes:

I have just started a grafitti'd car as a test unit trying some different techniques, paints, and other colourisation products that carries my 5 y/o daughter's name on it. It sort of looks neat, but I prefer my cars un-tagged. However, tagging could be another way for us modellers to recognise friends and family and special occasions on trains rather than structures as the tradition has always been. I plan on letting my 18 y/o daughter do her own tagging on a car specially meant to celebrate her high school graduation.

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I have not quite figured out why some modelers will count rivets then ignore graffiti. I enjoy the realism and attention to detail I can bring to a model. I will spend hours modeling the affects of weather and neglect, why then wouldn't I medel the effects of degenerates that tag cars. Yes its a crime, yes people should be put in jail for doing it, and yes its a fact of life. Some say by modeling it we are codoning(sp) it, no we aren't but we are concerned with accuracy.
 
When I was looking for Graffiti I just started looking on line & found a site w/over 500 pictures. Then I put the one's I liked in my Pictures, transferred them over to my Print Shop software & downsized them to HO & printed my own decals for about 30 freight cars & installed them, added some weathering over some & Wa-La got Graffiti.
 
d_sinsley said:
I have not quite figured out why some modelers will count rivets then ignore graffiti. I enjoy the realism and attention to detail I can bring to a model. I will spend hours modeling the affects of weather and neglect, why then wouldn't I medel the effects of degenerates that tag cars. Yes its a crime, yes people should be put in jail for doing it, and yes its a fact of life. Some say by modeling it we are codoning(sp) it, no we aren't but we are concerned with accuracy.
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You are not only condoning it, but also helping to legitimize it. Just like the idiots that refer to it as art. It's not art. It's vandalism, and like all vandalism, it is a tearing down of society and it's structures.
 
Says the vids no longer available due to a copy right claim by Josh Baakko??? Josh have some shots in the vid that someone stole or was it his vid and someone stole it?
 
SRN said:
You are not only condoning it, but also helping to legitimize it. Just like the idiots that refer to it as art. It's not art. It's vandalism, and like all vandalism, it is a tearing down of society and it's structures.
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I agree completely that the real thing is vandalism, and it is a tearing down of society and structure. I also believe it is not art but I do believe it is creative, a creativity that is seriously misplaced. I believe that the folks that do it are degenerates, but they posses talent. Many talented and gifted people are sick and need to be locked up. There are gifted people that do far worse than paint boxcars. I am not legitimizing graffiti, I would turn someone in the minute I seen them do it.

However it is a fact of life, it is a reality. I model as close to realism as I am able with my feable skills. You choose not to and that is fine, however many of us do. In your modeling world, if the streets are always clean and free of litter, there isn't a broken window in site, and your scenes resemble a norman rockwell painting there is nothing wrong with that. I truely mean that. It is your modeling your world it should be the way you like it or want it.

Some of us prefer the dingy world of reality. I like to think of my modeling as a snap shot of the real thing. Rust, dirt, grime, dents, scratches, patches, and yes graffiti are all visible on my models. This is how I prefer to see my model. I have buidlings with broken windows, because people throw rocks. When I get rolling I intend to have junk because people are messy, and litter because people do not pick up after themselves. I also will have norman rockwell scenes because that exists also, I will have kids playing fetch with there dog , because that is reality.

Crime is a reality, In fact you have given me an idea for my layout. Maybe just maybe I will have a tagger in cuffs on the ground or in the jaws of a K9 dog and a few rattle cans layed about, Why because that is reality also.

If I choose I model graffiti or not, wont change what is going on. They are not seeking my approval, nor are they even concerned about my opinion of their transgressions. I am against all crime does that mean I condon it by accepting its reality? If I stop accepting it will it go away?
 
Well said!..I totally agree.. I see art and I see wasted talent that should be used elsewhere. I see it like a chaulk sidewalk artist, alot of work into something that is temporary. I couldn't spend a night and $30 of rattle cans maybe not to ever see my work again! Alot tag the car in hopes rival gangs see it.
I don't think I ever sprayed a can on anything like that but it does catch my eye.
Some do it at respect of others. I remember an overpass near Gettysburg, Pa. that wasn tagged weekly. The cops tryed to catch them but failed..Bridge was repainted and watched and it was left alone...then a full mural was added one night with Smurfs village and all figures in a pumpkin patch for Halloween and said, "BOO I'm back!"..People thought it was cool but it was repainted over weeks later.
Then one night he did an awesome American flag where he reversed the strip colors to form a peace symbol in it. He made 2 scrolls of paper on each side during Desert Storm war and it said "Operation Desert Storm" on left side and, "Kick A$$ and Come home safe!"....... It was NEVER repainted till after the war. It even made many newspapers.
I do agree its vandalizim but some should repay debt by putting their talent to good use!
If I was that talented I'd want to keep my artwork, not have it dissappear tommr.
 
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Trucula said:
Well said!..I totally agree.. I see art and I see wasted talent that should be used elsewhere.
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+1
Alot tag the car in hopes rival gangs see it.
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That's the case with the "simple" tags that are still (unfortunately) used all too often.

However, I can't believe some of those were done with out at least "tacit" approval from someone...... "OK, as long as you respect the reporting marks, go ahead!"

I know I'd rather watch some of these "rolling works of art" than a beaten up, rusty, car go by. - Some of them really are gorgeous IMHO.

[Dons flamesuit! :)]

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Are Walthers also encouraging them by selling graffiti decal sheets?
 
I can see graffiti being an issue on, say, an historic building, or a passenger coach, something that's already cool, or something someone takes pride in. But modern boxcars are pretty dull. You get reporting marks, maybe a safety stripe, a corporate logo somewhere, and then that's it. By all means, don't mess with the reporting marks (that's just making work for the railroad maintenance guys), but imo a little color isn't hurting anyone. It's not like BNSF takes pride in the appearance of their cars, right? If the guy knows to use primer, he might even slow down the rust a bit. :D Gang tag is of course a different matter, but the gangbangers aren't the ones doing murals, they're just peeing on a fire hydrant.

True, they could better apply themselves. And yes, they're trespassing and doing stupid things. I don't condone it, I just don't mind the results.

(Ian, you got a spare flame suit?)
 
Well that may be pushing it a bit. I am pretty sure BNSF would prefer to not have their cars all boogered up with graffiti and I do know they spend alot of money repainting cars. It's never ok what they do.

I have often wondered why they don't enlist these little farts to paint the cars in the first place. Make contests out of it. The car gets some interesting paintjobs, it gets protected with fresh paint, The rats get an outlet for their talent, reporting marks and other important data and markings get preserved, and it will give us graffiti modelers something interesting to model with out the graffiti police getting upset at us renegades of the model rails. It has worked in big cities.

BNSF or whoever could pull some cars in that need paint jobs and hold a contests for inner city youth. Give them something they can be proud off. Give them a thousand bucks toward an art scholarship.

I dont' know but seems like something that might work.
 
I've always liked it-in the states and in Europe. The argument will continue I'm sure. One man's trash... and all that. Some folks still think Andy Warhol just painted soup cans.
 
Ok so getting off the politics of grafitti for a moment, are there any special techniques to painting it in HO scale? Rather than using ready made decals?

Has anyone freehanded any grafitti and what techniques, tools, and colour sources did you use? Any tutorials for those who might want to apply some illegal artwor...um tagging to their equipment might be appreciated by the OP.

To date my experience in attempting grafitti on rail cars is by using coloured pencils and sharpie pens. I don't think I could paint that finely freehand to get anything legible.
 
I am experimenting with it now. Airbrushes would give the best look tho alot of cheap airbrushes wont do that fine of line. Most work i been looking at freehand was done with color pens as you said. Best plan I can come up so far on my own work will be to stencil or mask off the over all shape(say like a V fan shape). I will then spray 2 bands of color across the area (maybe flat white w/ flouresent colors over) then I will form the block style lettering with a fine tip Sharpie. (just doing the edges to form the letters) I have my 1st attempt weathered yesterday and will try this today or tommr. Hopefully it will turn out enough to post a pic. I am just starting simple. I saved a few pictures that I thought were colorful and simple to do. (will see how it goes for me!..lol)
 
d_sinsley said:
If I choose I model graffiti or not, wont change what is going on. They are not seeking my approval, nor are they even concerned about my opinion of their transgressions. I am against all crime does that mean I condon it by accepting its reality? If I stop accepting it will it go away?
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If you stop imitating it, it will help it go away.

Does no one else see your work? No children, no impressionable youth? Do you not understand the meaning behind the old saying, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"?

Vandals are attracted by the vandalism of others. Once the first person defaces something, the other vandals follow like seagulls flocking to a garbage dump.

Graffiti on models, especially those seen by the public, either directly or in the media, can only exacerbate the problem.
 
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