Replaced the trucks and couplers with MT bettendorfs and was amazed by the way it lowered the boxcar a good 6 inches! And then took them apart to paint the observable interior wood color. And now to renumber things and weather them up!
I mentioned this weathering contest to my 9 and 11 year old sons and they got pretty excited. So we read the rules and tried to find some cars to weather and we came up with three Micro-Trains 65' Log cars. Question...can we have a family entry? Each of us weather one? Here are a few before photos:
You should see those two at shows. So enthusiastic and polite (the first time we met, they kept calling me "sir") and, sometimes, they unearth the best deals there
You know me...I hope they both do better than me! They actually have weathered more freight cars than I have.
This photos might not show the excitement but this is my youngest son hard at work weathering the stock 100-ton trucks. The powders used are Bragdon.
That's one of the best things I've heard as a dad They are both very intense while running trains. Cort does have a good nose for the show bargains. He leaves no jewel box unturned to find the best deal for his allowance dollars.
Some progress pictures - and almost done First thing I did was remove the trucks, and gave each car a number of different acrylic washes so that there was an undercoat of dirt and rust. Allowed those to dry, and did a ClearCoat on all so that I could then apply decals. One thing really weird, though: after the washes, the Frisco car on the right has some warping in the fine mesh walkway on the top. The other car is just fine. (has anyone seen this before) Here are the decals on the SP and UP cars And here are the decals as applied to the Frisco cars (again, note the warping on the top mesh)
Rick, those are Micro-Trains Frisco hoppers, right? I believe they used some kind of wood-based material to laser cut the walkways.
I gave the cars a coat of Dull Coat after letting the decals sit a few hours. I allowed everything to dry overnight, and then started applying Bragdon weathering powders to the trucks and bodies. Here are the current results (which is almost done). I want to neolube the coupler pins, and do something about that warping
Here the cars are, back in the same spot as the original photos And, some individual close ups on the main You can see why I want to fix that roof mesh. All ideas are welcome!
Maybe @Joe D'Amato can give me an idea. I have seen styrene buckle from direct sunlight, but never from a bit of paint. (I assume they are styrene or some other plastic)