tehachapifan

Simple Enhancement to TWX Parcel Pups

While I absolutely love the TWX Parcel Pups, they seem a bit plain to me as far as the factory painting goes. I wanted to try to figure out a way to bring more contrast to the door frame and rib stiffeners as per the prototype, but masking off all these areas and painting them seemed rather daunting with several trailers to do. So, as an experiment, I tried using a #2 HD pencil instead. I found that running the side of the (semi-blunt) pencil lead along the (raised) part to be colored worked rather well (the semi-blunt sharpness helps to keep everything on the raised areas only). The color the pencil renders looks just about right to me and would change shades and reflectivity in different angles of light. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to finish 1 trailer in less than 5 minutes. While the results may not be perfect (I see in the pics I have some more touch-up to do with a sharper pencil in some tight areas), I find it to be more than acceptable given the low level of difficulty and time involved. When I did occasionally slip and make an unwanted mark, I was able to easily remove it softly using a (clean) pencil eraser. I'm not yet sure how the pencil coloring will hold up with time and handling, but a coat of clear paint may solve that.

Simple Enhancement to TWX Parcel Pups
tehachapifan, Nov 29, 2014