I haven't had much time recently to work on the new layout, so I contented myself with detailling and weathering a few freight cars. The first batch were some Walthers centrebeam flat cars I've picked up over the years. I removed all the steel screws and replaced with brass, added some underframe detail, and drilled holes for the tie-downs. I decided to model 2 cars loaded and 2 empty. I used a different wood load on each side of the loaded cars, so I can have 2 Louisiana Pacific loads if needed, etc, and modelled one of the cars with a less-than-full load, for variety. Jon
After the centrebeams, I set to work on a few gondolas and my solitary flat car. The 2 Atlas gons are in the process of having removable scrap loads fitted and the only things I did to these cars was to add Kadees and brass truck screws, The Walthers mill gon was modelled with fixed ends and I have put it into stone traffic (WS talus on a removable foam-core base). this has had Kadee wheels and couplers fitted, stirrup steps, brass truck screws and lead weight replacing the steel bar. I will add brake detail once I find suitable reference material. The BN flat car is one of the excellent Intermountain cars with a Preiser cable drum load - all I added was brass truck screws and a bit of lead weight. Jon
Not content with that I set about a few covered hopper cars. The excellent Intermountain 100T hopper only required brass truck screws to bring it up to running order. The Walthers 100T hopper required rather more work, and I had to remove all the moulded on grab irons, replacing with brass wire. I also added Kadee wheels, brass truck screws and lead weight to replace the steel bar. I retained the plastic steps for now but blackened the sides and back to make them appear thinner. Looking at the second photo, I still need to add some roofwalk supports. Jon
The last batch of cars for this session were a few more covered hoppers. I think the Cargill hopper is an Intermountain model - I bought it loose at a swapmeet - but the detailling is really nice, despite one of the steps being missing - I only paid the equivalent of $4 for it so I cant complain. Brass truck screws were the only modification. I managed to find a photo of the same car# on Railroad Picture Archives, when I did the weathering. The cylindrical hopper is an early Atlas model with the solid roofwalk and was also bought cheap at a swapmeet. The last hopper was 'extremely' weathered when I bought it (same swapmeet I think). Someone had airbrushed a heavy rust wash, as if the car had been dragged behind a tunnel motor for 6 months. I cleaned off the muck with a scratch pen (fibreglass strands) and accidentally removed some of the 'Southern Pacific' lettering in the process. I quite like the effect it produced. BTW, all the weathering on the cars in this topic was done by acrylic washes applied with a brush. Any excess was rubbed off with a thumb. Jon
I thought I'd just mention my source of photos for weathering the cars. I try to weather from photos on Railroad Picture Archive, so the model looks at least a bit like the weathering on a real one. For instance- model Rail Picture Archive It's an excellent resource for modellers, especially those of us who don't live in the US, and you can generally find a photo of a similar car, if not the exact car number. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsTypeList.aspx Jon
You just demonstrated that it is possible to overweather, go back, and get a decent result. Well done.
Excellent weathering....and thanks for the suggestion on the picture archives. Seems obvious now but I hadn't given it much thought. Again...those are beautiful examples...:thumbs_up:
love the center beam load straps. Looks really good. The weathering and fixes on the other cars look really nice as well. Thanks for sharing with us. How did you do the tie downs on the loaded center beam cars? I have 2 of them that I made it to where the cars can be loaded or unloaded but am looking to get some more of the cars in the future and do something similar to what you did.
Some nice work you've done there. I also really like the Centerbeam tiedowns. I think that's the first time I've seen them. Thanks for the weathering share also:thumbs_up:
I used the Kalmbach book Detailling freight cars' by Jeff Wilson, which covers detailling centrebeam flat cars as my reference source. The tie downs on the unloaded cars were made from nylon 'invisible' thread, painted with black acrylic. the loaded cars were strung with the more usual cotton/polyester thread (black), as I would have made a complete hash of the wood loads, when I painted the thread after installation. I think the book suggested using E-Z line, or whatever it's called. Jon
Over the last couple of evenings, I have been messing about with a couple of Proto 2000 Covered hopper kits for Frisco. I fitted Kadee uncouplers, brass truck screws, oil/lube data panels and patched numbers to hide the Roman Gothic originals. I couldn't find any photos of any originals in service, so these may be out of period for the mid-late 1990s. Jon
It just gets better and better as you go through the thread. I just have to find those weathering paints so I can get started on this. Inspirational! :thumbs_up: BTW, what is a "scratch" pen? I did not know of anything with this fiberglass material. Thanks.
Those are MODELS??? Holy cow! I've seen some really good photography and some amazing photography on this board, but these may be one of the first where I really wondered...
Me too! I have some centerbeams with removable loads, which lets me "unload" them between sessions so the empties can be pulled next time. But seeing these makes me think maybe I need to have TWO of each car, so my empties can have the load straps tied down properly. Cost, time, and now I have to spot new cars .... maybe I'll forgo that detail for now, but it sure does LOOK GOOD on yours!!!
Thanks lads. Last night I did a bit of work on a couple of Athearn boxcars. The first was a Genesis hi-cube - I'm still not quite sure on the wheel sizes on this one (I currently have 33" wheelsets in). I gave the whole thing a brick red wash (Humbrol #70 acrylic) then scraped off the paint over the numerals and lettering. I then gave it a black wash and drybrushed it beige, before adding some graffiti with a gel pen. Jon
The other Athearn car was the ubiquitous Blue Box boxcar. I removed all the cast-on grabirons, replacing them with bent wire. I also removed the sliding door runners and added Kadee wheels and couplers and coupler boxes, as well as simulating some underframe detail. The lettering was a bit dull so I removed it all, repainted the car CSX blue and re-decaled the whole thing (all done before last night). I weathered the car and added 1 set of graffiti with a decal and the rest with gel pen, before dullcoating it tonight. I know graffiti isn't to everyone's taste but I am aiming to run the cars in a run-down country setting, where everything else is grotty too. Jon
While I was in photography mode, I decided to reshoot a few boxcars I'd weathered a couple of months ago, but the original photos didn't come out very clearly due to poor lighting. I think this one is Intermountain Athearn Genesis - again I'm not 100% about the 36" wheels in this one Another Athearn Genesis, this time with 33" wheels Jon
