Some of you know, that I have been searching for the right rolling stock to build my dream Rock Island passenger consist. I have the rolling stock now, and work has begun. This consist will be an array of passenger cars from the Rock Island roster from the 1930's through the mid 1950's. Cars by Budd, and Pullman ranging from Pullman heavyweights, Smoothsides, streamline Budds. My roster will consist of 22 (give or take one or two) cars. I have all the cars I need now for my project. Manufactures are Kato mostly, but also will include Con-Cor, & Atlas. It will include various themes from the era, including the Golden State. Here is a picture of the first car out of the shop. I got excited to take the first picture, and took it before I installed the vents and roof details, so please forgive me. This car will also undergo some mild weathering soon, but first, I am anxious to get started on the 2nd car.
only 17 more.... This one is definitly NOT prototypical, as Rock Island didn't have but a couple, if none at all, Slumber Coaches. But guess what? They do now. I just like these, and didn't want to leave it out. Meet, Rock Islands Slumber "Cornhusker".
Tudor - nice work. And good progress. Can you describe your workflow? Undecs? Remove Santa Fe lettering? How did you decal them. Whose decals, etc. I have a couple undec Con-Cor Budd cars that I have put ACL & SAL Historical Society decals on. You are moving much faster than I did! Terry
Most of them are from Kato super chief sets. A few are additional kato santa fe, but also doing some con cor smoothsides, and atlas heavies. As far as these pictured, they are the katos sante fe cars. No re-paint for those, I simply remove all the santa fe lettering. A nice process givin to me from the gentleman I got the super chief sets from. I use finger nail polish remover. It is a wal mart brand with no acetone. The brand name is "Top Care". It is pink in color, and cheap. I use cotton q-tips as the removal tool. Take the q-tip and moisten it (not drinch it) with the nail polish remover. Start to rub (one letter at a time) lightly, not much pressure at all. Let the q-tip and remover do the work. After a couple seconds, you will see the lettering start to smear. When it starts breaking up, start to rotate the q-tip to lift off the ink as it comes loose (otherwise it will do nothing but smear around making a mess). Try to keep the ink on the letter board, because if it gets off and onto the detailing, it will be impossible to get it out of the detail. When the lettering starts to break up, I like to try to keep the ink bunched up into a little pile of sorts, then rotate the q-tip lifting the mess up. Work from outwards to the center of the letterboard. Be sure to keep a clean q-tip so you won't put the ink back on. When I do it, I will lift some, all the way around the q-tip, then remove a layer of cotton from the q-tip leaving clean cotton underneith, re-moisten the tip, and repeat. Keep the cotton clean, and keep re-moistening the tip with the remover. It does take alot of patients and some practice. The first couple I did, I rubbed too much and hard and did remove a couple small spots of the silver paint. Those, I did have to touch up with Flo-Quil bright silver. It is a pretty close match. It doesn't look very close until it dries. It is nearly impossible to see any difference once it is dry. Close enough, especially since I will be doing some light weathering when they are all done. As far as the lettering removal, I only messed up on the first couple, (minor paint removal), but after that, the rest of them are flawless, and look undecorated other than the silver paint. No signs of previous lettering at all. Paint untouched. On the Con Cor smoothsides, I used the same product, but removed paint and all, because those were daylight colors, and I wanted to take it all off to repaint. Same with the heavyweights. Bottom line, the non-acetone finger nail polish remover is an awesome product to use as a de-letter'r, or stripper.
Ohyeah.. The decals I am using are Microscale. When I soak them in luke warm water for a few seconds (not hot, barely warm, maybe slightly over room temp.). As they soak, I take a detail paint brush and brush Polly Scale decal set onto where the decal will go. Then slide the decal onto the area, not paying much attension on it being perfectly lined up yet. With the paint brush moistened, you can scoot the decal into place. Sometimes, if it starts to dry out, add a little water to the brush, it will help "float" the decal around to line up and buy you a little time. Once it is in place, I take a small piece of foam. I cut a strip about 1/2" X 1/2" X 2" or so. No definite size, just one large enough to hang onto with your finger tips, with a good flat small surface to press onto the decal. I sponge the decal to push it down and water/fluid out. streight down of course so you don't move the decal, even tho you probably will slightly, just try to minimize movement. Blot, don't rub for obvious reasons. if it moves slightly, simply adjust with the tip of the paint brush untill it is straight, and lined as it should be. Let dry for a few seconds, then blot again, keeping it pressed down onto the surface to give the decal solution time to soften the decal and melt it into place. As it dries some more after a few seconds, I will take the sponge and LIGHTLY drag it from the center of the decal, to the edge, then the other side, to lightly squeegie of sorts the rest of the moisture from under it. Once it looks good, straight, with no kinks, let dry completely. When done, the decal looks like a factory print job. If you wish, you can then clear coat. I am undecided yet if I am going to clear coat. But, at this time, the decals look factory, and don't even look like decals. I might clear coat with a dull coat just to be sure they don't come off at some point in the future.
I just re-read and missed a couple points worth mentioning. 1st) With the Q-Tip, before actually using it, twist the cotton to "tighten" up the cotton. Q-tips are wound tight underneith, but wound loosely on the top layer to make them softer to use for personal hygene and stuff like that. If it is loosely wound, it is hard to control in this purpose, so twist the cotton tight before you start. Dip it in the remover, and then pinch the cotton wringing it out. You dont want it running all over the model, and sloppy. Very controlled. 2nd) Decals solution. I failed to mention that when the decal is in place, and starting to dry, I will lightly brush on a 2nd coat of the setting solution, let it set for a few seconds to work on the decal, then carefully blot dry again with the peice of foam.
