Category Archives: Techniques

A Weathering Rookie Tries PanPastels & Colored Pencils

Models, Techniques, Weathering, ,

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Bill Welch returns to the RCW blog with a beginner perspective on Pan Pastels for weathering freight cars.

I thought I would describe my first weathering experience primarily using PanPastels (PP) with a little assist from Prismacolor Colored pencils. The subject model was built 19 to 20 years ago from a Funaro & Camerlengo kit, probably purchased from The RPI Hobby Shop in Troy, NY. I used a photo from “The Bob Charles Collection” at the NMRA Library to guide me in detailing and decaling. It is painted with Accuflex paint using my Binks “Wren” airbrush. The decals I am pretty sure are Champ and I very likely pieced together the Dimensional Data with individual numbers to match this car. Continue reading A Weathering Rookie Tries PanPastels & Colored Pencils →

Missouri Pacific/International-Great Northern Howe Truss Boxcar

Models, Resin Freight Cars, Techniques,

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Charlie Duckworth joins the blog with his build summary of a classic Sunshine Models resin box car kit. Click on any image to review a larger size. Here’s Charlie’s report.

History
The Missouri Pacific and its subsidiaries purchased or built some 4,439 Howe Truss boxcars. The cars had a capacity of 2,926 cubic feet and used a Murphy radial roof. All of the 2,750 MP 46000-48749 series and the first batch of 1,569 cars for the International-Great Northern 6201-6950 were built with indented Murphy ends. These cars were built in 1926 by ACF with a few coming from Standard Steel Car Company. The I-GN 9401-9900 group was built by ACF in 1927 and used the indented Dreadnaught ends. The final 100 cars used Creco door hardware, whereas, the rest of the fleet used Camel hardware. Prototype painting was initially boxcar red with black underframe and trucks with the car body shade being modified over time to a medium brown. Stenciling was white.

Continue reading Missouri Pacific/International-Great Northern Howe Truss Boxcar →

Re-Creating an Over-Spray

Models, Techniques,
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Northern Pacific 5966, a 50-foot, single sheathed automobile box car built in 1926. Photo from the Jim Gerstley Collection, courtesy of Dan Smith.

Bill Welch is back with more tales from his workbench. Click on any image here to review a larger size. Here’s his latest report.

As a part of building freight car models, I enjoy collecting photos for car kits I already have or hope will be produced. I have found several photos of the big 50-foot Northern Pacific single sheathed cars that I used to aid in building an HO scale kit of the car offered by Speedwitch Media. After I had finished my assembly, I realized I have a colour photo from circa 1956 on my computer showing the galvanized roof panels devoid of any paint except for some misting of overspray along its edge from the last time the body had been painted. The roof ribs did appear to be painted or perhaps coated with a “freight car red” car cement. I decided I wanted to try and recreate this appearance, which meant I needed to mask the roof, a chore made more tedious because I had already glued the Running Board System in place. Oh joy!

Continue reading Re-Creating an Over-Spray →

New York Central offset side hoppers

Models, Techniques, Upgrades, , ,

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A recent discussion on the Steam Era Freight Car (STMFC) YahooGroup reminded me of some hopper conversations from the past. There were a few posts on New York Central (NYC) offset side hopper cars and the lack of models available. Here are some quick tips to modify some readily available models to better reflect NYC prototypes. Click on any image here to view a larger size.

A likeness of an NYC offset twin can be created by removing 1-foot, 6-inches from the center of an Athearn, Accurail, or Atlas car (the triple A of model train manufactures). It is easy to hide the cut as there’s a riveted seam which runs down the center of the car.

The car also needs to be raised a bit which is can be accomplished by using washer on the kingpin. This gives the model more of the NYC look of being taller than a standard twin hopper. Compare the length and height differences between a NYC twin and standard twin in the lead photo of Peoria & Eastern 2831 and Rock Island 89727.

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P&E 2831 is an Athearn car. Once the car is raised the couplers need to be lower. This is done by attaching a new coupler box to the old one. Some styrene is added to the bottom of the hopper to again give the car a taller appearance.

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NYC 868422 is an Accurail car essentially modified in the same manner as the Athearn car.

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Decals are available for this and other NYC hoppers from Resin Car Works! Check out the selection on our website.

Frank