Here’s a June 2015 email from Bill Welch. We were discussing blog posts and he sent this along. It wasn’t published because he wanted to finish the tank car.

I will start out with a digression. Apparently, I am becoming a Tool Guy as I seem obsessed with airbrushes. I now own six of them including the Binks Wren I purchased over 50 years ago and the Harbor Freight airbrush I purchased recently with a 20% coupon for $16.49.

I bought the Harbor Freight tool both out of curiosity and to do the occasional job of spraying metallic paint so that I know that none of my very good airbrushes will have any tiny metal flakes in them ever.

You can see it is pretty much a copy of Badger’s 155 Anthem, which with its large 0.76mm needle and tip is ideal for spraying acrylics and is my most used airbrush.

The Harbor Freight airbrush did its job well. It is not a robust tool by any means and it has a fair amount of slop in terms of the needle but I don’t need precision spray, just broadcast spray. The $16.49 was a good investment for me, I think.

I love seeing the dome painted and dome platform in place. Tom Madden made the dome fittings at twelve o’clock and six o’clock while I turned the fitting at eleven o’clock on my Dremel from 1/16th-inch diameter styrene rod. Various Grandt Line nuts and bolts were used at the tops.

Peter Aue did the etched metal tank anchor parts and the dome platform surround. Now I need to find the decals that Pierre sent me and sort out which Tahoe trucks match the AC&F photo. I also need to figure out if I need to placard it.

Next, I am going to secure the dome platform to the dome and then the tank using 0.012-inch brass wire rivets.

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