Greetings All,
On the trip to my LHS when I found the NYC F7B featured recently I also came across a used undecorated Athearn BB 86' Auto Parts boxcar that was unassembled in it's original box.
My plan for the car was to paint it in a modified New York Central paint scheme with subsidiary Empire Belt lettering and reporting marks. Why have a freelance railroad if you can't freelance!
One of the big challenges was the use of rattle can silver spray paint. I've not had good luck with it and when taping over it it pulls some of the silver right off. The NYC had silver doors and a silver roof. What to do?
After studying online and print media photos and exchanging ideas for the silver doors with my buddy PC Ralph I realized that the car doors may have been silver but did not stay a bright silver for long. Ralph weathered his NYC 86' boxcar doors beautifully and they compare very nicely to their 1:1 counterparts.
Since I was painting the car from scratch that option was off the table. Here's what I decided to do;
I painted the car body with rattle can Krylon sea glass green which is my defacto Century or Jade Green. When dry I painted the doors with a rattle can Krylon gloss smoke.
Once the doors dried I masked the model and painted the roof with Krylon rattle can aluminum.
While the car body was drying I assembled the rest of the car. I painted everything with a 96 cent rattle can of flat black. Proto 2000 wheel sets and under set shank Kadee #27 couplers were added. This photo is from the recent A.P.R.R. 86' boxcar build.
The coupler drawbars leave a lot to be desired in my opinion. One of the improvements that I came up with was cutting off the tabs that allows the drawbar to contact the truck. I then drilled a hole thru the drawbar so I could place a 2-56 screw between the underframe and floor. The screw does not go into the floor!
The 2-56 screw allows the coupler drawbar a little swing action but most importantly for me the car can now be shoved with no problems.
Here's the finished car fresh out of the shop being pulled to Terminal Yard.
The 1/87th scale trainmen of the N.Y.C.T.L. inspect the newest addition.
Right now the car is in pool service from the DT&I RR Ford Park at Lima Ohio and the Ford Plant at Bedford Park NY on my layout.
The Empire Belt car sits between a factory painted Athearn BB NYC 8 door car and an Athearn BB Atlantic Pacific RR car that I recently painted.
1/87th scale Engineer Ed has been called for this train that is going from Terminal Yard to Selkirk.
The train leaves Terminal Yard. Double E loves that horn!
Heading downgrade at Bedford NY. A string of empty coal hoppers returning for more loading sits on track 3 waiting for space in either Terminal Yard or North Side Yard.
The coupler modifications are working well heading downgrade.
Coming around Market Street on a 24" radius.
After taking a 22" radius curve under the west side of the layout with no problems the 86' cars round a 24" curve on the east side.
Coming out of the curve on the other side of the layout.
After continued running I am pleased to report that all 86' boxcars are running very reliably with the coupler drawbar modification.
Thanks for reading and watching!!!
What a great addition to the fleet. Those 86' cars are impressive enough and even more so with that paint scheme. The close up photo really shows off the excellent
ReplyDeletepaint job. I really enjoyed seeing the 3 of them together. Thx.
Thanks Ed!!!
DeleteAnother excellent job by the Patti-O paint shop and Sir John a/k/a Rembrandt! That string of 86' cars look great especially going around the tight radius. Very impressive!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments 1:1 Sir Neal!!!
DeleteInteresting idea with more application elsewhere -- I'm sorry Floquil paint is gone, since it was by far the easiest to mask, while Tru Color is much more difficult. In general, while masking usually involves painting the lightest coat first, masking, and then painting darker, clearly if the lighter is harder to work with, the darker should be painted first if at all possible. OR use Micro Scale trim decal film.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips John! they'll come in very handy as I go forward on some two and three color paint projects.
DeleteAuto part cars look great and the coupler modification obviously was a good adaptation! I enjoyed the Doppler Effect on the horn as the train rolled by in the video!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ralph!! I really enjoyed the Doppler effects as well! That 1/87th scale EE loves that horn!
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