05-14-2009, 08:27 AM
Thanks for the info, Wayne. Your cars look great, and I admire your skills and dedication. You inspire me!
When I got into the hobby about 5 years ago, I bought about 50 Athearn blue box kits and Roundhouse kits, mostly because they were cheap. Then I bought some Accurail kits and discovered that they looked much better, and they were only a tad more expensive. Only thing is, they make the other cars look less-than-real to me.
So now that my layout is in limbo, I have been modifying the Athearn and Roundhouse boxcars. I am roughly modeling the 1970s, so my cars need to be "modernized."
To me, the first thing that has to be changed is the doors. I cut/scrape the door tracks off the top and bottom, and add new doors of a "more proper" height. Accurail and Kadee make doors which can be purchased separately. New door tracks are added using plastic strip as you do.
I have been changing the bottom sills on many of the cars, basing the changes on various prototype photos. I'm definitely not trying to model the cars from prototypes, I am just looking for a little variation and modernization. I cut off the various trapezoids and rectangles at the bottom of the car, then go back with some plastic strip.
On many of the cars, I remove the roofwalks and shave off the top half of the ladders, as they actually did on the prototype. This involves plugging the holes on the roof and filling in with green putty.
I have been cutting off the stirrups and replacing them on some of the cars. I have not been shaving off the molded on grabs though.... but one of the great things about the hobby is that I can always go back at a later date and do that mod if I want to.
As you mentioned, it is not necessary to exactly match the paint when covering the areas that were scraped/added. A black wash and some weathering does wonders to blend the areas, plus, a prototype car has many different shades of the original color anyway because of bleaching/fading.
I am adding ACI, lube plate, and wheel inspection dot decals, again roughly based on prototype photos from the 1970s. Tons of these photos can be found on the 'net in the various RR archive sites.
Hopefully I can take some photos this weekend and post them. Thanks again for sharing. And I would enjoy seeing more of your boxcars that have been modified.
When I got into the hobby about 5 years ago, I bought about 50 Athearn blue box kits and Roundhouse kits, mostly because they were cheap. Then I bought some Accurail kits and discovered that they looked much better, and they were only a tad more expensive. Only thing is, they make the other cars look less-than-real to me.
So now that my layout is in limbo, I have been modifying the Athearn and Roundhouse boxcars. I am roughly modeling the 1970s, so my cars need to be "modernized."
To me, the first thing that has to be changed is the doors. I cut/scrape the door tracks off the top and bottom, and add new doors of a "more proper" height. Accurail and Kadee make doors which can be purchased separately. New door tracks are added using plastic strip as you do.
I have been changing the bottom sills on many of the cars, basing the changes on various prototype photos. I'm definitely not trying to model the cars from prototypes, I am just looking for a little variation and modernization. I cut off the various trapezoids and rectangles at the bottom of the car, then go back with some plastic strip.
On many of the cars, I remove the roofwalks and shave off the top half of the ladders, as they actually did on the prototype. This involves plugging the holes on the roof and filling in with green putty.
I have been cutting off the stirrups and replacing them on some of the cars. I have not been shaving off the molded on grabs though.... but one of the great things about the hobby is that I can always go back at a later date and do that mod if I want to.
As you mentioned, it is not necessary to exactly match the paint when covering the areas that were scraped/added. A black wash and some weathering does wonders to blend the areas, plus, a prototype car has many different shades of the original color anyway because of bleaching/fading.
I am adding ACI, lube plate, and wheel inspection dot decals, again roughly based on prototype photos from the 1970s. Tons of these photos can be found on the 'net in the various RR archive sites.
Hopefully I can take some photos this weekend and post them. Thanks again for sharing. And I would enjoy seeing more of your boxcars that have been modified.
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times