Upgrading MDC/Roundhouse boxcars

[sailormatlac]

Thanks everybody, I hope the nest one will be as good.

The ATSF car is ready to paint (except the doors). It was a straight forward project, if it's not I did have to start again trice the sides to get them right.

First of all, I only cut the side from the shell and kept the ends and roof together. Ends aren't exactly prototype, but tweaking them would have made a lot of mess and wouldn't have looked as good.

My first try was to keep the underframe untouched as much as possible. This was a wrong idea because on the prototype, the original wall wood planking was aligned with the roof extension. As you can see, the original side, on this version, wasn't aligned and it looked bad. The steel gutter on top of the wood side was going to be far too large.







On the second try, I tried to save time by gluing the steel extenseion directly on top of the wood side. It wasn't good because the styrene aligned with the steel structure of the car but not the wood plaking. This made the mating with the existing roof very hard.

So, I decided to start again. This time, I cemented the steel extension directly to the roof, then I sanded down the car side to make them flush with the steel extention. I also filed them at 45 degree, did also the same with the side, so sides and ends would mate perfectly without losing rivet details and ladders.







When everything was glued together, I added the gutter.



At this point, most parts of the car were completed.



The undeframe was narrowed to fit the new car width. I filed down every cast-on brake details and replaced them with parts from the junk box and some styrene bits.



Few steel plate details were made out of paper with punched rivet. It is a very and easy effective way of making them. Even if the paper is perforated, the styrene cement will take care of if by filling the holes with melted plastic.





And the completed car:







Here's a comparison with the precedent B&M car.



Time to paint it now.

Matt

[jugbutt]

Nice wheathering there.

[sailormatlac]

Nice wheathering there.

Thank you!

I continued to work on my MDC/Roundhouse stock pile. Years ago, I litterally got a lot of them when MDC went under.... My first kits were Roundhouse, a 36' stock car and a FMC Railbox.

Anyway, I decided to start upgrading a M&StL hopper sheel into a presentable car. I only found one picture of these hoppers in the 1950's. They didn't look red, but much more like a redder oxy red... Anyway, I'm not modelling an american road, so I'm less picky.

I had to rework extensively the frame to reflect a more prototype look. I also replaced all grabirons with wire ones and added a Kadee Ajax brakewheel. THe car is now ready for weathering. I'll try to do a better job at interior weathering since I think it really brings a hopper to life.







I also worked again on the Swift reefer. I built a new underframe from styrene to reflect better Swift prototype. I used a Sunshine Kit picture as reference.











It only needs a little paint touch ups and roofwalk brackets before weathering.

Matt

[doctorwayne]

Lookin' good, Matt. I always enjoy seeing the way you bring these older cars to life.

Wayne

[sailormatlac]

Lookin' good, Matt. I always enjoy seeing the way you bring these older cars to life.

Wayne

Thanks Wayne, the good thing about MDC cars is that they are quite versatile, well-conceived and easy to modify. Most of the time, the detail is quite decent for old tooling (except their weird dreadnaugh ends).

Here's a few shots of the completed reefer. It was my first try weathering a wood car (and a reefer too). I worked with vintage color pictures of a Chicago area yard posted by somebody here or somewhere else. According to some info I found while browsing the web, this paint scheme survived well until Swift reefers demise. It's for this reason I went for a heavy weathered car (about 25 years old). First, I discolored the yellow color with oil paint (titanium white), then, I brushed a darked wash and added some details (rotten planks, grease, rust) according to the pictures. The car should be 37' long, but Roundhouse car is 36', who cares?

Before weathering





Weathered car









And a teaser. This one is far to be completed, I only did the streaking. It needs some rust spots and road grime.



Matt

[sailormatlac]

M.St.L. hopper now ready to hit the rail.



Matt

[doctorwayne]

Looks good, Matt.
That's a task to which I'm not looking forward: I've got probably 50 hoppers and a dozen or so covered hoppers which need wire grab-irons. In the meantime, the railroad is advertising for LPB job applicants with really big hands.

Wayne

[sailormatlac]

Looks good, Matt.
That's a task to which I'm not looking forward: I've got probably 50 hoppers and a dozen or so covered hoppers which need wire grab-irons. In the meantime, the railroad is advertising for LPB job applicants with really big hands.

Wayne

Aahah! My 2012 challenge layout is actually a large shelf for cars needing improvement. I'm actually thinking about adding wire grabirons to my newest QRL&PCo Gondola... I should have done it before hand... BTW, I just found out Frateschi produces a drop bottom gondola that isn't half bad for kitbashing purpose: getting rid of their horrible couplers and replacing trucks with older ones would do the job and less costly than Red Caboose... The door mecanism is a little bit peculiar.

http://www.hobbiesplus.com.au/402%20078.jpg

http://www.hobbiesplus.com.au/402%20078.jpg

I'll continue my investigation about them... It could be a good way to get a sizeable QRL&PCo drop bottom fleet... and since no prototype picture is actually known, lots of place for protofreelancing!

Matt

[Tyson Rayles]

The cars look great Matt!

[sailormatlac]

Well, a fellow club member pestered me to rebuild my Harlem Station switching layout. When I first started this project many years ago, I acquired many american boxcars which ended up upgraded in this thread. Now it's time to continue working on them.

My latest bash is detailing a OSB Train Miniature boxcar. I have no merit, I only followed Doctorwayne WIP. Doors are Tichy, heavily spliced to fit the opening. I didn't care to much to hide the seams as it looks like old wood doors.

After an afternoon, the car was ready to be painted and lettered (which should happen as soon as I get my hands on CDS dry transfers).













Matt