11-22-2020, 02:37 PM
Thanks, Don.
The project struggles on, and I finally got the undecorated cars painted, along with the re-worked underframes of the older ones. No photos, but last night (until about 5:00 AM) I applied some more details (shown below) to all of the 8 cars that I have on hand.
These three-dimensional decals, from Micro Mark, have been cut to fit various places on the ends of the hopper cars (the Kadee coupler is there only to impart a sense of scale)...
Note the ones at the bottom, cut to fit into the cars' poling pockets.
The ones from Archer are a little easier to use, but didn't have the rivet patterns required. The MicroMark ones don't respond all that well to Solvaset, so I usually do at least two applications of that setting solution, and once those have dried, use a small brush to apply MEK to each decal - the key to not destroying the decal (removing the rivets) is to make a very light and rapid pass with the brush. Even if there's a little too much MEK on the brush, it's less likely to remove the rivets than if the brush is moved back-and-forth over the decal, even once.
The camera isn't being very kind to these cars (or to their creator), but here's a B-end view of one of the cars upgraded with AB-type brakes...
...and one of the ones with the cars' original split-K brakes...
The four cars not yet on-hand will all be done with the split-K brakes, which are better-suited to my layout's late '30s era.
Very soon (once the paint shop has been warmed-up) all eight of the cars on hand will be heading out there for a clear spray of Testors' Glosscote - the Scalecoat paint seems to be much less durable than I remember it.
I'm hoping that once the cars are decaled and weathered, the sloppy work will be less noticeable, especially once they're on the layout.
Wayne
The project struggles on, and I finally got the undecorated cars painted, along with the re-worked underframes of the older ones. No photos, but last night (until about 5:00 AM) I applied some more details (shown below) to all of the 8 cars that I have on hand.
These three-dimensional decals, from Micro Mark, have been cut to fit various places on the ends of the hopper cars (the Kadee coupler is there only to impart a sense of scale)...
Note the ones at the bottom, cut to fit into the cars' poling pockets.
The ones from Archer are a little easier to use, but didn't have the rivet patterns required. The MicroMark ones don't respond all that well to Solvaset, so I usually do at least two applications of that setting solution, and once those have dried, use a small brush to apply MEK to each decal - the key to not destroying the decal (removing the rivets) is to make a very light and rapid pass with the brush. Even if there's a little too much MEK on the brush, it's less likely to remove the rivets than if the brush is moved back-and-forth over the decal, even once.
The camera isn't being very kind to these cars (or to their creator), but here's a B-end view of one of the cars upgraded with AB-type brakes...
...and one of the ones with the cars' original split-K brakes...
The four cars not yet on-hand will all be done with the split-K brakes, which are better-suited to my layout's late '30s era.
Very soon (once the paint shop has been warmed-up) all eight of the cars on hand will be heading out there for a clear spray of Testors' Glosscote - the Scalecoat paint seems to be much less durable than I remember it.
I'm hoping that once the cars are decaled and weathered, the sloppy work will be less noticeable, especially once they're on the layout.
Wayne