doctorwayne's New Years Resolution Challenge...

[doctorwayne]

When I entered this Challenge, I thought that it might help to motivate me to finish some long outstanding projects, but unfortunately, I keep finding more stuff that needs attention.
When I was photographing those last three cars on the layout, I noticed a nearby car which had rust-coloured faces on the wheels. While that would be perfectly correct for a car equipped with roller bearings, most of my rolling stock is still outfitted with solid bearings, and that means greasy/oily wheels. I had known when I originally painted the wheels that they were incorrect, but with some heavy airbrushed weathering, they didn't look too bad and were perhaps a bit more interesting. Anyway, the sight of those wheels bothered me enough that I decided to repaint them. I knew that all of the cars of that type had the same problem, and found a few more, too. While this was easy work, taking time to do 10 or 12 cars was time taken away from the Challenge tasks which I had originally set out to do.
Other distractions include these three boxcars (which also needed their wheels re-painted). Two had BLT. dates in the mid-'40s, and all three showed "NEW" beside the weight data, with, of course, '40s dates. I scraped off the offending data with a knife (two cars were lettered with C-D-S dry transfers, which came off easily, while the third was factory lettering and a little more stubborn to remove. I used painted decal film to covered the appropriate areas, then added data using decals from Champ. The re-pack stencils (on black decal film to the right end of the car) are also from Champ, and help validate the newly-black wheel faces.



Here are a couple of them in service:





Also on the same train was this caboose:



Originally a CPR caboose from Trueline, I picked it up "used" at a local hobbyshop for $10.00. After removing the script lettering (and most of the paint from the car's sides) using a rag soaked in methyl hydrate, I completely dis-assembled the car, then washed all of the parts in hot water and dish detergent. After everything had dried, all of the parts made from engineering plastic were brush-painted using Tamiya paint (left-over from the same procedure on a couple of Trueline CNR cabooses). This included the end platforms, steps, railings, and ladders. After the paint had cured, the same parts, along with the car's sides, were airbrushed with PollyScale Special Oxide Red, a good match for the original CPR colour (which was still intact on the sides of the cupola). I left the car's ends in the original caboose red used by CPR.
Lettering was done using Champ alphabet sets, then the parts were Dullcoted and re-assembled, followed by some airbrushed weathering.



I also took time to begin painting some solid-resin automobiles. After a thorough washing, they were airbrushed with Floquil grey primer and are currently undergoing brush painting. They may or may not be finished before the end of the month.

I also managed to not totally neglect the EG&E boxcar rebuild, with work proceeding on roof removal. Using a utility knife with a fresh blade, several light passes were made just below the rivet strip at the car's eaves:





Next, a cut was made across the ends, half working from one side, the other half from the opposite side. The ends will eventually be replaced, but will be needed while the sides are lowered and also when the roof and rivet strip are re-attached.





Both the roof and the top edges of the car will be sanded in order to remove about 1' of height from the car's side, then the parts will be re-joined. To prevent the rough end-cuts from interfering with sanding, the utility knife was used to remove excess material:



Wayne