Nachoman's 2010 spring bash chalenge

[nachoman]

Kevin, that turned out very nicely. Doing the brakes is rather fun, no?

Thanks, Gary. I think the best part was learning how they work. It seems a little complicated, but like automobile drum brakes once you figure them out, it's genius.

[Gary S]

I'm going to add in that not just the brakes are looking good... the entire frame looks good. I like how you built up the ends. I've been watching this thread with interest because I have some tank cars that I need to bring up to speed... body mount couplers and such. And you're giving me good ideas!

[nachoman]

I have assembled everything and painted the car gloss black. Right now, it is resting on "shop trucks" while I wait for the paint to completely dry - then I will apply decals. Looks like it has already attracted some dust I will have to blow off before decaling.

[tetters]

Nice!

[Ralph]

Excellent Kevin!!! That looks very true to the original! Nicely done indeed!!!
Ralph

[doctorwayne]

Very nice job, Kevin. Nice enough, in fact, for me to wanna keep my eye open for a similar car on the "used" table at the LHS.

Wayne

[ngauger]

Wow!

That's what I like to see.. A transformation into a completely "different" car!!!!

This is how I get ideas for my layout, since not very much is available in 1:20.3...

Doctorwayne is right, this kind of work shows what can be done with "extra" rolling stock and how "new" looking it can become with a bit of work, or should that be: with a bit of "fun"?????

[nachoman]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Wayne, if you want a 3-dome car, I suggest looking for the Athearn model. This bachmann car took quite a lot of work just to make it useable. I think they even used inferior plastic. Bachmann probably bought the molds from someone else - tyco or AHM, and perhaps those earlier cars were better. Anyway, here is the car with my homemade decals applied. Next comes some weathering.

[ocalicreek]

A fine piece of rolling stock anyone would be proud to own/run. Excellent work! Can you say more about your 'homemade' decals?

Galen

[nachoman]

Can you say more about your 'homemade' decals?

They are printed on Testors white decal paper using an ink jet printer (an old HP printer that is on it's last legs). The conoco logo was drawn using simple shapes in powerpoint. For the CONX label, I used a stencil font that I downloaded free online. I drew a black background box in powerpoint, then a text box above the black background with white font color. I sealed the decals with 3 light coats of testors decal bonder spray. I then cut out and applied the decals as usual. The conoco logo required special cutting in order to leave the white border. the black background of the decal doesn't exactly match the black paint of the tank, and a thin white edge shows where the decal was cut. To help remedy this, I carefully painted the decal edge black after it was installed on the car.

[Puddlejumper]

Really nice! I am impressed with what you did with this "toy" quality tank car. I just bought a 6 dome tank car off of ebay for this exact reason.

[nachoman]

Here is one more photo after some light airbrush weathering. It is still sitting on "shop" trucks. I will let this weathering dry overnight, and then dullcote the shine away, put on the final trucks, an call it done.

[nachoman]

Two down, one to go. Here is the car after dullcote and final weathering. Not perfect, but definitely respectable. The only thing new I purchased for this car was more black paint. The rest came from my scrap box.

[ocalicreek]

Two down, one to go.

Awesome. What's next?

Galen

[Ralph]

I've already been admiring your work on this one but I have to post once more now that I've seen the final product. Awesome!!!!!
Ralph