Those who run European railroads will be aware that the LGB #3070 series ‘DB’ coach is highly sought after and attracts a lot of bidder interest on eBay. This drives up the price for the car considerably. The less well known #3072 ‘Florida Boy Orange’ car, while prototypical, does not attract the same interest and so prices are way less. I have several Florida Boy cars, but more than one coach per train seems a little excessive. With this in mind, I decided that a garish yellow ‘Florida Boy’ car needed a new coat of paint. The car was disassembled and the paint lightly scuffed with very fine grade wet rubbing sandpaper. I masked off the yellow ends as the sliding door windows are sonically welded and impossible to remove. The sides of the car were then sprayed in clear spray around the edges of the masking tape. This seals the edge covering adjoining masked off areas, leaving a crisp separation line. The car was then sprayed ‘Brunswick Green’ (my favourite railroad colour) and the masking tape removed immediately. Normally, I would use a light spray undercoat, but as I had none available, I sprayed the colour coat directly over the coach sides. Once the paint was dry, I applied fictional European road designation markings to the car sides, using Letraset dry rubbing transfers. These are intended to ‘look the part’ only and not intended to be prototypical. The car was then clear sprayed and reassembled. Bachmann small diameter metal wheels were then fitted to complete the ‘narrow-gauge’ look.
