I use white glue even thinned if need be. The white glue doesn’t set up as fast and gives the fibers time to adhere. Titebond and contact both form a film rather quickly and seriously shorten the working time. 
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Update:
Limited progress on the coach this weekend. I did removes some overspray using paint thinner, but, other than that, I wanted to paint the green on the box car, let it cure, then do all the fixes on both cars in one sitting. With that plan in mind, masking happened, and the box car went out the Palm of Spray Painting.
I’ve learned nothing good comes from leaving the masking tape on too long, so, after about an hour, I peeled it back.
I’ll take those results! I am very pleased with the masking. Close inspection will show some run with the paint, but not enough to cause me to sand it off and try again. Some of this, of course, is operator error. Some of it is because I use a palm tree for a spray booth. Whatever my excuse, I am really, really pleased with the results, as I have never tried anything like this before.
Next, I’ll pick off some of the details with flat black, then it’ll get some lettering, I also have to build the roofwalk. Then it’ll be back in revenue service for this garage sale sad sack! Oh, and progress has shamed Oldest Daughter into maybe finishing her elevator:
O.D.: Nice, Dad! What’s it going to carry?
Me: Grain from the grain elevator.
O.D.: …
Updates as progress merits! Have a great week!
Eric
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The color change line came out great. Getting crisp lines with tape in not easy, especially with the siding grooves. Painting with the grooves horizontal probably saved a lot of grief.
VERY good job guys. It looks great. 
Thanks, everyone for your kind words! This weekend will be hand painting some details and correcting some issues on the coach, but I am looking ahead to lettering. We have our CRICUT, but there is a limit to how small it will print, so this sort of detail…
…will need to be either decals or dry transfer letters.
- With regards to decals, has anyone tried to use “Experts-Choice” brand decal sheets? I bought a pack on whim some time ago.
- With regards to dry transfers, are there any tricks to make sure they get down into the grooves between the “boards?”
- What is the best way to make sure that the lettering goes on straight? Light pencil lines? Calibrated eyeball?
Thanks!
Eric
Update:
The Triple O -- Bachmann 10-Wheeler Salvage Campaign has put all else on the backburner, but I was able to make some progress on this project while Kid-zilla prepped a hulk for restoration.
Starting with the box car, using the tips above, I cut and sanded the mounts for the roof walk.
I was not able to sand these in a block as suggested, and, as the picture shows, they don’t quite rest to the roof. They are close enough. At some point, I’ll glue them all in place with 2-part epoxy and move on.
I bought material needed to print decals for the box car and passenger coaches. I’ll tinker with that later. I also bought some paint markers to touch up the coach a bit. The green was definitely “close enough.” The yellow was dried out in the box, so I have to return it. Finally, between “honey cans” (local for parlance…"Honey, can come do this…Honey, can come do that…etc.), I dug out and began to remove the flashing for the railings. The railings themselves will be black to match the prototype. We agreed to paint the handrails near the door bronze just to make them pop a bit.
Updates as progress merits.
Eric
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Another tidbit you might like for this boxcar
Known in the US as "Honey Do"s
Update:
The 1:1 crew being otherwise busy, the 1:24 lads helped me finish the roofwalk on the box car.
The planks, in true Triple O tradition, are craftsticks! I plan to stain them with diluted India ink to tone them down a bit, but, otherwise, these will do. I still have to build the grain-retaining boards @David_Marconi_FOGCH posted above, but I should be able to get to them shortly. Eventually, I will make an order for a ton of brake wheels to finish this rebuild and repair a host of over cars on the shelf, but this was not the week!
The 1:24 gang and I also set to work reassembling the coach. I have found that almost done projects in partial degrees of disassembly are the most subject to breakage and wandering parts! Kid-zilla came to observe as I mis-wired and rewired the lighting, but was otherwise busy with his locomotive. I did cut windows for the doors our of plastic, affixing them with CA, and, after putting the roof on backwards, finally got it all assembled, only to find the roof screws were, in fact, not the roof screws, leaving the roof a friction hold for the time being. Nonetheless, the 1:24 gang backed it out of the car shops at Pu’u’oma’ao.
You can just make out the flocking that gives the seats a plush appearance. It is a nice touch! This is what it looks like close up:
For a limited bit of effort, it adds a textural and visual element that gives the project that little bit extra, I think. In the future, we will use white glue as @David_Marconi_FOGCH suggested, to get better coverage.
We are working on a lettering scheme and possibly symbol. When that is resolved, I will try to make decals for both the box car and the coach. Once that is done, both will probably get a bit of touch up paint. Otherwise, they are done, and both will enter revenue service.
We have one last coach to convert to our version of the OR&L parlor car. I took the pictured below at our car shops the day we rolled out the coach. At this point, its deck and trucks are in paint.
We will shorten the walls to match the prototype in terms of number of widnows, but I have no plan to shorten the coach. The bulkhead will move “backwards” to cap the shortened cabin. As discussed earlier in the thread, pre-scribed styrene will form the new deck and the exposed ceiling underside. If I can enlist help in making furniture for the interior, great, if not, PLAYMOBIL furniture will likely suffice. The paint scheme will match the prototype using lessons learned from the coach in terms of masking. The hard part, as noted early in the thread, will be the railings. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it and see what the final dimension of the open deck actually are.
That is in the future. For now, I have that water tower (Haluku'ilio Water Tower -- Another Triple O Rehab Project) to finish! I’ve blown it off long enough…
Have a Glorius Fourth!
Eric
Eric, when I saw your circus coach, it reminded me of the BB&K business car that I made as a trial run for Alan at G.A.L. [I couldn’t persuade him that the EBT #20 was only 35’ long, not 40’.]
The railings were cut by Alan as an experiment, and I’ve used them elsewhere. What I really wanted to point out was the double-windows. Many Business cars had wide panaorama windows - what the BB&K RR did was chop out the center pillar between the windows -on the prototype you can see the siding is irregular below the wide windows!
Might make your car more insteresting?
Looking at the odd window arrangement on the real car :
[http://www.hawaiianrailway.com/Train%20Images/javascriptphotos/parlorcar64/large/parlorcar_2.jpg]
I don’t think you need to add more interest but JMHO YMMV
Update:
Kid-zilla asked that we restore rather than repurpose the remaining circus coach. The Hawaiian Railway Museum’s docent’s donation of a string of circus cars for Kid-zilla to clean and repair prompted Kid-zilla to ask for this redirection. He will only be my sidekick for a few years; there will always be another derelict coach to repurpose. Once we get a bit further along on his loco restoration (Triple O -- Bachmann 10-Wheeler Salvage Campaign) , we will return to this project, using techniques we experimented with in the first phased to not simply restore but to improve this coach.
Quick question, though…
We plan to paint the interior. What is the best way to mask the exterior to prevent overspray through the windows? Simply mask the entire exterior of the coach?
In the meantime, I will see if I can sit down on my computer and make some decals for what we’ve already done.
Updates as progress merits!
Eric
I used blue paper based 3M painters (masking) tape on my pola buildings. It conformed well for masking the rough wooden windows and slats and cut easily with an exacto knife. I stuck tape to regular A4 paper (any paper will do) for managing any overspray.
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Eric,
The one and only Bachmann car that I ever painted the interior on. It is modified a little but I was trying to remember how I did the interior and I found the only pic that kinda shows it. Appears I popped the windows out and masked , I believe I let below the windows alone as the seats block it anyway.
Then you made me find the below picture. I know you say you only have a a few more years left with Kidzilla. HOWEVER mind you there is a STRONG possibility this could be his bedroom 15 yrs from now and your either gonna have to deal with it or throw him out of the house!
I’ll light a candle for you!
Ok I lied a little , this is the only other one I did however I DO NOT HAVE pics on how I painted the interior? Ask yourself … is it more work to totally disassemble and paint the car while adding details as opposed to keeping the car assembled and just masking off ?
Just thinking out loud.
Here in Canada, those were called “Grain Doors”…
Fred Mills
Thanks. This car is already disassembled, so, yeah, we are going for it! We’ll eventually mask and paper per the suggestions above then give the interior a light grey coat like we did for the other coach.
Eric
As Bill Hines said, you can use the wide blue masking tape on the outside in a continuous strip, pressed firmly to the window space as you go. The interior paint will get on the sides of the window opening, but if you use the same technique on the exterior, they will get painted the exterior color.
Update:
The 1:24 gang and I took up the last of the circus cars, which, as noted, will be restored to service at Kid-zilla’s request rather than converted to a parlor car. We’ve already repainted the trucks and undercarriage, and we will paint the interior using the masking tips above to prevent overspray. The seats will also get flocked, because that’s just fun. But that is all in the future.
Today, the 1:24 gang and I removed the windows and cut away the interior lighting (not before taking a photo so I know what to do when I reassemble it!). Then, we had to decide if we wanted to restore the broken window frame or just cut out the center bit as we did for the other coach.
Kid-zilla came back from the park, and he ordered us to just cut out the center bit.
I finished up the day by fixing some dings around both windows with Tamiya putty. Unlike the previous coach, I made some attempt to fashion a sill where the vertical post used to be. We’ll see how that works!
Updates as needed!
Eric
Update:
Tropical storms last weekend made painting a dicey proposition, but we proceeded on this project during calmer moments.
After I cleaned the car body with soap and water, Kid-zilla assisted with the masking using the methods shared above. The roof is already a light color, so we opted not to paint the interior of that.
I doublechecked his work (It needed some extra tape around the edges), and took it to the Palm of Spray Painting for some light grey interior paint.
.h
Kid-zilla was pleased with overspray free results!
The seats, interior floors, WC, and stove are also in paint. We need to paint the chair frames black and flock the seats, then we can rewire and reassemble the car, giving Emmett a full complement of circus cars to tow!
Updates as merited!
Eric
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