Triple O Gloss -- Passenger Car & Parlor Car

[Eric_Mueller]

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

[Eric_Mueller]

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

[David_Marconi_FOGCH (David Marconi CHHNNG)]

Another tidbit you might like for this boxcar

[PeterT]

@Eric_Mueller

“honey cans”

Known in the US as "Honey Do"s

[Eric_Mueller]

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

[PeterT]

@Eric_Mueller

The hard part, as noted early in the thread, will be the railings.

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?

[David_Marconi_FOGCH (David Marconi CHHNNG)]

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

[Eric_Mueller]

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

[Hines (Bill)]

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.

[Rooster]

@Eric_Mueller

Update:

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?

Eric

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!

[Rooster]

@Rooster

@Eric_Mueller

Update:

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?

Eric

Eric,
The one and only Bachmann car that I ever painted the interior on.

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.

[freddy (Fred Mills)]

Here in Canada, those were called “Grain Doors”…
Fred Mills

[Eric_Mueller]

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

[PeterT]

@Eric_Mueller

We’ll eventually mask and paper

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.

[Eric_Mueller]

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

[Eric_Mueller]

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

[Eric_Mueller]

Update:

We engaged in a little prep-painting today prior to flocking the seats.

I have explained to my little familiar that he is not allowed to start his AMTRAK project until this coach and Silver Star are done!

I’ve painted all the railings brass, and we have all the parts ready to hand. We should have this buttoned up, lit up, and rolling behind Emmett in a few weeks if not sooner!

Eric

[Hines (Bill)]

Art imitating life, or vice versa?

Stumbled across this today on web page…

[Rooster]

@Eric_Mueller

Update:

We engaged in a little prep-painting today prior to flocking the seats.

I have explained to my little familiar that he is not allowed to start his AMTRAK project until this coach and Silver Star are done!

Eric

Perhaps you are being a little hard on the boy ?

This a new generation and if he’s into Amtrak then you will have to accept it as it is 2024 Eric! His AMTRAK elders have been ridiculed, spat upon and publicly defiled for the next generation but their sacrifices are paying off.

Besides I should report you to the moderator for saying flocking!

[Eric_Mueller]

@Rooster

Perhaps you are being a little hard on the boy ?

Nope. Someone gave him some trashed LIONEL that he is already trying to restore on the side…

You should have seen the “before shots!” It looks like it had been wrapped in newspaper that had gotten wet. He also wants to start an HO project layout, so, yeah, he needs a bit of “discipline!”

Meanwhile, we worked together to bring this circus coach over the line.

I cut up some plastic trays to make new glazing for the door windows…

…and he helped resoldering some of the wiring for the lights. (That’s right! Kid-zilla did the soldering! He had just disassembled and repaired toy train, soldering a broken wire himself…unsupervised…so he was feeling pretty cocky!). Sorry, my picture didn’t come out, but this is a huge, huge step forward in his skills!

I had already cleaned the flashing off the handrails and such and gave the a coat of bronze-colored paint, so, after multiple attempts to line up roof, stove, stack, and lights, we got the whole car assembled and on the rails, we had the 1:24 gang help us install the end of train light.

Then, of course, we hooked it up to Emmett and a train, to include the combine donated from the museum’s “junk bin.”

Then, it was time to bring the circus to town!

Video: Circus Comes to Town

While not a parlor car, the end result looks good, built our skills, and made Kid-zilla very, very happy, thus meeting CINCHOUSE’s dictate “It can’t be just YOUR hobby!” Between what we had on hand, what we refurbished over the summer, and what he got as a reward from the museum’s docent for restoring “junk,” he is over the moon. I call that a success.

I still have to make decals for the box car and the passenger car we did modify, but the building phase is pau (done). The rainy season is coming, so that will give me an excuse to be inside some weekend when the temperatures drop to the unbearable winter temperatures of about 68 F at night. For the moment though, I will draw this thread to a temporary close!

Eric