I’ve been converting my rolling stock to body-mounted Kadee Gauge #1 couplers. I’m also repainting and weathering the cars as I go. Here are the first three – two gondolas and a boxcar… One of the gondolas came with my Buddy L set, the other is from a Bachmann Big Hauler set. I painted them to look like exposed wood and iron. I was thinking of finishing them off with a “peeling paint” effect but they look so good that I may just leave them as “unpainted” stock:
Next is an Aristocraft “Delton Classics” boxcar. I won this in the raffle at our club meeting in October, and I love it. It’s a very nice model with great detail. I only partially painted it – first I sanded down the D&RGW logos, the sprayed the sanded areas with a bit of red primer. It’s a close match for the car’s original color. Doing it this way allowed me to keep the reporting marks and other small lettering. The catwalk was repainted to look like old wood. I then used a series of very thin washes to dirty the car up a little and bring out the detail. Some washes were acyrlics and water, and some used alcohol instead of water. I accidentally discovered an interesting technique when I applied some alcohol that I’d been using to clean brushes. It also contained residue from Sculpy “Premo”. It seemed to react slightly with the plastic and created a faded, water stained effect. A light application was used along the bottom edge on the sides, and a heavier application was used on the roof:
I still have to paint the trucks and replace the plastic wheels with metal. Currently I’m fixing up a yellow, 8-wheel, short caboose from LGB. I’ve repainted the exterior red, and made the interior pale green. I’m also adding interior lights and lighting the marker lamps.
. The outside braced cars (a nice fit for the RS-3) are my favorites -
