-Charlie
As a quick weekend project, I decided to make a trio of Bowser F30 flatcars look a little better than they did out of the box. The main objective was to paint the molded plastic deck to look like weathered wood instead of yellow plastic. I'm pleased with the results of the project and look forward to replicating it on other flatcars and gondolas. See the pictures below for a step by step look at what I did. -Charlie I had assembled these kits long ago, but decided it was time to put together a decent Maintenance of Way fleet as the warmer months for track work approach. As you can see, the yellow deck doesn't look too realistic. The first step I took was to remove the wheelsets to prevent the cars from rolling around. I also put a dab of super glue around the bottom of the brake wheel stand where it contacts the deck. I forget how I had attached this piece before, but it was incredibly loose and prone to being broken. The decks were painted using a technique shown in a Model Railroader video. I kept my brush wet and applied four colors of acrylic paint working from lightest to darkest. I was careful to apply the paint sparingly. Especially towards the last shades, I applied the paint unevenly to show natural variation. With each application, I worked quickly with little wet paint at a time. I would pick up some paint with the brush, deposit it along the middle of the deck for a quarter inch or so, then drag the paint towards the sides of the car before it dried. I masked the areas of the deck that are not meant to represent wood. One major deviation I took from the MR video was not ordering the $40 paint set they used to achieve the same technique. I instead bought four bottles of paint at Joann Fabrics for around $5 that worked just as well. I applied these colors from right to left, starting with a base coat of Mississippi Mud and ending with Burnt Umber. The specific paint colors aren't critical, as long as they are a variety of tans and browns. Upon checking the cars' weights against the NMRA standard, I found that they only weight a measly 1.8 oz, less than half the standard weight of 4.5 oz. I glued lead shot into the underframe to add as much weight as I could, but this still didn't put the car up to 4.5 oz. I used 50/50 white glue/water applied with a pipette. The cars have some tracking issues, but a heavy load would resolve this.
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December 2023
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