Post by hlcx4300 on Feb 17, 2014 18:10:44 GMT -5
New or refurbished railcars are always eye catchers on long manifests of otherwise dirty, old railcars. Whether it's the smell of fresh paint, the glossy clean carbody, the fresh rusty wheels and couplers, or the blue roller bearing caps, they always stand out! Lately here on the NS Fort Wayne lines in my backyard, I have been seeing long strings of freshly repainted, rebuilt, or brand new tankers in transit for delivery in otherwise ordinary consists so seeing this has inspired me to make some ''new cars'' to add to my collection. Thanks to a buddy, I was able to acquire a pair of Athearn Genesis GATX Acid cars #18392 & #46376 for about $14 a piece. These cars are excellently detailed and track very well plus feature all the modern appliances like the hazmat placards and contact info so their is very little needed to complete them. What I was going for was the look of cars that had been refurbished to extend their service life. First I added a coating of Testors wet gloss to each of the cars from top to bottom to create to look of fresh glossy paint. This product works very well but it is very easy to over spray and create runs. The key to getting it to apply in an even flat coat is to put the can in a tub of warm water for 5 minutes and then to shake it up for another 2 minutes. Once the single coat gloss was applied, it left an amazing flat, clean mirror like shine on the models which was exactly what I was aiming for! I then painted the wheels and couplers a fresh orange rusty color and finished off by painting the bearing caps blue. Once the models were back together, I added the reflective safety stripes. My stripes are made by using a roll of Western Safety reflective black and yellow tape carefully measured and cut to accurate size and then added to the models directly. Below are some photos of the completed pair now hauling hydrochloric acid on my railroad. If you ever want to model something different or that stands out, try modeling a fresh new railcar! 
