Repainting, decalling and weathering older 50' Waffle Box Cars

Discussion in 'The Paintshop' started by Gary, May 21, 2023.

  1. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

    Messages:
    7,316
    Likes Received:
    3,847
    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    I have had two older Waffle sided boxcars sitting in my stash for quite some time. They are finished in the Illinois Terminal livery of all over yellow, silver roof and green signage.

    I knew I could use these cars but not as they are, they need a refresh. So I started by removing the trucks (bogies), the side doors and the roof.


    The body and the roof were given a quick wipe down to clean off any accumulated dust. The ends of the cars are black and I wanted to keep these that way so the ends were masked off with painters tape. The floors which are scribed were also masked off.


    I want these box cars to stand out and luckily I had a can of 'sky blue' enamel.


    I did manage to find an image of box car painted in this colour, which is from the Chicago & North Western.


    The two bodies and four doors were given a few light coats of blue until I was satisfied with the coverage.


    The two roofs were repainted with silver enamel, again from a rattle can.


    I let the models sit for a while before turning the bodies upside down and applying another coat of paint from below, making sure I landed paint under the waffles. The drying process was sped up using a hair dryer on a warm setting, not hot and holding the dryer 8-10" away.

    I purchased two sets of decals from Circus City Decals (.com), one white set, one black set, which are perfect for these box cars and any other 50' box cars I wish to renew.


    This decal sheet has everything required to fit out several box cars.


    I went looking through my decal collection and I have found a the two packs of Microscale railroad numbers and letters. This sheet contains plenty of letters and numbers in a variety of sizes used by the railroads.


    These decals will be used for naming the owner of the box car, which will be known as 'First Coast'.
    I will say that the name First Coast was used in the past on a railroad, although I'm not sure in what part of the country it served. I think the name certainly fits in with my Miami layout.

    I will be starting the decal process later tonight if I'm up to it... ;)

    More to follow...

    Cheers, Gary.
     
    gormo and Vinylelpea like this.
  2. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

    Messages:
    7,316
    Likes Received:
    3,847
    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    I have managed to get 90% of the decals fixed onto one side of each box car.

    I started with the large white lettering : First Coast.


    Then after letting them cure for a while, I worked on quite a few smaller decals...


    I have also been informed that First Coast is a real railroad that operates in Northern Florida and up into Georgia. So, my railroad of lies, First Coast is actually real and true !

    Cheers, Gary.
     
  3. paul_l

    paul_l Staff Member Administrator

    Messages:
    9,848
    Likes Received:
    5,902
    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    Very nice Gary
     
    Gary likes this.
  4. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

    Messages:
    7,316
    Likes Received:
    3,847
    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    Well I finished applying decals to the box cars. In total, there are 25 individual decals on each side of each car, so 100 decals in total ! :eek:


    Both the cars, one has been numbered 23901 and the other 23908...



    The floors inside were painted up as well to represent worn and weathered timber...



    Next job now the decals have been done and the bodies have had a clear flat applied is to repaint the ends black and add more road numbers, yep, more decals.... :facepalm:

    Cheers, Gary.
     
    gormo and Vinylelpea like this.
  5. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

    Messages:
    7,316
    Likes Received:
    3,847
    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    I have masked off the ends of the box cars ready for paint. I'll be using the air brush for this task and my paint of choice is SMS Chassis Black...


    The SMS Chassis black is a flat black and when dry produces a nice finish...


    Now the fun part, adding more decals. These numbers are approximately 1mm in height. The numbers 2 & 3 and 9 & 0 are easily enough to apply although cutting out a single digit ( 1 & 8) is a little more tedious. I did loose a number 8 and had to cut out another...


    Next job was to remove the old coupler boxes and replace with Kadee #5 boxes/couplers...


    The old mount which is cast in the floor of the car had to be pared away with a scalpel...


    After the orignal mount was pared away, the Kadee 35s were glued into position. I will be adding small screws to fix the Kadee coupler to the car chassis and then removing the two outer mounting points from the draft box...


    I do need to purchase the screws to do this. Once this is done, I will add the brake hoses and possibly some coupler cut bars....

    Cheers, Gary.
     
    gormo and Vinylelpea like this.
  6. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

    Messages:
    7,316
    Likes Received:
    3,847
    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    New Kadee couplers have been added and screwed to the chassis. I have also added air hoses for a little extra detail. One of our facebook members has kindly posted an image of the coupler cut bar jig he made so I can eventually add couple cut bars to the cars.
    One thing I should have done earlier on was to remove the ladders on the end of the cars and replace them with wire. This can still be done in the future, but given the three foot rule, well about 16" on my layout as it is near eye level (53" off the ground), these details are easily spotted. ;)



    Close up showing the air hose on the end of the car...


    The wheel faces, backs and axles were painted a rusty brown and the bogie side frames also painted up and weathered.

    So, apart from adding the cut bars, it is only weathering that is required and then they are ready for service !

    Cheers, Gary.
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2023
    gormo and Vinylelpea like this.
  7. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

    Messages:
    5,991
    Likes Received:
    4,140
    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    One word.......Brilliant !!!!!......:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
    :tophat:Gormo
     
    Vinylelpea likes this.

Share This Page