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| This 40' PS-1 boxcar with a 6' Superior door from Kadee Quality
Products Company is a fantastic ready-to-run car.
Yeah, yeah, I know... I didn't do any real modeling work on this car; Kadee makes a very fine ready-to-run car in the 1950s GBW scheme. But I did like the weathering effect I put on this car, especially the faded GREEN BAY ROUTE heralds, so I'm sharing it with you. I weathered the car by drybrushing Delta Ceramcoat (cheap acrylic paint available at the craft department of Wal-Mart, a 2-oz bottle is less than a dollar) "charcoal" along the weld lines of the car, mainly along the upper half of each weld line. I made a mask out of a piece of manila folder to keep the drybrushing to a narrow band right at the weld line. The results was just a hint of rust/dirt at each weld, barely visible in the photo. Then I took some masking tape and masked off the GREEN BAY ROUTE herald on each side. I arranged it such that the edge of the tape was on the white border. Then I drybrushed Delta Ceramcoat "white" on the heralds to give a faded look. I really like the results I got doing this. Next, I tried to achieve the look of the paint from the lettering washing down the sides of the car. (Yeah, yeah, I know - the prototype cars had Scotchlite lettering which wouldn't streak, but I wanted to practice trying this effect.) I used the same mask that I used to drybrush the "charcoal" on the weld lines. As you can see, I could use a lot more practice on this technique. The effect looks more like the opening credits to the TV show "The Munsters!" Oh, well. Next, I got out the airbrush and lightly sprayed Badger Modelflex "weathered black" on the car body, with emphasis on the black ends and roof. Then I spayed a little "rail brown" on the sides, just to tone down the drybrushing effects. Lastly, I sprayed "reefer orange" on the trucks and couplers to simulate rust. I protected the car body with a hand-held piece of paper when I sprayed the couplers. Looking at the photo of the car, I can see that the last step I have to do is close the door tightly! |
The completed car.
This is the car "out of the box."
The end of the car.
All photos on this page by Mark Mathu.
