Detailing the X72 boxcar


MODEL AND PHOTO BY GARY CHRISTENSEN


Some X72’s were sold to Canadian Nation- al, where they received a simple paint-out scheme. This fantastic model was done by the author’s friend, Gary Christensen.


I masked off the roof of the car and


sprayed it with a flat aluminum spray- paint. Conrail’s brown seemed to vary a bit, especially once the cars had aged, so you will see countless variations on it. For this reason, I only paint a couple of cars at a time with any one batch, giving a prototypical difference in tone color when you see a couple of cars next to each other. For this car I used Modelflex paints, with the goal being a slightly lighter and faded color than the nice deep brown seen on a freshly- shopped Conrail box. The approximate ratio I used was four parts Dark Tus- can Oxide Brown, one part Erie Lack- awanna Maroon, and a touch of Signal Red. Add some white if you want a lighter, more faded version. I thinned the mix slightly with window cleaner, then airbrushed the model with three coats, intentionally over-spraying the roof slightly. Following that, I manually brushed a light coat of Reefer Gray onto the roof to give a bleached galvanized steel tone. While I’ve heard of cases where the roof may have been painted to match the sides of the car, the majority of the photos I have seen show the roof as bare metal.


On the underside, I airbrushed a 62 AUGUST 2012


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