coat of thinned Grimy Black, then set the model aside to cure. Next, I airbrushed two coats of a 3:1 mixture of Future®


floor wax and 70 per-


cent rubbing alcohol onto the car. You want to take your time here and get a nice even coverage over the model. Be careful not to apply too much. The solu- tion is self-leveling and can pool at the bottom of the model if you are not care- ful. You can also manually brush the Fu- ture on without thinning it and not leave brush marks. While I had heard about using Future quite some time ago, I was recently re-introduced to it by my friends at The Weathering Shop (www.theweatheringshop.com), and I must say I like the results better as a surface for decaling as compared to us- ing gloss sprays. It is also less expensive. After drying thoroughly, I began de- caling the model using Microscale sets 87-1046 and 87-1162, with set FCD- WIP from Highball Graphics for the U- 1 wheel inspection dots. (There were some 33-inch, 70-ton wheels that were prone to failure manufactured in March of 1978. These stencils were ap- plied as part of a nationwide inspection program, yellow dots being approved, white dots having immediate restric- tions and requiring replacement by year’s end. After the program was over the stencils usually remained until the cars were repainted.) You will find numerous variations of the herald and lettering placement on Conrail’s X72 and X72A cars. I chose an earlier paint scheme with the large “can-opener” logo and with data indi- cating a re-paint in 1977 (generally working from photos in the book Con- rail Color Guide to Freight & Passen- ger Equipment). After the decals are in place and have dried, apply one last coat of Future over the sides and ends. This can be done with a soft brush or airbrush. Once dry, install the Plano coupler platforms, then apply Dullcote to put a nice flat finish on the car. Now it is time to get to the weathering.


Weathering


The paint color I started with repre- sents a slight faded hue and the decals initially stood out as a brighter white. That said,


Conrail boxcars never


stayed clean for long. I started out with a black wash, about one part flat black Modelflex to eight parts water, brush- ing it on pretty liberally but gently wiping it down with a makeup sponge before it dried. This gets the wash down into the details of the car without coating the whole side. Next, I put a pea-sized amount of a


few water colors and gouache on a pa- per plate and dabbed a little of each onto a flat, wide brush that was lightly


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN


dampened with water. I lightly applied this mix along the very top of the side panels, and then, after dampening the brush lightly again, I carefully brought the brush straight down the side of the car. This created small differences in color, and perhaps some more pro- nounced streaks,


depending on


whether it was repeated. For this model, I only wanted to get the feel of “very dirty” as opposed to “rust bucket,” so I only did this once. You can add a streak from the end of the door track down using a similar method. If the streak gets too wide, carefully use the wet edge of a flat brush to shape the streak to your liking. For maximum realism remember to step back periodically and make sure that any streaks are truly vertical. Boxcars get scrapes and dings, from forklifts in particular, so I added a few occasional lines using the very end of a flat brush with the same paint mix. Just like the larger streaks, I damp- ened the same brush, then gently touched it to the initial scrape and slowly worked straight down. This gave the effect of a gouge that has rust- ed, and ran down the side of the car. You can use the same technique for other scrapes, smaller dings and rust spots, etc. While this sounds complex, it really isn’t. Just try out these tech- niques on a guinea pig car first, and you will get the hang of it. Following the gouache and water col-


or, I used some AIM weathering pow- ders to get the car a bit more dirty. My favorites for this are Delta Dirt and Medium Gray. I very lightly apply the gray first, brushing downward from the top, and followed that up the same way for the Delta Dirt. I used more of the Delta Dirt around the ends of the cars to show wheel spray and grime, then mixed in some Soot Black powder around the draft gear. I applied a light spray of Dullcote to seal things and let it dry overnight. To detail the rust and dirt I used wa-


ter-mixable “oil” paints. They have sim- ilar characteristics to true oil colors, but as the name implies, you can mix and blend them using water and clean up right in the kitchen sink. I primari- ly use Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber but add black or white to get a full range of tones. Very small amounts of these applied carefully over the scratches and streaks will make them more “crusty” and textured. Really, this all depends on how old the car might be. For this X72 I touched up a few of the spots without getting too heavy, then turned my attention to the roof. The X72 has a flat roof, so rain and grime just sit there without running off. For this reason the center of the roof of-


ten shows rust that has worked its way outward in no particular pattern. I stip- pled on some of the Burnt Sienna oils, mixing in some darker gouache and black oils ever so slightly. Typically you wouldn’t see a straight stripe, so I var- ied the placement to imply some undu- lations in the roof, perhaps having been bumped from the inside by a careless forklift operator. For added texture, lightly sprinkle some rust-toned weath- ering powders onto the wet paint by fill- ing the tip of your brush and tapping at it from above, letting the powders fall onto the roof. As with everything else, take your time and try different tones for varying effects. For the trucks, I have a small bottle of paint I keep around that is a mix of mud and earth tones, as well as rust and a grimy black. Any similar colors or mixes work here provided they are thinned slightly. I brush this onto the entire truck sideframe, then quickly dab the paint off again using a makeup sponge. This gives a good base for the following steps and takes away the shine seen on most molded trucks. Next, I use brown powders, such as


AIM’s Medium Earth and Dusty Brown to get an overall color on the trucks. This is followed by some darker tones for highlights. Be sure to paint the trucks inside and out, and avoid the temptation to paint the springs a rusty color. They are usually the same color as the rest of the sideframe. The wheels get the same paint that was used on the trucks, front and back, with a quick ap- plication of a lighter brown powder. In fact, I use the same paint on the cou- plers, touching them up with rust-col- ored powders and a grimy wash. The air hoses get a quick touch of a Grimy black, with the last step being a dab of silver or gray paint on the air hose hardware. Step back, have a good look over the model, and check for any- thing in need of touch-up, maybe some added grime around the door tracks, perhaps some light lines of wheel splatter on the ends, or some added textures on the roof. Once you are hap- py with the model, apply one last layer of Dullcote and let it sit overnight be- fore handling. While this may seem like a lot of work for a single model, when you con- sider the starting point it is a very re- warding project. There are numerous variations on this sort of thing if you want to avoid some of the steps or parts, such as replacing only the side ladders, or using the stock underframe without modifications. No matter how you approach this car you will have a nicely improved model of a very impor- tant piece of rolling stock from the 1970’s through the 1990’s.


63


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100