Passenger Paint I used Tru-Color Santa Fe Passenger Car Green for this car and Micro-Scale Dulux Gold lettering. Some of the lettering was placed one letter at a time.
Complex- looking I enjoyed building the Dynamometer car pri- marily because of the complex look of the car. The sheer number of grab irons was enough to drive one crazy.
surface of a material), which is the bane of glazers in the model business. Glass is always a good choice too, but a it’s real bear to cut very small. I chose to use the plastic.
Topping it Off While the smokejack is accu-
rately located, the rest of the roof vents are a bit of whimsy. No two photos I found of this car seemed to show the same arrangement. I assumed changes were made pe- riodically and reasoned that the appearance of the vents on my car were at least sensible. If the rest of the car was kept
clean and tidy, the photos definite- ly indicated evidence of consider-
able fading and weathering on the roof. The technique I used here is one I discovered some time ago quite by accident and have used successfully since. I covered this roof in masking tape to simulate tarpaper or mule skin and paint- ed it black with a generous dose of Dullcote. After the paint had dried, I applied liberal amounts of rubbing alcohol — 70 percent iso- propanol or better — and allowed it to air dry. As it dries, the effect of fading and washing out the black color blooms. Further ap- plications of alcohol can increase the effect. The result is a gravity affected yet randomly faded and sun-baked appearance. Using the head of a pin I cre- ated marker lights on the front and rear ends of the car. I made the roof removable.
Mak-
ing the roof remov- able greatly aided in painting and weath- ering without doing damage to the car’s sides and allowed me to add some inte- rior details.
Wheels and Underframe The details of the underframe of the
76 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
car are another exercise of artistic license. I don’t really know any- thing at all about the mechanics, plumbing, and so forth of passen- ger cars and their ilk. For the un- derside of this car, I had to rely completely on the photos to pro- duce a result that at least resem- bled the original. I found some details in the spare parts bin for passenger cars. I fashioned other parts as needed out of bits and pieces of styrene and Grandt Line hasps and hinges until what I had at least looked like the picture. I found the Athearn express trucks were a dead ringer for the ones in the photo, so at least that was easy. If I had this to do over again, I would have built the floor and underframe as a separate piece, attaching the two pieces together after all the painting was done. As it is, I found it necessary to install all the details on the underframe then paint them black. After the black had dried, I masked them off so that the Santa Fe Passenger Car Green paint would remain only on the sides and ends of the car. I finished up the model with
Kadee couplers and hoses, as well as Tichy Train Group corner steps. I then weathered the car with a black wash and Bragdon powders.
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