wheelsets, body mounted couplers, weathering, etc.
All of my good cars have body mounted Kadee #1 couplers (#820 or #821) and Gary Raymond wheels. For Aristo, I use the A34BL wheelsets. Once they've got some running time, they begin to wear off the blackening from the tread, resulting in a pretty good looking wheel. Some of the older Aristo cars have been upgraded with the new low-riding underframe.
Weathering
I'm a huge fan of weathering. We've had people visit who aren't into trains, and someone has said something like "Wow, it looks really dirty, just like a real
train!" Ahhh, that made my day!
If you want to weather, you should accumulate the following supplies to get started:
- Alcohol. I use off-the-shelf rubbing alcohol, but others insist that 90% or better should be used.
- Black ink.
- Testor's Dull Cote (available from hobby shops, mail order, etc).
- Floquil Diosol (or whatever they call their brush cleaner now).
- Floquil colors: Reefer yellow, Antique while, Grimy black, Rust.
- Airbrush - very nice to have, but not really necessary.
- Bragdon Enterprises weathering powders.
- Old paint brushes to spread the powder, etc.
- Books with pictures of real trains so you can see what you're trying to achieve!
Some good "recipes" for weathering:
- Mix some rubbing alcohol and a couple drops of ink together. Rub/brush it on, then wipe it off the sides of cars to bring out details. The alcohol sometimes
- causes a white glaze... this looks really good on boxcar floors. You'll find lots of ways to use it. I find it good for simulating coal dust or other really dark grime.
- Lately, I've been using a lot of Bragdon Enterprises weathering powders. Put down a light coat of Dull Cote, apply lots of chalk with a brush, spray some more dull cote, etc.
- Another handy mix is a very light wash of Floquil diosol (brush cleaner) with a bit of Antique White and a bit more of Reefer Yellow. Apply this in light coats to "yellow" white lettering and make it look older.
- Light washes of grimy black really weather things. If you've got a spray brush, use it to put on very light coats of grimy black.
- Dry-brushing grimy black onto dark trucks will bring out some of the details, making them more 3D. Also dry-brush rust onto the springs.
Try your own ideas. When done, toss on a light coat of Dull Cote to keep your finish.
This started as a cheap USA Trains boxcar I got on eBay. I needed a car with a body mounted Kadee coupler on one end, and a hook-and-loop coupler on the other so that my son's collection of cars/trains could work with mine. We also have friends who use hook-and-loop, so I really wanted a way for them to run their equipment on my layout, or vice-versa.
So, where do I start? Kadee #821 coupler at the one end, but the original coupler on the other. Gary Raymond wheelsets replaced the stock wheels. Many coats of Dull cote. The weathering on the sides was done almost exclusively with Bragdon supplies. I did use RUSTALL from Micro-Mark for some of the roof and side effects. The flooring inside the car has had alcohol/ink dumped, smeared, etc. Oh, and the unpainted details (handrails) were painted with Floquil ATSF Red prior to weathering.
Note that I made no effort to detail this car; the screws can be seen on the side and end.
I like this car! I've always loved flat cars, and this is an Aristo unit I picked up several years ago. It has Kadee #821 couplers body mounted on both ends, and Gary Raymond wheelsets. The handrails and other unpainted details were painted with some Floquil color (can't remember what, possibly tuscan red?). The letters were "yellowed" with the mixture detailed further up this page. Weathering was mostly with an airbrush and Floquil grimy black, but some Bragdon stuff was used here as well.
The deck on Aristo flat cars is terrible, so I covered it with hand-cut pieces of Northeastern Scale Lumber 1/16" x 3/16th stripwood. Each piece was sanded with 300 and 600 grit sandpaper, then individually stained with either the alcohol/ink mixture, or alcohol/brown paint to get the various shades of colors. The pieces were then epoxied to the deck.
Once again, no fancy detailing... screw heads are plainly visible, but the rest of the car draws attention away from the minor defects.
I wanted to model a better looking gondola. In the real world, they get beaten to a pulp, usually have bent sides, extreme corrosion, etc. This started as an Aristo drop-end gondola that I "warped" the sides of, using a halogen lamp.
Add my usual assortment of Gary Raymond wheels, Kadee #920 couplers (exactly like #820 but rust colored), Bragdon Enterprises weathering, ink/alcohol wash, and antique white/yellow wash. I spent about two weeks from disassembling the gondola to finally putting it back together.
I merged two projects here. The boxcar is from the original Aristo-Craft starter kit my wife gave me, and the hopper was a "junk" car i picked up at a local
train show for $16. Both have seen a lot of running since the upgrades. Usual stuff: replaced weels, body mounted Kadees, and weathered. The boxcar was mostly done with chalk, while the hopper was done with india ink/alcohol.
Longer term and bigger project... I've been doing a fair amount of casting for a number of years now, using supplies readily available from places like Micro-Mark. There was an excellent article a few years ago in Finescale Railroader (June/July 2001, "Build A Steel Flatcar" by Bob Uniak) that showed how he built a number of 1:32 flatcars using castings. That was a very inspiring article, and doing the same thing is on my "big project" list. The goal is to crank out a number of 50' or longer flatcars. I've been collecting drawings and data about PRR F30E flatcars.