Accurail Boxcar Build and Paint a foray into HO by an O Scaler

[Gordy]

I have decided to have a go at 1) building a freight car kit 2) building something in a new scale 3) writing an article to submit to an NMRA Magazine.

So you guys are the guinea pigs that get to let me know if this is boring drivel or of interest. So here we go....

 

My main modelling interest is 1950s New England and in O scale, but on a recent visit to Wisconsin I spent a few days photographing along ex MILW and CNW tracks. I was impressed by the variety of motive power and rolling stock that I witnessed and there was hardly a unit train in sight. I decided that maybe it was time to do a bit of HO modelling again, having last modelling in HO as a teenager and attended some Calder Northern meets.

 

- Some serious inspiration in this shot, I spent 3 hours watching all this switching and CN freights passing by.

 

A green light was given by her who must be obeyed and permission was granted to visit a local hobby shop and the Walthers show room (well worth a visit if you’re in Milwaukee). I remember fondly as a youngster taking my pocket money along to Calder Northern and coming away with a couple of Athearn blue box kits, which I would have assembled and running in my little train by the time the next meet came around. I knew from reading the modelling press that most freight cars now come ready to roll but I managed to pick up two Accurail kits from Walthers and after a trip to Engine House Services in Green Bay, WI I also acquired some of the new Evans 5100 double door box car kits in WC livery, from Scale Trains.

[Gordy]

I decided that as they were similar to the Athearn blue box kits I used to build as a youngster I would start with the Accurail kits first. I had two types of 50’ box cars a BAR 50’ Welded Plug Door boxcar and a UP 50’ Exterior post boxcar.

 

 

These are the parts you get in the kit, it includes Accurail knuckle couplers, correct doors and plastic wheel sets.I decided to replace the Accurail couplers with Kadee number 5’s, to be consistent with my other stock.

 

The first thing to do with these kits is to clean up the parts, fortunately the plastic is moulded in the correct colour so a little sanding won’t result in the need for a new paint job. I had to remove flashing from the roof of the boxcar and you also need to remove some material from the underframe.

 

[Gordy]

Once all the parts are cleaned up the next thing to do is fit the weight to the floor of the box car, fortunately the doors on these boxcars are fixed otherwise this would be rather unsightly. I used vitalbond medium CA to secure the weight to the box car floor, this cures in about 20 seconds.

 

[Gordy]

There are three detail parts to add to the underframe and these go on next, these represent some of the brake gear but the underframe is mostly hidden once the body is on. I suppose I could have added more details here and certainly if this was a O scale freight car I would, but expending lots of effort on things that cannot be seen isn’t very efficient modelling in my opinion.

 

When I was a teenager an old head said to me that in a train of 20 cars if the first three are super detailed and then there is a super detailed car every 6 or 7 cars the viewer will be tricked into thinking they are looking at a rake of 20 super detailed freight cars. In reality they would have seen maybe 5 super detailed cars and 15 straight from the box Ahearn blue box freight cars. Even in O scale my rule is if a part cannot be seen clearly at 2ft when stationary, then it definitely won’t be visible when your train is moving at a scale 20mph.

 

So back to kit building, I added the three detailing parts using Plastic Magic and a micro brush as an applicator, I find these cheap little brushes much easier to use than a paint brush and they come in a variety of different sizes.

A neat feature of the Accurail kit is that the parts are moulded with semi-circular storks to make sure you get the parts fitted the right way round.

So after removing them from the sprue with sprue cutters I cleaned them up with a nail file, added a dab of plastic magic to both parts and put them in place with a pair of tweezers.

[Gordy]

Despite my comments about detailing, one thing I knew I wanted to add to this kit was air hoses, as I am considering fitting pacific western rail systems magnalock brake lines to my HO modern image stock. So at the least I need somewhere to attach them to, as the Accurail kits do not include any air hoses. I chose to fit Kadee part 438 which includes the air hose and angle cock and each packet contains ten pairs. .

 

Each air hose and angle cock comes in three very small parts, two parts make up the mounting bracket and the third is the hose.

To fit the mounting bracket to the underframe I needed to remove some of the bracing next to the draft box.

I was then able to attach the mounting bracket to the side of the draft box (picture 10) using some more plastic magic. 

I haven’t attached the air hoses yet as they are likely to get knocked off, so I will install them once the trucks and couplings have been fitted.

[Gordy]

So now with the body and underframe ready for assembly I decided to start the painting and weathering. On my trip to Wisconsin fewer freight cars hadn’t been tagged by the local artist than those that had so I needed to add Graffiti to my two freight cars. I used microscale decals 87-1364 Modern Era Graffiti which I cut out and applied to the box cars, what I soon realised was that fitting large decals to exterior posts wasn’t easy in fact its nigh on impossible, but the welded BAR box car took the decals much better. I used Vallejo decal fix after applying the decals to the box cars and the picture show the box cars with the decal fix still curing.

 

......Tomorrow I am going to start weathering

[F-UnitMad]

You seem to have managed pretty well with a sub-miniature scale, Gordy!!

 

2 things -

1) The Mid-West is where it's at for modern Railroad action (but then I'm biased )

 

2) I'm not sure about your graffiti positioning. Mostly it seems it's done from ground level - the majority of tagging runs along the bottom of cars, up to around 7 to 8ft from the ground - that's not very high up the side of a boxcar! Yes there are exceptions, but in general I doubt that 'taggers' (I don't like the term graffiti "artist") carry scaffold or ladders with them - they'll paint where they can easily reach, & presumably where they can make a sharp exit from, if caught in the act.!!

[Gordy]

I am with you, but i spotted tag's all over the place and near the top of car ladders was one place, also still a few ramps in team tracks in WI and spotted taggers using these to place their tags. Some are really good and don't paint over reporting marks.  I had placed a larger decal below that one on the UP car but the it dawned on my that trying to get a decal on the posts wasn't going to happen so it came off in about 10 bits. shame really but thats getting rust treatment tomorrow.

[Gordy]

some cars with grafitti i used for inspiration, in addition to my own pics

 

[Gordy]

So this morning its time for some weathering.

 

For the BAR box car the older of the two freight cars I wanted to go for a general overall rust and grime look. I started by adding small quantities of burnt umber to the top of the sides of the boxcar, I then streaked this down the side of the box car using a wide brush dipped in turps.

 

 

For the roof I added raw sienna down the centre, as this is a pitched roof I then drew my turps soaked brush down both sides of the roof going from the centre to the outside.

 

 

I then drew a few streaks down the box car sides to give the look of rain washing the rust from the roof down the car sides.

 

 

[Gordy]

Rust Spots older equipment especially these nearly 40 year old Box cars seem to be prone to rust appearing on the cars, usually in patches where there has been damage, around doors etc. So to model these I am using a two stage process with oil paints, first I used a cocktail stick to apply small rust spots with burnt sienna paint.

 

 

After leaving these for two hours to dry I ran a brush lightly soaked in turps down the side of the cars to give a streaked look.

 

[Gordy]

So I painted the wheels and trucks. I then assembled the box car, fitting the trucks and couplings before attaching the underframe to the body and securing it with a few dabs of platic magic. My last job was to fit the Kadee airhoses to complete the look.

What do you think of the end result?

 

[w124bob]

Big fan of the Accurail range, particularly the 2 styles of covered hopper, their steam era 40ftbox cars also make into very nice models. Another US forum featured a thread by a guy called Jim Six, this is just one of his examples. Only extra is the under frame plumbing which comes from the Accurail 40ft gon and is availiable seperately.

[Gordy]

Big fan of the Accurail range, particularly the 2 styles of covered hopper, their steam era 40ftbox cars also make into very nice models. Another US forum featured a thread by a guy called Jim Six, this is just one of his examples. Only extra is the under frame plumbing which comes from the Accurail 40ft gon and is availiable seperately.CBQ 30258 1280.jpg

 

do you have a link to the other forum? that looks cool!

[Gordy]

Just a few more work in progress items off my workbench.

 

The boxcar is walthers mainline the covered hopper is a Bachmann job.

 

Ive taken onboard your advice about graffiti positioning.

[shortliner]

If you like doing Tags on your cars - and not everybody approves of them - (though they are a fact of life today on proto-railroads) - can I recommend a spend of £14.95 on a book called "Freight Train Graffiti" by Roger Gastman, Darin Rowland, and Ian Sattler, Published by Thames and Hudson ISBN 0-500-28596-9 (ISBN-13 978-0-500-28596-1).  It was recommended to me after meeting two guys at a way back Perth Model railway show who were doing their own handpainted tags on HO cars - Lots and lots of tags to copy and inspire. A visit to a Hobbycraft store for a 10/0 brush or an Army Painter "Insane Detail"  brush from ebay, will keep you busy for hours!

[w124bob]

The problem with graffiti is once you've done one, you really need to do almost any flat vertical surface.I appreciate the effort but I'll stick just scruffy models.

[Gene]

Great job Gordy! Those look awesome!!

[Gordy]

If you like doing Tags on your cars - and not everybody approves of them - (though they are a fact of life today on proto-railroads) - can I recommend a spend of £14.95 on a book called "Freight Train Graffiti" by Roger Gastman, Darin Rowland, and Ian Sattler, Published by Thames and Hudson ISBN 0-500-28596-9 (ISBN-13 978-0-500-28596-1).  It was recommended to me after meeting two guys at a way back Perth Model railway show who were doing their own handpainted tags on HO cars - Lots and lots of tags to copy and inspire. A visit to a Hobbycraft store for a 10/0 brush or an Army Painter "Insane Detail"  brush from ebay, will keep you busy for hours!

 

thanks I've ordered one, not sure about doing my own tags but i will have a look

[Talltim]

Here is the real BAR 6724

http://users.silcon.com/~lgoss/bar6724.htm

[Gordy]

Here is the real BAR 6724

http://users.silcon.com/~lgoss/bar6724.htm

that looks like new!

[doctor quinn]

Here is the real BAR 6724

http://users.silcon.com/~lgoss/bar6724.htm

Didn't Iron Road refurbish a lot of BAR boxcars for paper service when they owned the road?

[shortliner]

Gordy - hope you enjoy the Freight Train Grafitti book as much as I did - and then find an old freight car and give it a try

[The Bigbee Line]

Accurail are good value. They do renunbering decals (very handy for all sorts of things). Plus all parts are available from their web site. I particularly like their trucks.