CNA Re-stencil RBOX boxcar - detailed and weathered

[ednadolski]

I've been pretty tied up for the past few months, but I managed to find some time to try to get this project into something that somewhat resembles a completed state.  This is an MDC/Roundhouse RBOX with the CNA re-stencil done as a part of the factory graphics.   For detailing, I replaced the cast-on grabirons and stirrups with parts scratchbuilt from 0.005" wire.  I also added air hoses, cut levers, and brake platforms from BLMA, as well as an etched brake wheel from Gold Medal.   Trucks are Micro-Trains with Fox Valley metal wheels.  For the couplers, I  used the Z-scale couplers from Full Throttle, body mounted using the coupler pocket that was originally part of the FT Z-scale truck (as shown in Gary's thread on body-mounted couplers).  The safety stripes are the Microscale decals.

Weathering started by doing a light sanding on the graphics with 1000 grit paper, then  hand-painting thinned layers of transparent zinc white acrylic paint over the arrow heralds to fade them.   Next came the airbrushed fade layer, using the acrylic zinc white mixed with Model Master clear flat, built up over many thinned layers.   The rust is predominantly burnt umber and burnt sienna acrylics, again built up in many layers ranging from thin washes to heavy dabs.   To keep the paint from getting too thick, I would remove portions of some layers using either a brush or sponge wet with thinner.   The roof was built up in multiple layers of heavy washes.   In some places such as the doors I also used powders mixed with the paint to try to get some additional texture.  Dullcote was used to seal up the layers.

The trucks are hard to see in these pics, but I basically used a grey automotive primer from the rattle can as a base coat, then followed up with some grime and rust washes.  Wheelsets were painted Roof Brown followed by a mix of rust/brown/black powders applied to the wheel faces.   Tags were hand-painted using a very tiny brush, I deliberately wanted to keep them very simple since this was my first go at hand-painting tags in N-scale.

I used a couple of different proto pics as a general guide, tho my goal was to try to capture the essence of a typical RBOX that has seen years of use rather than model a specific car.  Here are the pics, I hope you enjoy them.

Ed

[wazzou]

Bravo Ed.  That looks fantastic.  I may start calling you Mellow Ed. 

[Coxy]

Beautiful work Ed. Really liking the grab iron work. You've done a great job capturing the fade and rustwork on the car sides. Very convincing and tough to pull off in N scale.

Keep 'em coming!!

[packers#1]

Excellent weathering, before reading the post I saw the first pic and thought HO scale, very well-detailed. I also like how you only put the tags on one side, so they can be prominent or seen only on curves

[Coxy]

Also noticing the grey wood tack boards. Nice touch. Are they painted molded details or did you add some thin wood veneer?

[JSL]

That is very nice Ed!

[Scottl]

This is inspiring work, and I appreciate you providing your methods.

[tom mann]

Nice!

[Smike]

Why U no do this in nscale? 

Ok seriously, you nailed it again with the large scale look!

[ednadolski]

Many thanks to everyone, for looking over & posting your feedback.   Very much Appreciated!

Coxy, those are the molded-on tack boards.  Not much attention there, just a base coat of a gray (UP Harbor Mist Gray IIRC) and a bit of Roof Brown, followed up by some drybrushing with a lighter gray acrylic to bring out some texture.

Packers, nice point about the tagging.  I sometimes find myself a little torn about how much to do.  I agree with the school of thought that it's part of the real world just like rust or anything else, but OTOH there also are times when it can seem like too much. While these kinds of cars can sometimes be really covered, I decided to go subtle on this model as I found a couple of proto pics that had little or no tagging.  I think in some ways it's just part of the character of each individual car.

Thanks again amigos!

Ed

[GaryHinshaw]

ED!  (that's my MrKLUKE impersonation)

This looks great, as usual!  I have a few questions about technique:

- How many coats of white did you end up applying to the arrow logo?   That turned out nicer than I would have expected.

- Did you apply any grime wash as one of your steps?  The car seems to have a bit of a sienna cast to it, but that may be the underlying yellow of the model.

- When you sanded the lettering, did that also affect the base color?  In particular, do you have to be careful about *only* sanding the lettering?

The tagging is really well done - subtle but effective.  Nice to see you back in the saddle.  I'm getting anxious to do some more weathering soon too - but I still haven't unpacked my airbrush.  (I need to look over your coupler pocket drawings first though!)

Cheers,
Gary

[ednadolski]

Hi Gary, thanks for looking, responses inlined...

ED!  (that's my MrKLUKE impersonation)

Had me fooled...   

- How many coats of white did you end up applying to the arrow logo?   That turned out nicer than I would have expected.

The original blue was really dark & bold. I went over the arrows about 3 times with the brush before I did the airbrushed fade layer for the whole car.  That turned out not to be enough so I went over it a few more times after that.   It was still looking more like a faded dark blue, rather than fading to the pale blue that these tend toward, so in the last few layers I mixed in a bit of light blue (GN Big Sky Blue IIRC) to try to change the tone to where I wanted it to go.   The combo of the transparent zinc and the opaque blue seemed to work out a little better than just a regular fade.

On a side note -- wouldn't it be really cool if Microscale made a 'faded' variant of the RBOX lettering?   I'd love to do a couple of these with the 'ghost' lettering.

- Did you apply any grime wash as one of your steps?  The car seems to have a bit of a sienna cast to it, but that may be the underlying yellow of the model.

No, there's not that much grime, tho the rust does have some burnt sienna.   I was mainly hoping to try to get the 'golden' look that tends to dominate on these kind of cars.

- When you sanded the lettering, did that also affect the base color?  In particular, do you have to be careful about *only* sanding the lettering?

Not really.   I just kept with the light sanding until it started wearing thru the lettering.  To get in the corner areas, I CA'd a small piece of the sandpaper to the end of a piece of stripwood.  That also gave me some more control.   BTW this was wet-sanding, and I find that dipping the stick into clean water every so often seems to give better results.


Cheers,
Ed

[MrKLUKE]

.

[ednadolski]

JEFF!   (if I can be sure you are who you say you are!   )

Many thanks, and I do very highly appreciate that sort of compliment!  To me that's one of the fun things about doing N scale, to see if what kind of things can help give a model an appearance/impression of something larger.   

The only hat that I wear much lately starts with the letter 'A'   

Ed