WOT Harriman cars

[ATSF_Ron]

Per Peteski's advice, I'm reposting this here (from the weathering section) in hopes someone is familiar with the WOT Harriman car disassembly.

Getting back to the Harriman cars...I have 8 of these, all repainted by the previous owner but unlettered.  The gloss coat needs to be put on for the 2nd decaling attempt - hopefully with no silvering!  Here's my problem.  There are 13 windows on each side of EACH CAR!  That's a lot of masking I'd rather not do.  My thought was to slide a thin piece of styrene or foil between the window glass and car body for the entire length of the car, then shoot the gloss.  But as the pics show, that's not possible due to the way the car is assembled.  There's an interior piece below the model's removable roof that I'm not sure how to remove.  It looks as though there are some type of clips at each end, but I can't seem to dislodge the interior piece.  These are not kits.  They came preassembled.  Has anyone ever taken these apart and knows the trick to actually get them apart?  I can be a bit of a ham-hands at times, so I'm going about this gingerly.

My other thought is mask the windows in one horizontal strip, shoot the gloss and decal, then hit the car with matte or satin and hope it matches the middle window strip that's masked.  That sounds iffy to me, but who knows?  Any comments are appreciated.  Thanks.

Ron

[chessie system fan]

I'm guessing the floor is removable somehow?

[dangerboy81]

I think I have the same cars. The bottom pulls off. You just spread the sides a bit and tug on the stairs.


20240125_224438 by Leon Richard, on Flickr

20240125_224453 by Leon Richard, on Flickr

[ATSF_Ron]

Ahh, from the bottom! Thanks, I’ll try that!

[mecgp7]

I may need some educating, but if the windows are clear then a gloss coat won't affect them at all. When it comes to Dullcoting gloss windows, a small piece of paper towel with tweezers and Microsol or alcohol will remove it in seconds.

[ATSF_Ron]

Mecgp7, I may have been thinking of Dullcote on the windows, but I didn’t want to risk it either way. The bottoms came off easily enough and gloss has been applied. Got the first decals on last night and they look perfect after a 2nd coat of MicroSol!

[Mike Madonna]

Leon,

Great tip, thank you. I have a fair amount of these cars. Good to know how to "get into" them.

Ron,

Glad to see you pushed ahead, looks good...

[peteski]

I may need some educating, but if the windows are clear then a gloss coat won't affect them at all. When it comes to Dullcoting gloss windows, a small piece of paper towel with tweezers and Microsol or alcohol will remove it in seconds.

Glosscote, while glossy, it will not have the same amount of reflectivity or clarity as bare plastic film.

Cleaning each individual window with a solvent will not only be a pain in the arse, it will be hard to get into the tight corners to get the entire window clean. I also doubt that Microsol (decal setting solution) will have much effect on Dullcote lacquer. Stronger solvent would likely be needed.  The solvent might also dull the clear plastic a bit.  IN the process you will likely also end up removing some Dullcote from the body edges of the window opening.  Not something I would be keen to do. 

Since the car can be easily disassembled, removing the "glass"  seems like the quickest, easiest, and cleanest way to approach this. I guess it also depends on just how fastidious of a modeler one is.

[dangerboy81]

Leon,

Great tip, thank you. I have a fair amount of these cars. Good to know how to "get into" them.

Glad I could help. I have been thinking about tinting the windows on mine just a bit. I don't like the way you can see clean through the car when you get you nose down to track level.

[peteski]

Glad I could help. I have been thinking about tinting the windows on mine just a bit. I don't like the way you can see clean through the car when you get you nose down to track level.

Since the windows appear to just be a flat clear piece, you could use automotive window tinting film for a nice even coverage (task which is difficult to achieve airbrushing transparent smoke colored paint).  No need to actually adhere the tint film to the "glass". Just slip a strip of tint with its transparent backing film still in place in front of the glass (sandwiched between the car shell and the "glass").  I used this method on some old Bachmann Amfleet cars for a nice tinted window effect.

[mecgp7]

Glosscote, while glossy, it will nto have the same amount og reflectivity or clkarity as bare plasticn film

Cleaning each individual window with a solvent will not only be a pain in the arse, it will be hard to get into the tight corners to get the entire window clean. I also doubt that Microsol (decal setting solution) will have much effect on Dullcote lacquer. Stronger solvent would likely be needed.  The solvent might also dull the clear plastic a bit.  IN the process you will likely also end up removing some Dullcote from the body edges of the window opening.  Not something I would be keen to do. 

Since the car can be easily disassembled, removing the "glass"  seems like the quickest, easiest, and cleanest way to approach this. I guess it also depends on just how fastidious of a modeler one is.

Decades worth of projects would prove you wrong. Had I not have performed both spraying gloss on clear plastic and removed dullcote from glazing using Micro Sol, I would not have mentioned it. I don't make this s#@t up. I posted as it is something I regularly do. You can spray gloss coat on virtually any clear plastic and the only thing it does if anything is make it glossy. Because clear plastic is so smooth, almost any wet, light rubbing with a piece of paper towel will remove it in seconds. It isn't hard and saves you from having to disassemble a loco just to remove the glazing should you want to spray it with Dullcote . Not the same for coats put on painted surfaces. If you've never tried it, why question it?

[peteski]

Decades worth of projects would prove you wrong. Had I not have performed both spraying gloss on clear plastic and removed dullcote from glazing using Micro Sol, I would not have mentioned it. I don't make this s#@t up. I posted as it is something I regularly do. You can spray gloss coat on virtually any clear plastic and the only thing it does if anything is make it glossy. Because clear plastic is so smooth, almost any wet, light rubbing with a piece of paper towel will remove it in seconds. It isn't hard and saves you from having to disassemble a loco just to remove the glazing should you want to spray it with Dullcote . Not the same for coats put on painted surfaces. If you've never tried it, why question it?

Well then, unlike what you posted earlier, you don't need any educating.   No, I never tried using Micro Sol as Glosscote remover.  I also have enough modeling experience (without trying) to know that if I tried to clean some coating (like Glosscote or Dullcote) from rectangular windows recessed in a car body, getting to the corners would be tough (especially when wanting to leave the lacquer in the edges of the window opening intact.  We might also have different goals when it comes to finishing our models.

Besides that, Ron wanted to spray Dullcote (not Glosscote) over the windows,  so the advice is moot.

Looks like you do you and I'll do my thing.

[mecgp7]

No problem, it has worked for me forever and if you re-read the post you'll see that it doesn't affect painted areas.

Aren't you a moderator here? Seems to me that the goal of this website is for healthy discussion of model railroading and, in particular, the sharing of new ideas and techniques.
Your response to my post could (should) have been, "Hey, does that really work or can you tell me more?". Dismissing a poster's experience as it won't work and it is a pain in the a$$ ESPECIALLY when you haven't tried it goes against what I think this site is for which is sharing our work and experience. Responses such as yours inhibit participation.

[ATSF_Ron]

So I have 4 of the 8 cars decaled up.  All except the car numbers.  I scored a few more of these (in SP!), so I want to wait until they arrive to see what the road numbers are before I put any on the ones I'm doing now.  The gloss coat really helped with the silvering, although I have one side of one car where the word "Southern" shows a slight bit of silvering.  I have some Micro Flat I thought about trying over it, but IDK if that would work.  I'm guessing it probably won't work.  I've never used Micro Flat before.  However, I've been pleased with the results of the Micro Gloss.

[peteski]

The gloss coat really helped with the silvering, although I have one side of one car where the word "Southern" shows a slight bit of silvering.  I have some Micro Flat I thought about trying over it, but IDK if that would work.  I'm guessing it probably won't work.  I've never used Micro Flat before.  However, I've been pleased with the results of the Micro Gloss.

In those cases I take either a hobby knife with a fresh blade, or a very sharp pin, and gently puncture the decal film multiple times in the silvered area, Then using a small brush I dab some MicroSet or MicroSol. The liquid should find its way under the decal film through the punctures, and hopefully make the film snuggle down.