Help on weathering a covered hopper

[Packer]

When I was looing on rail car photos to see if the roofwalks on BN ACFs were silver or not, I stumbled across this one:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=22816

Does anyone have an idea of how to pull this on off in HO? I figure an undecorated athearn or accurail model would be a good starting point.

I'm thinking paint the car yellow, decal it then let it dry. Then hit it with a sanding stick or stiff brush, then paint it grey and hit it with a stiff brush before it's completely dry (like tomm man's hopper in the MR issue). Then maybe another decaling and more sanding or stiff brushing on the 2nd layer of decals.

Does anyone have better ideas?

[wcfn100]

Is that an old NP 'Conditionaire' car?

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1719925


Jason

[Packer]

Yes it is. Spud service if I remember correctly.

ATSF had these as well but used them for oranges.

[ednadolski]

I'm not sure how well it would work, but masking with rubber cement might be worth a try.

Ed

[ednadolski]

Is that an old NP 'Conditionaire' car?

What were those cars made of on the outside?

Ed

[tom mann]

Wow, that thing sucks ;D

I don't know even what I'm looking at?  So the foam was applied above paint?  What is the order of layers?  Does it have an extreme texture?  If so, Sophisticated Finishes applied without the activator would work really well.  SF is a textured grey.

[Philip H]

Yep, spray insulation on the outside, then lettering - which I think was painted with some sort of stencil

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wow, those are amazing, remind me of the "Wooly" PRR/PC/CR G39s where they tried spraying on insulation.

[Packer]

I'm not sure how well it would work, but masking with rubber cement might be worth a try.

Would rubber cement stick to the corners and edges better? Most of the photos I've found seem to have the insulation stripping off near the edges.

I don't know even what I'm looking at?  So the foam was applied above paint?  What is the order of layers?  Does it have an extreme texture?  If so, Sophisticated Finishes applied without the activator would work really well.  SF is a textured grey.

from this 1969 article 1969 article on Conditionaire hoppers it appears to have been sprayed in polyurethane foam, then stenciled. The Sophisticated finishes stuff seems to be close to the right color, but I'm not sure about the texture:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=NP&cid=4 the hoppers from 419911 up are Conditionaire hoppers. Looks kind of close to the insulation on the G39s.

If I do it, I think I'll start with the athearn blue box version. It's cheap, has the right hatches, and should be fairly easy to modify if I can get a figure on how to make the refridgertor unit.

[sirenwerks]

Maybe auto undercoating to get the lumpy look?

[Packer]

Maybe auto undercoating to get the lumpy look?

I looked under my car today where I have sprayed a lot of that stuff. It might work but maybe a bit too chunky. But black is the only color readly available, gray is only available in gallon cans.

The pic I posted looks like it has black around the edges. so it might be worth a shot.

Now to find several undec athearn ACFs to experiment on.

[The Donkey]

A fellow I know from my weathering forums had a car like this
about 5 years ago. Although he's a great weatherer, I'm not
sure if he did the car or not. (I caught his ad on Ebay when he
sold it, & still have it saved on my comp for some weird reason.)

Anyways, his ad stated it was custom finished by "Digital Fox",
& if he added the weathering, I don't know. But it was a decent
job. (it was an Accurail model) I won't post pics without his
permission however, & I haven't seen him on the forums in
awhile. I do know he's busy in the warmer months as a tour
guide for fishermen in Texas from what I understand.