Boxcar Double or Nothing: Part 1

For my final modeling act of 2022, I stripped and repainted a pair of 40-foot boxcars. My primary motivation for starting this project was to practice masking a two-color paint scheme before I attempt to paint my GP30.

Microscale decal set 87-57 (on the left) has lettering for 5 different freight cars, one of which is TP&W 40-foot boxcar #6001. This car was painted red-orange with white stripes; the Microscale set includes decals for the lettering only so it requires a two-color paint job with masking for the stripes. Herald King decal set B-430 (on the right) is also for a red-orange TP&W 40-foot boxcar with white stripes. Back in 2018 I made a model of TP&W #60024 using this decal set and liked it so much that I tracked down a second decal set (these are long out of production) so I could do a second car. The Herald King set has decals for the white stripes so it doesn't need masking, but I figured I would go ahead and do this car now too.

Prototype photo of TP&W #6001. Date and photographer unknown.

As shown in the photo, TP&W #6001 had an 8-foot Superior (flat-panel) door and no running board. I decided to model it using an Accurail PS-1. The Accurail car is not an exact match for the prototype, but it has the correct door width, it's relatively easy to remove the running board, and (most importantly) I already had one on hand that I wanted to use. 

I've had this Accurail PS-1 for many years. It came factory-painted red with white boxcar data but no railroad lettering. It's been just sitting in its box for quite a while.

Accurail doesn't include Superior doors in their PS-1 kits but they do sell them separately. These doors are intended for one of Accurail's 50-foot boxcar kits and required a bit of trimming to fit my PS-1. 

The Herald King decal set is for a 40' car numbered in the 60000 series. For this car, I started with an Accurail 40' AAR boxcar lettered for the Great Northern. The Accurail car has a 6' Youngstown (corrugated) door. The prototype cars in the 60000 series had a variety of doors, and I decided to go with #60038 after finding a prototype photo that showed this car had the same door as the Accurail car.

 

I liked the 1960s-era red Great Northern paint job on this car, but I was willing to strip and repaint it because I'm a bigger fan of the 1970s-era TP&W red-orange and white paint scheme.

I used Super Clean Degreaser to strip the factory paint and lettering from both cars. The red paint on the PS-1 washed off very easily after soaking in the degreaser for about 24 hours. On the other hand, the red paint on the Great Northern car was much more stubborn and required a multi-day soak and a lot of scrubbing with a toothbrush to mostly remove. 

Here's the former Great Northern car after stripping the paint. I couldn't quite get all of the paint off, especially on the ends and the corners, but this should be good enough.

Here are the modified PS-1 body and doors prior to priming. I filled the running board holes on the roof with scraps of styrene, trimmed the plugs to match the surrounding roof, applied putty to gaps, and filed and sanded everything smooth. I had to remove about 1/32" from the bottom of each door so they would fit this car.

I primed both cars with Vallejo Grey Surface Primer (70.601). When I've used this primer in the past I haven't thinned it because the Vallejo FAQs say that thinning diminishes its polyurethane component and "the less dilution the better." However, I've had to spray it at a high pressure (~40 psi) due to its viscosity and it's been difficult to get a uniform coat. In one of his YouTube videos, Vallejo master painter Don Suratos recommends thinning the primer 1:1 with his "thinning sauce," which is a mixture of 2 parts thinner to 1 part flow improver. I tried his method for these two boxcars with excellent results. Many light coats of the thinned primer at 25 psi produced an excellent finish. I will always thin the primer from now on.

Here's the primed PS-1.

I let the primer dry for about 24 hours before spraying the sides of the PS-1 with Vallejo Model Air 71.001 White. For models like this one that will be decaled, I like to add Vallejo 70.470 Gloss Medium to the flat Model Air paints so they will dry shiny enough that I don't have to apply a separate clear gloss coat. A 2:1 ratio of paint to gloss medium has worked well for me. I also thinned this mixture 4:1 with the "thinning sauce," so the complete mix worked out to:

• 8 parts paint
• 4 parts gloss medium (70.470)
• 2 parts thinner (71.261)
• 1 part flow improver (71.262).

The primer is a very light grey, so it was difficult to tell where I had applied the white paint. For future models that will receive a coat of white, I might think about using a mix of grey and black primer for a darker undercoat. 

After the white had dried for 24 hours, I masked off the stripes on the PS-1 body and doors. I used strips of blue painter's tape for this. I used the prototype photo of #6001 and the Accurail doors to estimate actual thicknesses of 3/16" (about 16 scale inches) for the upper stripe and 5/64" (about 7 scale inches) for the lower stripe. 

I applied the masking tape to the doors first, then used the door as a guide to place the masking on the car body.

Here are the two cars prior to being painted orange.

I used Model Air 71.086 Light Red for the TP&W red-orange, mixed with gloss medium, thinner, and flow improver as described above. Next time around I think I'll try using the thinning sauce in a ratio of 3 parts gloss paint to 1 part sauce instead of 4:1 because the gloss medium is rather thick. I had some trouble with the paint drying in the tip of my airbrush, and I think additional thinning would probably help with that.

The first coat of Light Red always looks very yellow, but it gets much redder with additional coats. I applied the paint in many thin coats. I have to exercise a lot of patience to resist the temptation to apply thick coats for faster coverage.

Here are the painted PS-1 body and doors, ready for the masking to be removed.

The upper white stripes turned out great on the doors, but some orange bled under the tape on the lower stripes around the tack boards.

The stripes on the car body had a few small spots of orange but were otherwise pretty good.

My biggest fear for the masking was having the white paint pull off with the tape, but luckily this wasn't a problem except for one catastrophic spot on one of the door frames.

The bad spot where both the white paint and primer peeled off down to the red plastic. I'll touch this up, but thankfully this spot will be mostly covered by the door.

Overall I'd give myself a "B" for the painting and masking job on #6001. I think it's pretty good overall, but some touch-up is needed. There will be a Part 2 of this post once I've completed the touch-up painting and decaling of both cars.