ross31r said:
well i painted one of mine before and one after assembly and the fater assembly one was a bitch to paint. These models are sufficiently small and with such small details that i wouldnt like to airbrush them, besides, most of the real thing were handpainted and if you bruchpaint them proerly they look just as effective as if you airbrush them
Having completed the assembly of the two ore cars I decided to hand paint with a brush. It took about an hour per car, due to all those different surfaces and difficult to get-at places, but I'm pleased with the results. I used a Number 2 artist's brush and Pollyscale paints - Box Car Red on the sides, ends and bottom, Dirt inside and Grimy Black on the trucks and wheels (except for the treads).
The cars already have a nice slightly weathered appearance. I've applied numbers and lettering decals - "KCM" for Kingdom Copper Mines, which is located on a Grizzly Northern branch line. The final step will be a bit of deliberate weathering and dull coating and the cars will then be put to work!
The most difficult part of assembling the kits was to put on the journal box covers, which are the size of grains of rice. After trying several ways to handle a properly oriented cover, the truck side frame, the liquid cement, the applicator and my fingers all at the same time, I ended up dabbing a bit of Testor's (airplane) cement on the journal box, then picking up the cover with a wet finger tip and sticking it on the cemented spot. Not elegant but it worked. I was prepared to go without the covers if all else failed.
I'm looking forward to building a number more of the ore cars, for the KCM, and also for the Brunel Coal Mines, also on the GNR's branch line. But in the meantime there are an Intermountain box car and a Red Caboose box car to be done.