... to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear? Who cares? The pig ran away when she saw the needle and thread anyway. 
Instead, I decided to try to upgrade an old Varney metal boxcar that I've had since I started in HO scale 50 years ago.
It began life as a NYC car, in Pacemaker grey and vermilion, was later brush painted with Floquil boxcar red to become a CPR car, with the '60s script lettering scheme, and was finally stripped (down to bare metal
) and airbrushed with Floquil, then re-lettered for my free-lance Elora Gorge & Eastern.
While the punched rivet detail is a bit on the heavy side, I felt that a few detail upgrades could transform it into a car useable, without too much embarrassment, with more recent models.
I don't have any photos of the car in its previous lives, so a description will have to suffice. The body consists of two sections comprised of one side and end each, with a separate, stamped metal roof, and a cast metal underbody. Grabirons were wire, albeit oversize, with plastic ladders, roofwalk, and brake gear components. The stamped metal doors were the "working" type, with some difficulty.
After removing all of the plastic components, the paint was mostly stripped off. I dis-assembled the car roof from the body (folded metal tabs) and the sides from from the floor (folded tabs secured with screws). This allowed me to remove the bottom door tracks and to re-bend the tabs on the sides to better disguise their appearance. The sides were re-assembled to the floor, then all of the mounting holes for body hardware were backed with .060" sheet styrene. This was secured to the metal using contact cement. I then drilled out all of the mounting holes for the grabirons, ladders, and end brake gear to accept 1/16" or 3/64" styrene rod, making all holes a few thousandths undersize to allow a press fit using solvent cement. After the plugs had been shaved flush, small bits of suitably-sized styrene were cemented to them for ladder supports, and new holes drilled for .012" wire grabirons.
Here's the modified body, with the roof simply set in place:
The new "wood" roofwalk was built-up from strip styrene, and will be cemented in place with contact cement:
Here's the roofwalk in place:
And the re-built "B" end. The tackboards were built from more strip styrene, then cemented over the ones stamped into the ends:
I decided that some rudimentary brake gear under the car would improve the looks (especially if the car is ever in a major derailment) The components are mostly from the scrap box:
The new doors (non-operating) are leftovers from a Red Caboose kit, and the ladders are more from the scrap box. All grabs were fabricated from .012" brass wire, including those on the roofwalk:
After a quick wash to remove oil and fingerprints, the car was airbrushed with Floquil's Grey Primer:
After a suitable drying time, I mixed up some Floquil paint for the finish paint job, using various colours to get the shade I wanted.
Lettering is dry transfers from C-D-S, with an overspray of Dulcote to give an even finish to the car:
Because it's meant to represent a fairly new car (built August, 1934) on my late-'30s layout, weathering was kept light, consisting of "shadowing" the body panels with a colour similar to the body colour, and a light spray of road dust, and, on the ends, wheel splash.
You can judge for yourself if the car would be acceptable for use on your layout, alongside the more recent and better-detailed models available today. For me and my layout, though, it's "good enough".:-D:-D
Wayne
Instead, I decided to try to upgrade an old Varney metal boxcar that I've had since I started in HO scale 50 years ago.
It began life as a NYC car, in Pacemaker grey and vermilion, was later brush painted with Floquil boxcar red to become a CPR car, with the '60s script lettering scheme, and was finally stripped (down to bare metal
) and airbrushed with Floquil, then re-lettered for my free-lance Elora Gorge & Eastern. While the punched rivet detail is a bit on the heavy side, I felt that a few detail upgrades could transform it into a car useable, without too much embarrassment, with more recent models.
I don't have any photos of the car in its previous lives, so a description will have to suffice. The body consists of two sections comprised of one side and end each, with a separate, stamped metal roof, and a cast metal underbody. Grabirons were wire, albeit oversize, with plastic ladders, roofwalk, and brake gear components. The stamped metal doors were the "working" type, with some difficulty.
After removing all of the plastic components, the paint was mostly stripped off. I dis-assembled the car roof from the body (folded metal tabs) and the sides from from the floor (folded tabs secured with screws). This allowed me to remove the bottom door tracks and to re-bend the tabs on the sides to better disguise their appearance. The sides were re-assembled to the floor, then all of the mounting holes for body hardware were backed with .060" sheet styrene. This was secured to the metal using contact cement. I then drilled out all of the mounting holes for the grabirons, ladders, and end brake gear to accept 1/16" or 3/64" styrene rod, making all holes a few thousandths undersize to allow a press fit using solvent cement. After the plugs had been shaved flush, small bits of suitably-sized styrene were cemented to them for ladder supports, and new holes drilled for .012" wire grabirons.
Here's the modified body, with the roof simply set in place:
The new "wood" roofwalk was built-up from strip styrene, and will be cemented in place with contact cement:
Here's the roofwalk in place:
And the re-built "B" end. The tackboards were built from more strip styrene, then cemented over the ones stamped into the ends:
I decided that some rudimentary brake gear under the car would improve the looks (especially if the car is ever in a major derailment)
The components are mostly from the scrap box:
The new doors (non-operating) are leftovers from a Red Caboose kit, and the ladders are more from the scrap box. All grabs were fabricated from .012" brass wire, including those on the roofwalk:
After a quick wash to remove oil and fingerprints, the car was airbrushed with Floquil's Grey Primer:
After a suitable drying time, I mixed up some Floquil paint for the finish paint job, using various colours to get the shade I wanted.
Lettering is dry transfers from C-D-S, with an overspray of Dulcote to give an even finish to the car:
Because it's meant to represent a fairly new car (built August, 1934) on my late-'30s layout, weathering was kept light, consisting of "shadowing" the body panels with a colour similar to the body colour, and a light spray of road dust, and, on the ends, wheel splash.
You can judge for yourself if the car would be acceptable for use on your layout, alongside the more recent and better-detailed models available today. For me and my layout, though, it's "good enough".
:-D:-DWayne
