Westlake Publishing Forums

This is one of Ozark's entry level boxcar kits that Dave gave me to fool around with a bit. they come with minimal details so I made all sorts of extra pieces. It then got 'beat-up' somewhat with weathering. Pretty much the typical roughing the wood then Silverwood stain. Paint chipped and so on.

The sides were laser cut which left big holes for the hand rungs, so rather than filling them, to cover them up I just made brass ladders.

The couplers are my typical narrow gauge Accucraft heads with homemade brass shanks and draft gear. The stirrups are brass strip.

The underside all the turnbuckles were turned (what else?) and the levers, clevises and rods are brass.

A little closer look.

I do the brake staffs from piano wire as my trains are run in shows and get hauled around a bit, so try to make them tough.

Only real problem is that my cleaning lady doesn't understand weathering so keeps trying to dust these things off.

Very, very nice work, John. My compliments!

Grtz,  Ronald

John,

Beautiful work on all those underframe detail parts!

Did you use Oak to build the car?


Two things you may want to consider:

IMO the "orange" rust is a bit too prevalent. Orange surface rust really tends to form primarily only on newly oxidized surfaces (IE newly chipped or eposed metal....or where something has exposed the previously oxidized metal to the elements...or some kind of a reaction (like heat/fire) has caused the metal surface to react and become suceptable to new oxidation).....other than that it tends to be more in the darker red-browns. Having so much of the orange causes a loss of detail definition/uniqueness.

Maybe touch up the cut ends on the roof walk boards.


Marc

The car is basically made from aircraft plywood which, I believe, is either spruce or birch. The detail strips appear to be basswood. Sorry about the rust. If you see it in real life, it is not an orange blob. I didn't notice it until it was posted. I have this technique for rusted fittings that seems to work pretty well for me. I first dab the area with Floquil rust. Then when it gets tacky, I dab straight and very lightly in with some Bragdon rust powder on the end of a brush. Let it dry and blow off the excess. When done correctly, it gives several different colors and a rough texture. Sometimes I get in a hurry and put on too much paint and don't wait long enough.  Also if you try to "paint" the powder instead of just sprinkling it, you can get a blob such as this. Of course, none of you ever do this.

The purpose of this model is not to make a showpiece so much as to show that with a little brass wire and strip and some of the techniques shown on this forum, you can turn a beginners kit into something half decent.

John

John,

I wasn't being "negative"...hell I make enough mistakes/mis-steps to fill volumes.  I only noted it because to me, in the photos, it stood out/affected, all your nicely and /finely done details.


Marc

Marc,

You were right, it looked like hell in the photos. I'm looking for critiques and am always trying to learn.

John