Model Railroading > Saturday morning Steel

Over the past few weeks I have finished up a few steel hauling cars, which are a mix of ScaleTrains' recently released BSC F68BH Finger Racks and Exactrail's Trentonworks 67'-11" Bulkhead Flat. The rebar loads in the first two images are from MoonDog Rail Cars. They are a one-piece drop in, and fit the finger rack perfectly. I have more on order to load more finger racks and am having him increase the dunnage size to a scale 4x4. The steel plate load, I made to represent 3" thick steel decking for a US Aircraft carrier. The dunnage is 6x6 balsa wood and the strapping is also from MoonDog Rail Cars.

I weathered the cars with a combination of oils, washes and pigments from Ammo by Mig. I will post some more close-up photos of the individual cars.

Thanks for looking!

Russ

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This finger rack I did not show in the first group, as I didn't shoot it loaded, and it is going to a buddy of mine for his birthday. This is an repainted Trailer Train scheme. On all of my Finger Racks I replaced the ScaleTrains couplers with Kadee #156's and painted this with Ammo's Oil Brusher - Rust, as were the wheel faces. I also added a shim to the inside of the coupler lid to lift the coupler chank and keep it level as it needs a ~0.010" height increase to match the Kadee Height guage. The trucks were washed with Neutral Grey and the carbody was washed with Ammo's Starship Dirt and wiped after ~10 minutes with a dry shop towel, and then sealed with Tamiya's Clear Flat Spray. Ammo's medium rust pigment was applied to the deck and sealed with Ammo's Pigment fixer, which does not change the pigment color at all. I applied it with a paint brush and let capillary action takeover. The next round I will airbrush the pigment fixer first. The risers and finger racks were finished with Ammo's Metal Pigments.

This is the basic process for the following two cars from ScaleTrains.

Russ

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This second car is a repainted TTX finger rack. I used the came processes as on the first finger rack, but added some darker pigments to the deck of the car.

Two more sets to come.

Russ

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This is another TTX finger rack, following the same methods as the first two, except I decided to not go full bore corrosion on the deck surface. On-line images I have found show a range of weathering from very light to very heavy weathering on the deck surface, even with the permanently fixed deck risers.

One last set will follow with the bulkhead.

Russ

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On this car, I lightly weathered the trucks, and painted the sheel faces and couplers with Ammo's Oil Brusher Rust. I used a diluted wash of Ammo's Dark Wash on the deck. I re-scribed the boards on the bulkheads as well as deepend the screwheads at teh same time. I followed this up with a light wash of Tamiya's Dark Brown panel liner. The rest of the carbody was given a thin application of Tamiya's Brown Panel Liner, as I want the car to be in a cleaner condition.

The load is made from 0.020" and 0.015" Evergreen sheet styrene laminated together. The plates were cut to an 8' x 60' size, edges were sanded and re-glued with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. I painted the plates with Tamiya Light Gun Metal from a spray can and then Clear Flat, also from Tamiya. I have tried other color and clear coat combos, but this combo best matches rolled steel. The strapping is from MoonDog Rail Cars, as previously mentioned, and include the thin soldier used to represent the all-thread rod that ties the straps together. To apply the straps, after fixing the load in place and removing them from the fret, I bend the end that hs the hole for the tie rods and then place them into the stake pockets, narrow end down. Once I am comfortable with the placement of the straps I finger bend them to fit over the load, and carefully tack them to the load with Lock-Tite CA, making sure they are square, or close to square to the load itself. I install the all-thread rod, CA in place and once dry, I trim the rods to length. Last step is that I bend the narrow end of the strap up and around the bottom of the stake pocket, futher securing the load in place. 

If you have any Q's please feel free to ask. Thanks for looking and hope you have an enjoyable modeling weekend!

Russ 

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Really nice work here Russ.  Glad you've posted it for us to see.

Jim 

Nice job, thanks for posting.

Nice! Really like the look of the rebar load. Gives the illusion of weight really good, with the subtle droops between supports.