Westerfield I-GN boxcar - ready for weathering

I finished dealing the Westerfield I-GN boxcar, and added an overcoat of Future floor polish followed by a coat of Vallejo Matte clear. I think it makes a nice addition to the "late 1920s" roster. 

I think I'm going to hold off on weathering the car until I get some other half-finished freight car projects completed. 

Westerfield I-GN Boxcar

As I was sorting and packing some of the smaller items that reside in various small plastic containers, I came across the decals for a Westerfield International Great Northern 40-foot single sheathed boxcar that I'd built almost two years ago.

Having no idea how the decals ended up separated from the car, and knowing full well that it would happen again if I didn't take drastic measures, I opted to spend a pleasant hour or so this past Sunday evening getting the decals on one side of the car. Side #2 has since been completed.

For the record, and my reference, the car was painted with a base coat of Vallejo "Boxcar Red" sold by Micro-Mark. The Vallejo labels reveals they refer to this color as "Rust." The paint was allowed to dry completely (although the 26 months this paint dried may have been excessive!) before I hit the model with an airbrushed coat of Future clear acrylic (or whatever they're calling it this week).  

When this photo was taken I hadn't yet "snuggled"* the decals in place, which is why there's so much decal film showing.  When I decal a car I like to leave it on the modeling desk for a week or so - every evening I'll add another application of Microscale setting solution. After a few days of this most of the film disappears. 

Once the decaling was complete I added an overcoat of Future floor polish, followed by a coat of Vallejo Matte clear. 

I'm going to hold off on weathering the car until I get some other half-finished freight car projects completed. 

Sharp-eyed freight car fanatics will note this car is lettered to reflect lettering styles that predate my typical 1950s roster. 

No further comment on that at this time.  

*When I was on the Model Railroader staff we were always debating the best way to describe of process of softening decals using settling solution to get them to conform to the various details, ridges, rivets and the like. Somehow, someone (likely Jim Kelly, it sounds like something he'd come up it!) suggest the term "snuggling" the decals....it stuck.

Tips & Tricks: Future To the Rescue?

By Marty McGuirk

Building rolling stock is perhaps my favorite part of the hobby. Since I profess to like it so much, you shouldn’t be surprised that I think building, painting and decaling a single-color boxcar should not be that much of a challenge. Then I ran into this project – a Missouri Pacific 10-6” 40-foot boxcar.

The origin is one of the Sunshine Models “doorprizes” from the Naperville Railroad Prototype Modelers shows Martin and Patricia Lofton sponsored for years.  
These varied by year - some are loads, and one year it was a complete CB&Q flat car, but most have been an assortment of resin details (doors, ends, etc . . .) to convert an injection molded plastic car to some specific prototype. I have ten or so of these and they all produce some pretty neat and unusual transition era freight cars.

The building process went remarkably well.  The door prize parts were installed on an undecorated InterMountain 10’-6” AAR boxcar, and I even replaced most of the Intermountain details (ladders, brake rigging and the like) with after-market parts.  I rearranged the brake components to match the prototype (which differed from the stock Intermountain arrangement and fashioned the underbody piping from appropriate sized brass wire.

I photographed the finished, but unpainted car and then sprayed the model with Polly Scale acrylic paint.  Then, like usual, I gave the model a clear gloss coat (Polly Scale Clear Gloss) and applied the decals. I finished decaling and applied the final clear flat overcoat. Since I didn’t have a spray booth, and didn't have any Polly Scale Flat Clear, I used Testor’s Acryl Clear Flat – which is a brand more commonly used for military models and the only one available from the closest hobby shop. 

It was the first time I tried using this stuff (lesson learned, experiment on old Athearn “blue box,” not a model you care about!).  Whatever the cause, when the stuff dried it left a visible, white, streaky haze. Perhaps I got an old bottle of the stuff.

What a mess.

I studied the model, and figured the basic car was worth the effort to strip and refinish it.  But recently I’d been reading in FineScale Modeler about using Future Floor (now marketed as “Pledge with Future Shine) as a decal clear coating. I have some of the stuff, so I figured I had nothing to loose.  If it worked, great, if not, it was just one more layer to strip. I lightly brushed a coat of Future on the sides and left it to dry overnight.  

This next morning the silvering had all but disappeared. Better yet, that cloudy streaking was Gone!! I think the remaining issues with the finish can be hidden with some careful weathering. Once the model is weathered, I'll post a follow up. In the meantime, I think I'll use Future to do the decals on my next rolling stock model. I still haven’t figured out acrylic clear flats. Believe I stick with good ole’ Dullcote for now!