Building Long Overdue Kits

Like any modeller, I have accumulated a dreadful backlog of unbuilt kits over the years. We always think we will find time for these projects, then new shining things appear and they are forgotten until the end of time. Since I can't work on the layout for two weeks due to the drain repairs, I decided to tidy up the collection and work on kits that were in dire need of attention.

Among these kits were a few Proto 2000 8,000 gallons tank cars which were notorious for being a challenge to build. You can always find a few of them pre-owned and unassembled. A few years ago, I got my hand on 3 Champion Oils - Sterling Fuels kits which would fit perfectly a 1950s-1960s consist. Having nothing better to do, I worked on them over 2 evenings at a leisure pace. First, they are much easier to assemble than I remembered and they are so beautiful. Honestly, I suspect that my painful memories of these cars were caused by my poor modelling techniques back in the days. I didn't clean well the parts from the sprue and used CA glue for everything. Not a recipe for good results. That said, I will still have to do some decal work because out of three cars, one is a duplicate. Shouldn't be hard to fix.

The next group of kits were Red Caboose 40ft flat cars in CN paint schemes. They are not that prototypical for CN, but they are still acceptable. It was my first time working with older Red Caboose kits and I must confess I felt some aspects of them are a little bit crude while other are exceptionally good. They are easy to assemble and painting the wood deck makes a big difference. I use an off white base and brush over AK Interactive Wood Wash to create the wooden effect. Mind you, this is only a first step as I intend to weather the decks later as they should be. Be aware that every time I model a wooden deck, I add wood texture using a razor saw blade over the plank. I really go over board with that and it's fine. The job is finished by removing the fuzz with a coarse sandpaper run along the wood grain. As you can see, it looks good for new wood. I will also have to renumber of the flat cars due to duplication.

Wood deck not yet painted

After these cars, I turned my attention to a group of two Tichy 40ft flat cars that were assembled years ago but never painted. I completed some details and painted them. They also got the wood deck treatment and are now ready for decalling work.

Ready for decalling

Another group of cars were a pair of Proto 2000 CN 52'6'' mill gondolas. I always loved these cars since I acquired one back in high school and took the time to assemble them carefully. I upgraded the snap-on coupler pocket covers with screws, which is now my standard practice. Wood decks were painted and the cars finishes in a matter of maybe 2 hours maximum.

Having been more proficient while assembling the kits, I was able to set aside enough spare grabirons and stirrup steps to repair my original CN mill gondola from 25 years ago. Back in the day, I had repaired the broken steps with heavy brass wire. It looked terrible and I thought it was the perfect time to bring that car to life again. Coupler pockets were upgraded, the wooden deck disassembled and painted. Some time was also spent to tidy up the botched brake rigging underneat the car. Some paint touch ups on the new stirrups made everything blend together and it was rewarding to see this car under a much more flattering light after all these years of neglect.

With these cars assembled, I can say that I have cleared up a bunch of CN cars required for Monk. However, I still have a lot of cars to build or paint. I'm not sure if I will go forward right now with these projects, but just to give you an idea, I have about 10 reefers from the 1950s that need some work and also several tank cars to rebuild to complete my British-American Oil fleet. We shall see! But I have also a special project about upgrading Athearn 40ft flat cars to join the expanding Monk fleet.