Tuesday 14 October 2014

ONTARIO NORTHLAND BOXCAR 40' ft 7140




Over the thanksgiving long weekend in Canada I kitbashed an Ontario Northland boxcar.  It's based on a prototype built by National Steel Car in 1948, using an Atlas 1937 AAR 10' high kit.  Here is a link to a picture I used for inspiration.

http://www.boxcars.us/Boxcars_M_Z/O/images/ONT,%2040'%20Single%20Door%20Boxcar,%202542ONT,%20Ontario%20Northland,%2040'%20Single%20Door%20Boxcar,%202542,%20September%2028th,%201988,%20Cochrane,%20Ontario.jpg

The Atlas kit has moulded on details, so I started by shaving them off.  I tried to minimize the paint damage but it happens.

Next up was to add canadian style ladders, 8 rung with attached stirrups. These are from Tichy.  I added a small pc of styrene at the top of the car to support the ladder.  The Tichy ladders have 4 standoffs and I feel they need an extra support right at the top.


I also added Details Associates Bracket Grabs(Not Shown).  While the glue was drying on the ladders I drilled out the roof walk holes and plugged them with styrene rod.  These were sanded flush with the roof support ribs.


The next step was to build the ends.  I used Sylvan Scale Models detail parts for the NSC 2 Ends which have the correct rib shape for the prototype car.  Here is a picture with all the parts on, ready to install on the Atlas Car.  I used Tichy turnbuckles to attach the brake rod to the chain and to the fulcrum at the bottom.  This is something I learned from Pierre Oliver's Blog (Elgin Car Shops).  This is a great idea and much easier than any other method I have tried.



After this I assembled the car, painted the ends, doors and touched up the roof with CNW Green from PolyScale.  I added "no running board decals", COTS and ACI plaques as well as the car end numbers.  This was followed up with a coat of Valleo matt finish.  

I painted the trucks and wheels with Rustoleum Camaflage brown and cleaned up the wheel treads with a wire brush in my Dremel tool.  This was the first time I used the Dremel for this and I was surprised how well and quickly it worked.  Weathering was done with a white wash with a bit of green added in using acrylics.  Next up was rust spots and streaks using artists oils.  I finished off with a coat of dark streaking grime from AK on the roof.  I  put it on as a wash.  I then did some streaks on the side using the AK streaking grime with a fan brush at the top edge and a 5/0 brush for the streaks at the end of the door tracks.  The bottom of the car was given a wash of AK rust streaking effects.  The trucks were given a treatment with powders to rust and dirty them up a bit.  Overall I am happy with how things turned out.





















7 comments:

  1. Nice work! I love these projects where the factory paint is left intact and the model is updated.

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    Replies
    1. Colin,

      Thanks for looking. This was a fun project!

      Ryan

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  2. One question, if I may? The roofwalk supports: are they the original molded plastic? Or did you replace them with something by Plano? I have a couple of kits here on which I have to decide whether to leave the molded plastic roofwalk supports or replace them with Plano. The roofwalk won't be installed -- they will be "roofwalk removed" models. Thanks!

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  3. great job on the rework of this unit! Just out of curiosity, which decals did you use for the add ons? I've been using Highball for the ACI and lube plates, but yours seem to look better. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. The Lube Plate and ACI Labels are from Micro Scale

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  4. I really like the job you've done on these kits! I grabbed a couple just because of the ONR release, but your rework has inspired me to finally get around to them. Out of curiosity, who makes the 'no running board' decals?

    Regards, Graham.

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    Replies
    1. Graham,

      The "no running board" decals are from Microscale. It is included the freight car data sets.

      Ryan

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