Here are two high side gondolas that I am painting for Randy. He has already applied a grey primer
coat, so my first step is to apply a buff/wood color. If you're going to do any kind of serious painting
and get professional results, you need a nice spray booth, shown in photo 1. If nothing else, you can
fool everyone into thinking you're an expert painter by having great looking tools!
We will lay down one or two wood colors before the final coat of boxcar red. After each coat I go back
and scratch weather the car so a bit of the previous color shows thru in a few spots. The first two coats
are shown in Photo 2. I first applied a coat of "weathered black" to all the iron hardware on this car such
as the corner braces and underbody detail. We will eventually paint this all boxcar red, but remember that
it starts out a blackish iron color in real life. I try and duplicate the real world when I paint, how
things looked as they went on the car and then received a final color. Photo 2 also shows the second coat
of paint, Im using all acrylics and this is Tamiya "buff". You can see that it is not filled in well, but
that the thinned out buff applied lightly over the black gives the corner braces and side stakes a great
tarnished black oxidized iron look. I then come back and fill in between the side stakes with more buff,
working vertically between the stakes to cover all black overspray on the wood. I also gave the inside of
the gondola a good coat since it will be left as "unpainted" wood.
Photo 3 shows that the side boards are now all buff wood color and all the iron hardware is a weathered
out black. Photo 4 shows how the end is looking. When we apply the boxcar red we will go back and scratch
thru the paint to reveal some of this buff color.
Photo 5 shows the newer paint job painted with Polly Scale Boxcar Red. This car will be left unweathered or possibly receive just a hint, but
I am happy with it now. I like to have cars with different shades to represent older faded cars and cars that have been
reshopped with new paint jobs.
Photo 6 shows the faded and worn paint job on the second gondola. This has
been scratched a bit here and there with a brass bristled brush. I will give it a bit more scratching here and there,
using the tip of my X-acto knife to get between the side stakes
The paint I used for the second gondola is Delta Ceramcoat. You can get them at any Michaels, Walmart etc. I used maroon and
old parchment. The formula was not exact, but its safe to say it was 65-70% maroon with the parchment being 30-35%. This
came out too pink for me, in fact it was downright PINK, so I added about 20 good sized drops of "autumn brown". I think
any brown will do....burnt umber etc. This turned the PINK into a nice washed out looking boxcar red.
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