OK, so I just got a pair of these from Wigwag. There's a couple posts on the 'lowering IM 57' reefers' thread where I cut the bolsters out to lower these. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...-Correcting-Intermountain-R-70-20-ride-height I'm aware that these are not exact replicas of Topeka-built 57' reefers, but they are head and shoulders above anything else I've seen out there, and while ribs or roof plates may not be exact, I could find no faults with the paint and lettering. So the first car was left 'stock' paint with a couple changes: I repainted the roof to Testors Steel, to get a darker and rougher finish for weathering. Then I gave it a good dark wash with grimy black, and started in on the chalks. I'm not looking for a rusty car, just a dirty car, as most of these picked up a lot of high-speed grime. So this is brown and black chalks, some touchup paint.... On the roof, added a lot of dirt, a slight touch of rust.... More on the next post.. Now if you don't think this care was weathered that much, the one behind it (that I'll talk about next) is stock IM paint.
I almost did a pair, but I've already got about six 'MTC' cars so I wanted something a little different. I'm doing '72, the year the yellowbonnet and the 'Santa Fe' billboard scheme first came out, so I decided to do a 'right out of the paint shop' version of a Billboard MTC reefer. IM doesn't do this scheme, but I found out that the 'Ship and Travel Santa Fe' would scrub off with 91% alcohol, and I could re-decal that side of the car with the Billboard scheme 'Santa Fe' from the Micro-scale set for mechanical reefers. After I got that done, I repainted the roof, and then semi-glossed the entire car; remember this one is right out of the shop. But the real fun was something I always wanted to try, the 'overspray' on a galvanized roof from a repainting.... Masked off the roof, put a wad of tissue paper down the center secured with tape rolls, and then hit the edges with a light shot of Testors spray-bomb 'Go Mango' orange. ..... Now THAT was fun. Put a little more dark roof weathering in the center, other than that, I want that 'new car smell' on this one. This is the same exact car as the first one, remember, and you can see the difference in the end color and impact.
Now in the 'compared to what?' question, here's one of my weathered MT reefers... in this shot, right behind the new IM. Lowering the bolster of the IM's put these at least sill-for-sill level with these cars. And behind THAT is one of the original Atlas 50' mechanicals, one of which goes back to about 1974 and was painted with Pactra orange... it's due to be retired!
Nice work on the weathering, Randy. Reefers are my favorite car and you have weathered them well. Barry
Yes. Nice weathering. Just right, it appears well traveled, yet does not look like a disaster zone on wheels.
very nice job Gus....I'm still working on a couple ATSF and PFE 40' steel iced refers in the late/modern schemes. Your weathering will help me get mine right.
