(RhB) Sersa P10119 Engineering Van (LGB Kitbash)

[Parkdesigner]

Well, I had planned to hold off on this post, as I wanted to be further along with the build before I started posting updates. That said, given recent global events, I figured folks around here might like further distractions, so went ahead and began to format photos in hand last night. This build thread may be slightly less detailed textually than those before it as most of my free time to “write” these build logs came from my time sitting on long-haul trans-oceanic flights. As one can imagine, I’m in short supply of those now! (Canceled 14 flights already for February, March and April including trips to the UK, China, Germany, and Switzerland! Grumble, grumble, grumble…) While I am home now, given the “work remotely” edicts, I’m typing waymore than I used to, as emails have taken over for in-person meetings. So please forgive me if the accompanying text to this thread is a bit sparse.

Anyway, enough about that. Some basics on the build:

• Donor bodies are one (1) LGB Gbk-v Van and one (1) “Train” (LGB copy) Gbk-v Van. The LGB unit was used for roof and frame parts as they are a more sturdy, robust material. The “Train” van body was selected as the walls are thiner material, and thus easier to manipulate. Pro tip: with little effort, you can also recombine the LGB body on the “Train” frame/roof! The detail of the LGB quality is still visible… in fact deciding if the unit is all LGB or a Frankenstein of parts is almost impossible without picking the car up!
• My intention is to build the unit as close to “current” in appearance as possible. This means the Black(Dark Grey) and White paint scheme with Sersa logos. There are a few details that switched over or were added/removed in-between remodels, so I’m picking and choosing some here, but overall the car should be a reasonable representation of the prototype. As always, the goal is to model items that help add to the overall “modern” feel of the railroad, rather than simply collecting the 1960s-1990’s models on offer.
• The lifting arms will be fixed. I initially looked at making the arms operable, but on the real unit, there is a void in the frame floor to allow the arms travel. Given the way the LGB frame is molded, and for rigidity in the final model, I decided to build the arms as static.
• Paint and glues used in this model are the same as used in my previous builds here. You can find them listed in these threads:
  • RhB Sersa P10153
  • RhB Kk-w Engineering Wagon
  • RhB Xk 9089 Engineering Car
  • FO/MGB Tm 2/2 Schomea

Ok, enough about that, lets get on to the build, shall we?

Here is the car I’m chasing. Sersa’s P10119. Photos below (shamefully stolen from the internet - thanks Haribu.com) show the car in its current configuration. (BEMO has offered a great model of this version in H0m in the the previous well known white and orange scheme)




And with the target acquired, off we go!

The Xacto saw was called into service. First order of business was to cleanly cut the end wall off the body’s non-platform end. The opposite end wall will be kept intact with the side walls up to the side door openings.




Once cut, the end wall is then notched at the bottom to slide “over” the existing LGB frame.




The remainder of the body is then hacked in half.




And while we’re at it, a few small details are also chopped/sawed off. Here, you can see a small angular brace along the wall frames. While accurate on some Gbk-v’s, this detail is not found on the Sersa van, so off it comes! This process can be a bit messy, as ultimately there will be styrene “plates” placed over this section, so not as delicate an effort one might expect.




Next up, time to tackle the frame.
First step was “notching” the frame mid-span to accept the shifted non-platform wall. This was a simple bit of sawing and sanding.




The hashed red box shown indicates the section of the frame that will support the remaining Gbk-v body.




And then the roof!

Helpfully, there are “molded on” cutting guides! Using the seams on the roof, I employed the Atlas Track Saw and slowly made a hand cut that was surprisingly clean. A small amount of clean up with a sanding stick and it was done.





Flipping the roof over, one of the biggest non-compatibility issues between the LGB and the “Train” versions of the car were the mounting “tabs” that stick down from the roof. A little patience with an Xacto knife and these were removed. At the same time, I also cleaned the mounting “lip” on the underside of the roof that would now be visible on the exterior covered platform section of the car.




Right, so first round of cuts and chops done, time now to see if it all worked according to plan with a test fit.





So far so good! Time to move on to building out the car's frame.

Heavy runners were cut from styrene L channel to run either side of the car’s “open” section. Thick styrene was also cut to fashion a new frame end at the non-platform end. The L channel was then installed with Cyanoacrylate (CA) glue on either side.




Next was a “floor” fashioned from sheet styrene and the build up of the frame end.



And then more laminating and gluing of bits to the frame. Again, CA was used to secure everything.






I turned my attention to the rear wall, and the man door cut into it.
Styrene was used as the basis of the door. Styrene square tube was also used to frame out the door.




And then small bits of styrene was used to fill-in and patch areas on the body. Due to the sliding door being on the original model, there were gaps in the body wall to accommodate guides, fasteners, etc. Having removed that door, these all had to now be filled in.




One of the hardest pieces to fabricate (or wrap my brain around fabricating) were the two bare vertical “supports” that are at each corner of the roof, mid-car. Finding a way to get these built and attached, without big unsightly fasteners, was a head scratcher. Ultimately I settled on a build up of styrene with a brass nut and bolt to keep the 90 degree joint square.

To start, I used styrene channel, notched to fit around the car’s frame at the bottom, and angled at the top to meet the curve of the roof. Within that channel, I’ll add square tube styrene to add rigidity and terminate it within the channel so it sits flush with the top of the car’s floor.



Next was a length of rectangular styrene tube fastened as a cross beam to run just beneath the roofline. This is then attached to the vertical support with glue. Once dry, I used a pin vise to drill a hole at the joint and inserted a nut and bolt to capture the whole thing.





And now, (because I love them) test fit time again!





Ok, so I’ll stop there for now, next up is the first round of paint. Hope to have that detailed out in the next day or two.
I’ll also try and get the “punch list” and road map to completion up with the next posting so you can see where it’s going.

Thanks for reading, and everyone stay safe!

-Josh

 

[PaulRhB]

Looking good Josh, maybe we need to ask Keith if he’s inspired to get on with his crane

 

[Parkdesigner]

Thanks Paul! (And yes, we should def inquire! )

Picking up on the last post, we start in the paint booth. (Well, the back garden really)

The frame received a pass of The Army Painter’s Matt Black Primer. In the photo below it’s just been flipped, ready for the “top coat.”



While the frame dries, the body shell get’s it’s first pass of The Army Painter Matt White Primer.





After the above, the body was then taped off, leaving only the vertical supports exposed. It then received a spray of The Army Painter’s Matt Black Primer to pick the supports out. After it was all dry, the whole lot went back into the house for further work.


Starting with some scrap Plastistruct “L” bracket, I cut a pair of brackets and mounted them to the end wall section of the body.



Once the CA glue dried, the wall was then mounted to the other three sides of the body, clamped, and left to cure.




And with that, time to test fit!



Looking pretty good I’d say…


Well the heavens opened yesterday, so painting had to come indoors. As such, I was limited paint pens and pots. No bother really, I attacked the rear platform deck to start.

The LGB frame has three “wood” boards molded into the plastic. Like on my Xk 9809, I used Testor’s Paint Pens to pick out the detail I began by wrapping the frame with paint masking tape, and then “washed” the boards with a Testor’s Rust Paint Pen. Once that layer was tacky, I went back over the boards with a Testor’s Mud paint pen. Not overly difficult, but very happy with result.




With the rear deck drying, I began to cut strips of basswood to “deck” the middle section of the car. Measure, Xacto, repeat.



Once enough planks (plus a few spare) were cut and sanded, I then lined them up to stain and paint them, hopefully to better match with the rear deck’s painted plastic.

I mixed my own stain for this project, starting by brewing a cup of Taylor's Yorkshire Tea and letting it steep for several minutes. I then poured out about 2 ounces of the tea into a mixing pot, drank the remaining brew, and added to the mixing pot a healthy dollop of Testor’s Rust enamel paint, and a smidge of Model Master’s Flat Grey acrylic paint. Shaking the mixture together, I then smeared it on with a paint brush board by board.



Once the boards dried, they were flipped and the process repeated. Finally, they received a spray of The Army Painter Matte Spray to help seal them, and left to dry.


Turning my attention to the door at the rear of the car, I located a spare door handle (an LGB RhB EW I coach part), and then used the pin vise to drill a mounting hole in the car.



An extra strip of black Evergreen styrene provided a face plate for the handle. The handle got a quick shot of The Army Painter Spray Primer Wolf Grey and once dry the plate and handle were then glued in.






With the mid deck planks dry, I did a test fit of those, and cut a styrene strip to later be installed on the deck to capture them. (The styrene will get hit with black paint as well.)




Next up was a start on some of the control cabling and electrical details. These are primarily on the mid-car end wall (and along the deck).

I had a dig around in the greebles box and came up with a Details West HO scale winterization hatch, and an 0 scale MU cable socket. Combined with some scrap styrene tube and left over wire, I made a start at detailing the wall.





A quick hit of white paint and the parts were glued in to place.




And now, as always, a test fit! This one includes all pieces paint/stained to date, as well as a small blue compressor from a die cast car detail set (1:24 I believe) that will end up being mounted to the deck. Gotta say I’m pretty happy with how things are going!










More to come!
Thanks for reading,
Josh

 

[dunnyrail]

Yet another super RhB conversion well on the way to a masterpiece.

 

[Parkdesigner]

Thank you for the kind words…

Continuing the build, last night and today saw a short amount of progress.
I decided to tackle the body’s lower side panels.

I started with sheet styrene and cut panels to fit.






Ultimately five panels were cut. Two of them will then receive the wire hasp cages that hold train orders for the car. (These are spare LGB parts salvaged off an RhB Container Wagon I cannibalized for another project.)




A test fit of the panels came next.




Everything was cleaned up, edges sanded, and on to the cardboard they went! I dodged the rain this morning and was able to give them a quick hit of The Army Painter Matt White Primer and back inside them came! (Yes, I know the styrene was a perfect match for the white on the car body already, however to make sure the upcoming matt varnish sprays evenly, I felt I needed to hit these with paint too.)




Once dry, I sanded down the sides with 3000 grit paper to make sure the excess paint didn’t cause the panels to bind in-between the vertical frames. Panels were then glued in with CA.






Not much progress I know, but given the state of the world right now, I’ll take it!

Thanks for reading!
Josh

 

[Parkdesigner]

So a short update, but some progress being made the last day and a half.

The rain was heavy on and off since the last post… and the temperature dropped to around 8!
I found a few minutes to jump outside in-between showers to spray some primers and sealer.

To start, I gave the main body, frame, and frame parts a coating of The Army Painter’s Matt Varnish.




While letting those dry, I turned my attention to the two brake hoses at the “arm end” of the car. These are spare parts from a LGB Ge 4/4 ii. I taped off the piping that meets the body, and the sprayed with Rustoleum Spray Primer/Paint “Granite.”




Letting the hoses dry, I brought the car body back inside and pulled out the Model Masters Semi Gloss Black. The “cheapness” (I suspect) of the Train brand car body, combined with spraying white over the yellow plastic has meant that any backlight to the body and the yellow shows through behind the white. I don’t expect to have any light bleed once the roof is on, but just to be safe, I went ahead and slopped on a coat of black to the inside of the body. The nice thing here is this was not an exacting effort, and I could be pretty lazy with the application!






Back outside to retrieve the hoses, they were untaped and then retaped leaving only the hose ends exposed. These then got a spray of The Army Painter Pure Red Primer and were left to dry. They’ll sit overnight, and assuming the rain holds off, tomorrow I will hit them with varnish as well.




Like I said, not much progress… but forward motion nonetheless.

Thanks for reading!
Josh

 

[Nodrog1826]

Oh!, to have skill and confidence to do things like that.

 

[dunnyrail]

So a short update, but some progress being made the last day and a half.

The rain was heavy on and off since the last post… and the temperature dropped to around 8!
I found a few minutes to jump outside in-between showers to spray some primers and sealer.

To start, I gave the main body, frame, and frame parts a coating of The Army Painter’s Matt Varnish.




While letting those dry, I turned my attention to the two brake hoses at the “arm end” of the car. These are spare parts from a LGB Ge 4/4 ii. I taped off the piping that meets the body, and the sprayed with Rustoleum Spray Primer/Paint “Granite.”




Letting the hoses dry, I brought the car body back inside and pulled out the Model Masters Semi Gloss Black. The “cheapness” (I suspect) of the Train brand car body, combined with spraying white over the yellow plastic has meant that any backlight to the body and the yellow shows through behind the white. I don’t expect to have any light bleed once the roof is on, but just to be safe, I went ahead and slopped on a coat of black to the inside of the body. The nice thing here is this was not an exacting effort, and I could be pretty lazy with the application!






Back outside to retrieve the hoses, they were untaped and then retaped leaving only the hose ends exposed. These then got a spray of The Army Painter Pure Red Primer and were left to dry. They’ll sit overnight, and assuming the rain holds off, tomorrow I will hit them with varnish as well.




Like I said, not much progress… but forward motion nonetheless.

Thanks for reading!
Josh

I see your pain with the possibility of Yellow bleed through, next one can I suggest a when you do full all over with Grey undercoat you do inside as well? That should resolve any issues though not sure what the inside colour would be, certainly Bkack will hide a multitude of issues but not sure it would help any bods find anything in there. Nice job as always.

 

[Parkdesigner]

Thanks Nodrog1826! ...but to be honest, I think anyone could do this (or most of it). Simple painter's tape, and... and I can NOT stress this enough... "The Army Painter" spray primers are amazing. Just A... Maz... Ing. (I know, I know... some may start to think I own the brand - and based on how much I spend on Amazon ordering cans, I should - but I really am just a huge fan of the stuff.)

Seriously, I have always had good luck cutting and gluing styrene onto OEM cars... it was always when the painting started that I fell down. So much so, that when I was modeling the Rio Grande in 1:20.3, I would build kits, bash, and scratch build cars all day long... and then send everything off to a friend to be painted. I just couldn't do it. I've tried a few airbrushes and, for now, it's just not for me. That being said, The Army Painter stuff goes on with ease, dries even, crisp, and fast, and looks great IMHO.

Oh - and for anyone modeling the RhB - their "Pure Red" primer is SPOT ON out of the can. Here is the front end of an LGB Ge 4/4 ii I updated a few months back... the pipes along the lower face, as well as the cable connector under the left widow were done with Color Primer Pure Red... less than two hours to tape, spray dry/have a pint, retape, spray, dry/second pint, install.



All of those were done in an afternoon in the back garden! Really couldn't be easier!

Anyway, sorry for the topic drift. My point is, for things like the Sersa Black/White cars... various RhB / FO and MGB infrastructure vans... there are several cars made by LGB, Kiss (the old plastic stuff), TRAIN (the LGB knock off), etc. that with a few strips of styrene - and just the patience of disassembling, taping, spraying, and reassembling OEM parts and gluing on a few new bits/strips of styrene and/or wood - that those cars can be radically improved with respect to resembling their real world prototypes.

For someone that really is adverse to even just an Xacto blade and glue, simply taking a car apart with a screwdriver and then repainting/reassembling will, again in my opinion, vastly improve the appearance of some cars currently on the shelf. I think my biggest recommendation would simply be "slow and steady wins the race..." taping with an extreme attention to detail takes time, but is the number one key to success I think.

Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying thanks for the compliment and if you are thinking about taking on similar projects, please feel free to ask for any tips... always happy to help!



dunnyrail, agreed. I just got lazy on this one. You can see in the top-down side-by-side photo in the last post, the left side had about 40% of the interior sprayed... I just never went back to cover the rest of it and should have. Likely I'll spray a second full cover of primer, inside and out, when I start the Sersa P10071 after this.



Thanks folks... hope to have another update later today. The two brake hoses are out in the front garden with their matt varnish drying now! (As the clouds roll in! Ugh.)

-Josh

 

[phils2um]

Hi Josh - thanks for the info on the "Army Painters" paint! I just ordered some.

Oh - and for anyone modeling the RhB - their "Pure Red" primer is SPOT ON out of the can.

 

[dunnyrail]

I have been doing some odd spraying in the Garden, leaving it for a short a time as possible before bringing indoors for an overnight dry. Using pliers and tweezers to grab things to carry in an attempt to damage as little of the spray over as possible.

 

[Parkdesigner]

Whelp, we’re officially under lockdown here in LA… I guess that gives me more time to build... so back to it!

To start, I pulled out the sheet styrene to build the other end of the car’s deck.



Trimming to fit…



And finished product




Once I had the deck cut to size, I was able to test fit the decking and then the cross deck trim. Knowing it all fit, I then pulled out the CA glue and clamps and installed the cross trim.




I then turned my attention to the roof.

I’ve got a new color of The Army Painter in route to spray the entire roof to better match the Sersa paint scheme. In the meantime, I needed to add the roof gutters that overhang the mid-deck opening.

I started with 2mm angle styrene from Evergreen. Two sections were cut to length, then sanded, and glued to the roof edges.




Next, I started to tackle the mid-deck cabinet. From photos, this seems to be metal, with an open face and used to hold welding cylinders.

I started with styrene, cutting the back and two sides.



I then continued to frame out the cabinet and added vertical supports and bracing.



After assembly, I stepped into the garden and used Testor’s 1237 Semi-Gloss Primer (Grey) to give it some color.



And now, the cabinet dries overnight while I work on the doors next.




As always, thanks for reading. Hope everyone is staying safe!
-Josh

 

[Parkdesigner]

Well heck. Mr. Amazon has yet to arrive with paint, and Mr. Ebay has yet to produce the next order of Evergreen Styrene so I’m going to have to wait a bit for the next round of development.

Looking at the “major items” Punch List, the next big steps include:

• Fabrication of Skip Lifting Arm and Base (waiting on Styrene)
• Modification of Platform Railing (waiting on Styrene)
• Painting the Roof (waiting on Paint)
• Installation of “arm end” Frame End Details
• Fabrication of Under Frame Air Lines
• Fabrication of Cabinet Doors
• Fabrication of Kableschlep for Deck Floor (waiting on Paint)
• Painting and Installation of Grab Irons (waiting on Paint)

So, of the above, I’ve advanced just about everything as far as possible, but will still winnow away at the items I can.
(Of course, this morning is nice and sunny - great for painting… if only I had my paint order!)

But, to keep inspiration alive, it’s time for my favorite thing… test fit! Enjoy:








Updates as and when I can!

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Parkdesigner]

Well we’re back at it!

Sunday was a fairly light day, as the rain never stopped and I was still waiting on paint and styrene in the post.
I decided the first thing to do was to attack the compressor air lines.

To start, I used the pin vise to drill a pair of holes, approximating the air lines on the prototype. (The black box is a piece of a battery box detail part from the underside of an LGB Streetcar.)



Next I pulled out some black wire, left over from a random engine gutting. (Likely something from Bachmann… perhaps a 4-6-0?)
I sized the wire, then folded it in half.



One of the tricks I learned long ago when trying to model cables and hoses was that, when there are two or more parallel lines, if possible, feed the hose/cable/wire in and out of the same part, so rather than trying to terminate each length, they are all one piece.



And then finally, I dug out the beads from the craft store - left over from the Tm 2/2 build’s MU cables.
I fed these along the wire, and then CA’d them in place.




Setting the air lines aside to dry, I decided the rainy day was a good time to tackle the rear platform railing and supports.

This began with taking the stock LGB railing, and filing down the round outermost ends of the “top” railing. These are molded as round with a void to accept the grab irons on either side. My intention is to add the roof-to-step vertical supports, as found on the prototype. As such, I don’t need the grab irons as supplied by LGB.



Sanding/filing down the edges effectively “squares” the two ends, and thus I can then place a length of Evergreen styrene channel over the length of the railing. For this process, I started by measuring the channel against the existing railing.



I then drilled two holes with my pin vise, one at either end of the channel in anticipation of the new vertical supports. Once cleaned of any flash, I glued the railing into the channel.



Next up was the task of forming the vertical supports. I considered trying to bend brass rod to fit, but a quick look around turned up a Knightwing UN1 OO Scale Universal Pipe Set! I simply selected the correct pipe/geometry and trimmed them from the sprue. Carefully, I fed each one into the railing’s channel for a test fit.





With the vertical supports in place, I test fit the roof so as to mark their contact points to the underside. Once noted, the pin vise was used to drill small indents for the supports to nest to when the roof is on.





Finally, I needed to drill a receiving hole in each step for the bottom of the vertical supports. Oddly, I found that running the supports plumb along the plane of the railing meant the lower end of each support missed the step entirely.

Knowing I would need the lower end “captured” to help support and protect each railing, I cracked open my box of styrene scraps and worked to fabricate longer steps. This allowed me to extend them long enough to then be able to drill a hole in each to intersect the lower ends.





A test fit of all the parts:





And with that, everything was disassembled, taped down and sprayed with The Army Painter Matt Black Primer in between Monday’s intermittent showers.






Leaving those parts to dry yesterday afternoon, I decided the build had progressed far enough that I could glue down the mid-deck’s wood planning.




And as those dried, I pulled out some styrene square tube, measured, and sawed a length to rest on the mid deck as the Kabelschlepp.




Finally, to finish yesterday’s construction, I again turned to my pin vise, and drilled to small holes on the mid-deck face of the car body. My thinking here was that, given the hollow nature of the “support” horizontal beams that traverse under the roof at mid-deck, I should try to reenforce these as I suspect they may be one of the most fragile and damage prone pieces of the car.

By drilling the two holes, I was able to pass through a pair of nails from the inside of the car body outwards, using the length of each nail as internal armature for the horizontal beams (once installed). I then glued the nails in place from the inside of the car body.






Up next, today’s test fit once everything dried. Stay tuned!

 

[JimmyB]

Parksider, that is some detail in both the model and the write up.

 

[Parkdesigner]

Thanks Jimmy... that's my goal for posting here, less quantity - higher quality.


To finish up today's posts, and bringing the thread current with the build, here are today’s test fits of the parts fabricated thus far.









Now I really am running out of things to do until the final can of paint and new parts for the lifting arm arrive. Hopefully they’ll be here in the next few days… in the mean time, I’m going to try and resist starting yet another RhB car bash!

If I have time, tomorrow I’ll try and update the Punch List.

Thanks for readying!

Stay safe everyone,
Josh

 

[Parkdesigner]

Morning all,

Well, one tiny update... I figure I should get them in while I can.

Got a shipment of paint last night... though not everything I was expecting!

I did receive a new yellow I wanted to try. I've had mixed results with Testors, Model Masters, and Rustoleum... each spraying a bit "watery" (a well known issues with the formulation of yellow paint). With or without a base coat of primer, it's always been a pain of a color to spray. Having been pleased with The Army Painter's other spray primers, I purchased a can of Army Painter Demonic Yellow spray primer.

A quick pass in the garden could not have been easier! No running or pooling that I typically expect from yellow!



Bringing the newly painted Kabelschlepp channel back inside to dry, I then placed it on the mid-deck in position, and couldn't be happier!



Looks like I've found a new yellow!

As always, thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Josh

 

[Henri]

That’s really nice! I love the straight and tidy work!!! My compliments!

 

[Parkdesigner]

Thanks for the kind words Henri!

Well, Friday paint showed up so I could get back to work!

I started by tackling the car end. I had already painted the hoses, so now to install.
I first used the pin vise to drill mounting holes in the end.



Then I cut the hoses to fit...



And glued them glued them into place.



Next up was a small piece from an AMC 1/25 scale truck kit. I trimmed it to my needs, then sent it out side for a spray of Army Painter Pure Red Primer and a wash of sealer.





At the same time, I trimmed a few additional bits of styrene for the end, and sent them out for paint and sealer too.



Back indoors yesterday, I was able to mount everything to the car (though in a slightly more awkward position than normal).





And here is the car end as it now stands.




Next up, I tackled the under car air line and valves.

I started by forming some styrene rod. I uses a candle for this - holding the styrene above it until it becomes playable, then I bend it (this time, around a screwdriver I had handy) and run it under some cool water.




Once set, I trimmed the rods and dug out some square styrene channel to mount them in. The valve heads themselves are spare LGB parts from their more recent RhB cars.



Putting it all together for a check fit before gluing with cyanoacrylate.



And out to paint it goes!



While the Army Painter Matt Black and Anti Shine Varnish dried, I used some grey styrene angle to cut a pair of mounting tabs. These were glued to the car’s frame, and then to those I CA’ed the brake line.



It’s a fair amount of work, especially when the finished product only “peeks” out from underneath the car sides, but I really like the layer of detail doing this provides.





Need to stop the update there - this brings us current through yesterday.
Today I tackled grab irons and will try and get those posted here tonight or tomorrow.

As always, thanks for reading everyone!

 

[Parkdesigner]

Ok, a few days behind here, but trying to catch up.

To start, I used a new can of The Army Painter Uniform Grey Primer to tackle the roof.
The roof itself should be darker for the most recent version of the car - but I really liked the lighter aluminum look of it in years past. As such I split the difference, knocking down the shine of the silver, but not going as near-black dark as the current car.



Then it was on to grab irons.

I started with USA Trains reefer spares I found cheap on ebay. Using my pin vice, I drilled holes in the car body to accept the part’s diameter.



Then I used the same to drill holes in the roof vertical support as well.



Next, the grabs were press fit to some blue tape and taken outside for the first coat of The Army Painter Demonic Yellow.



Several additional applications later (like 4 or 5 passes over the day), and the parts had a uniform yellow to them. They then got a hit of anti-shine varnish and were left to dry.



Once ready, there really wasn’t much left to do… just press fitting them into the pre-drilled mounting holes on the car.





Really not very hard - the longest part was simply waiting for each pass of yellow to dry before going back over it again.


This then leaves me with little more to do for a while. There are a few small brake parts I’ll mount in the next few days, and some additional kabelschlepps to fabricate, but the remaining work really is just the lifting arms and associated frame - and those will be delayed until I can get the right styrene bits shipped out to the house (a task that has been more difficult than one would have though at the start of all this mess!)

Thanks as always and more as I have it!

Cheers,
Josh