Parkdesigner
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Well, the rain has cleared and since I’m still waiting on the ability to fly back to the UK and Germany to collect the final bits needed to complete my MGB Tm 2/2 and Sersa Engineering wagon, I figured I needed another project! I’ve been recently working to convert cars, one or two at a time, over to S-Kuplex couplers, but felt there must be something more to do. A quick look at the train shelves and I zeroed in on the LGB maintenance wagon, Xk 8325.
I picked the model up shortly after it was released. As it comes out of the box, it’s perfectly fine… LGB quality, and LGB… er… compromises from the prototype to the model. As always, I never set out to completely overhaul the model - I try and pick my battles. I ask what small things can I do that will impact the overall look of the car? To guide my effort, I turned to the internet and Mr. Google, again ending up on Haribu, RhB Stations, and Bahnbilder (all great resources btw!).
A quick review of photos and my major hit list was:
To start, I pulled out the screwdriver and pulled off the platform railing.
Once removed, I could start to disassemble the individual parts. Like most LGB models, the car end is “ok’ for generic RhB wagons, but some of the control lines/cables as standard are not found on the infrastructure wagons, so these were pulled off. Once removed, I then used the Xacto to remove mounting tabs where no longer needed.
I also separated the brass handrails and hose castings to be (re)painted.
Focused on the opposite end, the same effort - removing unneeded cables and separating the air lines for paint.
(The good news here is that given this is a bit rough MOW vehicle, a few holes here or there aren’t going to be a big issue - even more so once weathered and worn.)
With the hoses pulled off, all four were taped and lined up for primer.
To start, they’ll all get a spray of The Army Painter Matte Black, which I use for the base color of the “hose” lines.
While those dry, back inside I turned my attention to the man door on the platform end of the car.
This is by far the most noticeable detail on the prototype missing from the LGB model. Granted LGB tries to reuse models, and from a business perspective, I get that… but making one additional casting of a door, and adding it to the car would not have broken the bank. Oh well, out comes the styrene.
Trim to fit…
And then a rummage around in the spares box to pull out an LGB door for it’s all too valuable handle!
The door handle heads outside to get some The Army Painter Uniform Grey and the man door and header (some scrap styrene channel trimmed to fit) go out for The Army Painter Demonic Yellow, alongside the two handrails closest to the side doors on the van’s body.
While various bits outside get sprayed, rotated, resprayed, etc… inside, I took the body off the car and began to tape up the frame. Using some basic blue tape, I can isolate the three molded platform “wood” planks for paint. These planks are simply molded by LGB in the same grey as the car frame. Just a little color to them really helps them pop in my opinion, as well as defines and breaks-up the entire platform end of the car.
As always, I use Testor’s Paint Pens for this effort. I start with a simple, ham-handed application of “Mud.” Almost as soon as I’m finished dragging the pen across the third plank, I start over with Testor’s “Rust” pen, going in the same order. I find that this timing allows the rust color to mix with the mud, helping highlight the cast-in wood grain detail in the floor planks.
Leaving the platform to dry, back to the railing for more paint. The end railing grabs also received a coating of The Army Painter Uniform Grey and, after the side car grabs dried in their new yellow hue, they received a coating of Anti Shine Matte Varnish.
The four air lines were brought back inside and taped up so as to mask the “black hose” on each. The remaining pipe sections will be sprayed either grey (for the platform end) or yellow (for the opposite car end).
Here a pair are getting the The Army Painter Uniform Grey for use on the platform.
Once everything dried, parts came back in and I started assembly.
Here you can see the (now) grey handrails reattached to the end railing, along with the (now) black and grey air lines reinstalled. Moreover, these are the only parts going back on to the railing - the remaining OEM LGB parts destined for the spares bin for future use!
A final spray of Demonic Yellow and the man door, air lines, and car side grab irons were also ready to come back in.
Peeling back the blue tape revealed the B end air lines.
And after a quick spray of Anti Shine Matte Varnish, both were installed on the car end.
Another tip I like to use on my LGB cars… as LGB seems to manufacture only one car number at a time, but will release different car numbers on what is otherwise the exact same car over the years, anytime I have more than one of the same car type, I try to trade various parts on the undercarriage between them. LGB seems to mold the frame, steps, etc. all in one color - but between production runs of the same car, these colored plastics can vary slightly. As such, by simply swapping parts, you can achieve more definition on the models. This works really well with the Fad Hoppers and the Schnellzug passenger cars’ battery boxes.
For this model, I swapped the steps with those on another LGB Gbk-v - giving me black steps with the grey frame.
And finally, once dry the man door was ready to install. A bit of CA glue and it was done!
Here are a few views of the updated car, reassembled.
And, for contrast, here is the same car (different car number, so slightly different shade of yellow paint) side-by-side.
As you can see, not a lot of effort or time invested, but I feel these steps really shift the LGB car from more of a “toy” appearance to something closer to a “model.”
Ultimately, I may revisit the car to take a few more dramatic actions, including shortening the overall length of the roof per the prototype, but for now, I’m rather pleased with what 36 hours and a few pints in the garden has produced!
Cheers,
Josh
I picked the model up shortly after it was released. As it comes out of the box, it’s perfectly fine… LGB quality, and LGB… er… compromises from the prototype to the model. As always, I never set out to completely overhaul the model - I try and pick my battles. I ask what small things can I do that will impact the overall look of the car? To guide my effort, I turned to the internet and Mr. Google, again ending up on Haribu, RhB Stations, and Bahnbilder (all great resources btw!).
A quick review of photos and my major hit list was:
- Add the platform end door
- Paint the car end hoses into two tone colors per the prototype
- Remove/repaint those $%*& LGB Brass handrails (really, this one is a pet peeve of mine - and something LGB should be able to fix after all these years
). - Repaint the platform end railing
- Repaint the platform end floor decking
To start, I pulled out the screwdriver and pulled off the platform railing.
Once removed, I could start to disassemble the individual parts. Like most LGB models, the car end is “ok’ for generic RhB wagons, but some of the control lines/cables as standard are not found on the infrastructure wagons, so these were pulled off. Once removed, I then used the Xacto to remove mounting tabs where no longer needed.
I also separated the brass handrails and hose castings to be (re)painted.
Focused on the opposite end, the same effort - removing unneeded cables and separating the air lines for paint.
(The good news here is that given this is a bit rough MOW vehicle, a few holes here or there aren’t going to be a big issue - even more so once weathered and worn.)
With the hoses pulled off, all four were taped and lined up for primer.
To start, they’ll all get a spray of The Army Painter Matte Black, which I use for the base color of the “hose” lines.
While those dry, back inside I turned my attention to the man door on the platform end of the car.
This is by far the most noticeable detail on the prototype missing from the LGB model. Granted LGB tries to reuse models, and from a business perspective, I get that… but making one additional casting of a door, and adding it to the car would not have broken the bank. Oh well, out comes the styrene.
Trim to fit…
And then a rummage around in the spares box to pull out an LGB door for it’s all too valuable handle!
The door handle heads outside to get some The Army Painter Uniform Grey and the man door and header (some scrap styrene channel trimmed to fit) go out for The Army Painter Demonic Yellow, alongside the two handrails closest to the side doors on the van’s body.
While various bits outside get sprayed, rotated, resprayed, etc… inside, I took the body off the car and began to tape up the frame. Using some basic blue tape, I can isolate the three molded platform “wood” planks for paint. These planks are simply molded by LGB in the same grey as the car frame. Just a little color to them really helps them pop in my opinion, as well as defines and breaks-up the entire platform end of the car.
As always, I use Testor’s Paint Pens for this effort. I start with a simple, ham-handed application of “Mud.” Almost as soon as I’m finished dragging the pen across the third plank, I start over with Testor’s “Rust” pen, going in the same order. I find that this timing allows the rust color to mix with the mud, helping highlight the cast-in wood grain detail in the floor planks.
Leaving the platform to dry, back to the railing for more paint. The end railing grabs also received a coating of The Army Painter Uniform Grey and, after the side car grabs dried in their new yellow hue, they received a coating of Anti Shine Matte Varnish.
The four air lines were brought back inside and taped up so as to mask the “black hose” on each. The remaining pipe sections will be sprayed either grey (for the platform end) or yellow (for the opposite car end).
Here a pair are getting the The Army Painter Uniform Grey for use on the platform.
Once everything dried, parts came back in and I started assembly.
Here you can see the (now) grey handrails reattached to the end railing, along with the (now) black and grey air lines reinstalled. Moreover, these are the only parts going back on to the railing - the remaining OEM LGB parts destined for the spares bin for future use!
A final spray of Demonic Yellow and the man door, air lines, and car side grab irons were also ready to come back in.
Peeling back the blue tape revealed the B end air lines.
And after a quick spray of Anti Shine Matte Varnish, both were installed on the car end.
Another tip I like to use on my LGB cars… as LGB seems to manufacture only one car number at a time, but will release different car numbers on what is otherwise the exact same car over the years, anytime I have more than one of the same car type, I try to trade various parts on the undercarriage between them. LGB seems to mold the frame, steps, etc. all in one color - but between production runs of the same car, these colored plastics can vary slightly. As such, by simply swapping parts, you can achieve more definition on the models. This works really well with the Fad Hoppers and the Schnellzug passenger cars’ battery boxes.
For this model, I swapped the steps with those on another LGB Gbk-v - giving me black steps with the grey frame.
And finally, once dry the man door was ready to install. A bit of CA glue and it was done!
Here are a few views of the updated car, reassembled.
And, for contrast, here is the same car (different car number, so slightly different shade of yellow paint) side-by-side.
As you can see, not a lot of effort or time invested, but I feel these steps really shift the LGB car from more of a “toy” appearance to something closer to a “model.”
Ultimately, I may revisit the car to take a few more dramatic actions, including shortening the overall length of the roof per the prototype, but for now, I’m rather pleased with what 36 hours and a few pints in the garden has produced!
Cheers,
Josh
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