In addition to the E&C Shops car belonging to Greg McComas, this batch included two ExactRail Gunderson 6269 cars.  Both were purchased as model EE-1452-1 decorated for BNSF.  I chose this model because they were brown and would not need a coat of primer.  The lettering was also pretty sparse and looked easy to remove.

I created a rather detailed spec-sheet for the decals and submitted it to Circus City decals.  They (Matthew Welke) did an amazing job on the decal sheet, and it was done very quickly!

Next I made a quick revision to the roster.  These cars were in the 527000 series, with the first 500 being T&GN and the second 500 being NT&O.  I divided the numbers further, designating the E&C Shops cars as TGN 527000-527099 and NTO 527500-527599.  The ExactRail cars would fill the rest of the numbers, TGN 527100-527499 and NTO 527600-NTO 527999.

The BNSF markings came off easily using Solvaset-Soaked paper towel patches to soften the letters.  Scotch-Tape then removed them cleanly! I mixed a 50/50 batch of Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and Boxcar Red #2 which is standard for these cars.  The paint went on smoothly with my Iwata Revolution airbrush.  

The Circus City decals were a pleasure to work with.  Each car has a total of 58 individual decals!  

Today the cars received dull coat to seal the decals.  On the advise of Eric Goodman I used an aerosol can of Krylon ColorMaster Flat Crystal Clear.  I picked up a can at WalMart!  Being careful to just spray a very thin and even layer of the product on the cars, the result is very good!  I do miss the Floquil flat finish however....

NTO 527565 will be interchanged to the MCIS soon.  As Greg models a later time period than I do, this car will be updated with yellow FRA conspicuity stripes. 

​A shipment from ExactRail arrived on Monday.  Included were four more copies of BNSF 726653...  Batch 2 will be making its way to the paint booth soon!

​Chris

Since my last posting on Friday much has happened.  Determined to get some NTO gondolas created I managed to push the painting process for four more Gunderson 2420 gondolas into the routine. Friday night while watching A Christmas Story with the family I multi-tasked, using the Solvaset and Scotch-Tape method to remove the logos and numbers from four gondolas: 1 MP, 1 CNW, and 2 SSW cars. The process worked very well.

Then on Saturday, after work and before attending an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at a co-worker's house I prepared the cars for painting, applying shop trucks and couplers to all four.  Additionally I have decided to go with brown for the truck color on the rock gon fleet, so I removed the trucks from the two cars already painted, TGN 403056 and TGN 403222.

The wheelsets were removed from all of the truck frames and the inner parts were masked.  I had recently purchased a Bluecell Alligator Clip Stick set off Amazon for painting small parts.  I used these for the first time, mounting them in a block of Styrofoam from an old Walthers kit to hold the truck frames for painting.  The clips were very cheap, about $5.00 for 25.  The wooden sticks are pointed at one end and can double as uncoupling sticks for Kadee couplers as well!

I also nailed one more snap-track panel to a scrap MDF strip for car handling in the paint booth.  This brings the number of these done to four.  They are very convenient for placing and removing rolling stock on the turntable in the paint booth.

After work on Sunday the cars got painted.  A bottle of 50/50 mix of Scalecoat II Bocxar Red and Boxcar Red #2 was made.  One small bottle was more than enough to paint all four cars with a little left over.

First I painted all four cars upside-down with the shop trucks removed.  Once all four cars were painted this way I reapplied the shop trucks and painted the cars right-side up. This allows for even coverage of all of the detailed surfaces of the cars.

By the time Monday evening rolled around, the paint had cured enough to apply decals. On Monday cars NTO 403305, NTO 403472, TGN 403110, and TGN 403129 had identities and were added to the equipment database!

Now sporting matching brown trucks, the two cars done earlier also posed for new builders' photos:

So six down...18 to go!  Then I should have the start of a respectable unit rock train.

Also on Monday a small package arrived from Internet Trains.  I had ordered some paint to keep the paint shop in business.  While looking though their website I was a bit disappointed to see that some of the colors I was looking for were out of stock.  There seems to be a consensus that MinuteMan Scale Models will be a reliable steward of the Scalecoat line of paint which it purchased from Weaver Models which went out of business this summer.  Therefore I am not too concerned about the out of stock colors.  Paint can also be ordered directly from MinuteMan Scale Models.  The button below will take you to their site:

The order received from Internet Trains on Monday 12-7-2014 included 4 bottles of Scalecoat II Paint: 1 x S2002 Oxide Red, 2 x S2027 IC Orange, and 1 x S2087 Boxcar Red #2.  Since IC Orange makes up 75% of my Y&MV freight car mix I ordered the two bottles to keep my bottle of Tuscan Red going.  I see many more Y&MV freight cars in the future!  The Oxide Red is a new color for me to experiment with. And the Boxcar Red #2 is of course part of the TGN/NTO brown formula.  The Boxcar Red that goes with it was out of stock.

I also made my first Tru-Color Paint purchase - 1 x TCP-017 flat and 1 x TCP-018 gloss.  This is part of my effort to find a replacement for the "Floquil Weathering Trinity" discussed in an earlier blog post. Give the endorsement of Tru-Color Paint by new model manufacturer ScaleTrains I figured it is time to become familiar with their products.

On 9-17-2015 I received two of the three numbers of the Atlas DOWX 23500 gallon tank cars--DOWX 40033 and DOWX 40040.  I had noticed that the third number, DOWX 40037, was available at Internet Trains so I did add that single car to this order.  I really like the appearance of these cars.

Well I guess this is enough for a week in review!

​Chris