Paint Booth Back in Use - Three RMCX Hoppers Painted Today

4-11-2020 - Paint Booth Action - "Meat and Potatoes"

As you have probably noticed, posts on this blog have been few and far between for the last several years.  My children are at the age where parenting their activities is a never-ending feat.  This dynamic has driven hobby interests, modeling and photography, to the back burner.

Enter COVID-19.  The Coronavirus pandemic has swiftly and single-handedly put an end to all of the school, athletic, and other social activities that have been racking up miles on our vehicles and consuming many hours of every day.  As it turns out, Model Railroading is an amazing hobby that can be shelved when time does not allow, but is there when you need or want it. 

​That being said, I have spent the last several weeks focusing on the Man-Cave.  Some deep-cleaning, inventory activity, and rearranging the paint booth work area to provide more usable space has paid off.

I have been observing model freight car fleet generalities lately and have come to the conclusion that the majority of our models represent the spice, and not the meat-and-potatoes of the overall freight car fleet.

As you survey a freight yard or watch an average freight train, you will notice that 80%-90% of the freight cars observed are non-descript grey covered hopper cars, black or white tank cars, and brown boxcars.  Nearly all of these cars will have only reporting marks and data or perhaps a small logo.  These cars are the "Meat-and-Potatoes" of the freight car fleet.  

The remaining cars are colorful, unique, and sport conspicuous logos.  These are sprinkled into each train like spice on a meal.

On the other hand, when you peruse the freight cars being sold by most model train manufacturers the makeup seems to be just the opposite.  The fancy cars attract attention and sell.  As a result model railroad fleets seem to be just the opposite of real-world composition with generic cars being the exception rather than the rule.

So, to the end of giving my own personal model freight car fleet a more prototypical balance of "Meat-and-Potatoes" equipment versus spice, I have decided to focus on purchasing more appropriate cars as well as putting the paint booth back in action to create some unique generic cars.  

The recent Atlas release of 23,500 gallon tank cars was definitely a shot in the arm.  I purchased 21 data-only tank cars from this run.  The effect is excellent.

While perusing eBay for freight car decals I came across three available sets of decals for Reynolds Materials RMCX PS-4750 covered hopper cars.  These decals were produced by the long out-of-business Islington Station Products.  These decals were my favorite 20 years ago!

I was able to pull two prototype photos I had taken in the 1990's of RMCX PS-4750 hoppers.  RMCX 2080 was captured painted almost white with the small logo and RMCX 2098 was captured painted a slightly darker grey and without the logo.  

Perfect I thought!  This will be my first new project.  I do remember the RMCX cars and am pleased to have them in my fleet.

I reached out to Dave Lehlbach of Tangent Scale Models and purchased the last two remaining undecorated PS-4750 covered hoppers in his inventory and I also purchased a Penn Central PS-4750.

I removed the trucks and couplers and replaced them with my own "shop" trucks and couples to use during the paint process.   My shop trucks have one axle glued in place so the cars do not roll  around.  My shop couplers are old horn-hook couplers that I use to handle and reposition cars during the painting process.

Using the Solvaset and Scotch-Tape method of letter removal mentioned previously I was able to effortlessly remove the Penn Central lettering from the green PC car.

Yesterday, 4-10-2020, the three Tangent PS-4750's took a bath.  The usual dish soap soak and rinse took place with a light scrubbing from an old toothbrush.  This washes off any dirt and oil from handling that might affect the adhesion of paint to the surface.

After washing, the cars were set aside for 24 hours to dry.

Today, 4-11-2020, magic happened.  Three cars were flawlessly painted in the paint-booth.  These three cars were painted ScaleCoat II S2011 White with just a touch of ScaleCoat II S2020 MOW Gray.  I have had a number of questions about how I paint cars so I decided to try something new and video the process.

I took videos of all three cars, however, the painting of the undecoated cars is less visual than the green car so that is the one I chose to share.  Enjoy the un-narrated glimpse of my paint boot in use below:

I am quite pleased with the results of this effort and am glad to be participating again in the World's Greatest Hobby!

Once the paint is dry it will be on to the next steps of weathering, decaling, and sealing.  Updates to come!

​Chris