GMRC Boxcar Patch

I took a break from the building with all the broken windows this week, and instead put together an Athearn blue box kit. It's a Pullman Standard 4344 boxcar that I had picked up at a show sometime in the past.

I say kit because I had to put the supplied end ladders,  stirrup steps, brake wheel and chain, and wire grab irons on the car. There are also the air hoses, and a package of end walkways was in the box too, but those will be the very last things to be installed. The previous kit owner had already put the air system parts on the underside. I also changed the plastic wheels to new metal ones, and replaced the easily broken and good-for-next-to-nothing-anyway plastic couplers. 

Once all of that was together, the weathering bug bit, so that's where I put most of my effort this week. I had saved a a picture from the internet, taken by Thomas Stebley, of this nicely patched car of the same type. I thought I'd try to see if I could come up with something similar.

I like the patched paint and the stencil font of the lettering, and the numbers themselves are two different fonts. That patched "Plate C" label is a little different too. It's those little types of things that kind of separate some freight cars from the rest.

Here's my GMRC boxcar, not quite finished yet though. I mixed a beige and yellow craft paint for the large patches (though the colour came out lighter than I'd hoped). 

I blended white and light tuscan red model paint for the primer coloured patches.  I sprayed that onto white decal paper and clear coated over top, then cut my primer patches from that and applied them like any other decal. The graffiti to the right of the door isn't quite the same, but it's fairly similar. I'll still have to weather the ends and roof.

I also opened up my package of SmokeBox Graphics reflective stripes to put on this boxcar. The yellow on yellow is a little hard to see, but I followed the same pattern with them as on the prototype.

I didn't find a picture of the "B" side of the boxcar until it was too late. Truthfully, I didn't think to go looking for one before I had already painted and patched this side in a best guess effort as to how the prototype might look.  My guess was wrong, but I'm not likely to strip the paint and re-do it.  Here's what I came up with for the other side. More weathering is pending.  I'll update this little project as it finishes.

And down at the local freight yard this week, CN has this GP 40R from the Illinois Central working.  Here it's returning from "A-Yard" with GP 38 #4717 after transferring a couple of dozen tank and covered hopper cars.  Besides the peeling paint on the GP 38, I thought the number board was kind of interesting too.