SCLAIR Covered Hoppers Part 2

Spent most of my model railroading time working on the 3rd SCLAIR covered hopper that I showed in it's kit form here last week.  It's not finished yet, but is painted and just about fully assembled and ready for decals.

I'm leaving the bottom stirrup steps for last, as I'd probably break them off if I put them on before the decals.  Also, I have some etched brass stirrups on order from Yarmouth Model Works, so those might be a good option as well.

I've kitbashed model buildings previously, and detailed and re-painted freight cars and locomotives, but I don't actually have any experience at all at putting freight cars together from kits like this. Never done it before.

I showed this view of the Intermountain kit last week.

I went with my best guess for the colour, which is acrylic Reefer Orange with Reefer White for the diagonal stripe. As I began spraying it, the orange looked like it was coming out really bright as I sprayed it over the light coloured plastic that the kit is molded in. To try to counter this, I gave the parts 3 or 4 passes of Grimy Black as a base, and then sprayed the Reefer Orange over top of that.

I think the results are acceptable, but the orange is not as dark as whatever shade of orange Intermountain used on their decorated models.

Here is the covered hopper masked and ready for the white stripe.

Masking removed it looks pretty good. A slight leak of white at the top right corner of the stripe was easily fixed with a Q-Tip dampened with Micro-Sol.  Happily none of the orange painted lifted off when the masking tape was removed, so that's a win.

No weights were included with the kit, and I don't have any of those sticky lead weights, so I epoxied 1/4 inch steel hex nuts from the hardware store into the hopper bays.

My soon-to-be NCLX 46551 posed with the other two survivors in this paint scheme.  The colour is  definitely lighter, but certainly close enough for me.

And finally, perhaps saving the best for last this week, I watched as this eye catching bit of graffiti passed by on Monday...