Good Evening Folks,
Some of you may have been wondering why, after a flurry of posts on the N4, I've been quiet for more than a week! Well, one person on the list knows.... he's supplying me with new decals...
The short story. After painting the cabin car with my mix of Vallejo, and a coat of Future, I decaled. I got everything on one side, flipped the car over, got the decals on, applied the 1st dose of MicroSol and went to bed. In the morning, when I looked at
the car, the PENNSYLVANIA was crooked! (note, it was probably crooked when I added the MicroSol). The human eye is incredibly sensitive to these issues, and the lettering being between the roof and windows doesn't give much room for error. I tried to soften
the decal and move it, but no joy. So, into the 99% Isopropanol it went and off came the decals and the paint. I will also note that the paint had scratched in a couple of places. This was my first time using Vallejo thinner and I think it has a retarder in
it that made the paint softer, probably due to the heavier layers and lack of drying time.
So, back to the paint shop we went! Well, first, I decided to replace the Archer rivets on the curved side grave with nut-bolt-washer castings. A #77 hole was drilled, the NBW inserted and glued from the back with CA and then the end was trimmed.
This time I did not do a coat of primer. I probably should have as the even grey would allow better coverage. I painted the interior with PolyScale depot buff (NOT PRR buff, which is far too yellow). Then I painted the car with an approximate mix of 4:1 of
vallejo 818 (red leather) and 829 (amaranth) in repeated light coats. Since I paint in my garage and even in Alabama the weather has cooled off, I made sure to bring the car inside and use a hair dryer to help really dry the paint between coats. It took about
3-4 coats to get good coverage.
Following that, I sprayed on a coat of Future (acrylic clear gloss).
While I wait for the replacement decals to arrive from Mount Vernon Shops (I'm so glad I got John to put the N4 on that sheet!) I', going to play around with some weathering. The underbody is already well along, with a coat of Tamiya black panel line accent,
followed by some chalks and a clear flat coat. I also had to do more surgery on the diagonal braces on the ends of the car as they still interfered with the wheels. I guess there was a good reason that F&C supplied flat stock instead of the prototypic "L"
stock I used!
Here are some current photos. You can see that I added an ounce of weight to the car. The trucks are Bowser 2A-F5 that have been grit blasted and the wheels are Reebox 1.035 axle with semi scale flanges, painted model master flat black from a rattle can.
Regards,
Bruce
Bruce Smith
Auburn, AL
