Repainting an Old Boxcar

Lately I've kind of been all over the place when it comes to my model railroading projects, but the one I'm focusing on today is the old San Jose Sharks boxcar I posted back in October, click here to see the original post. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this one when I got it and mentioned maybe using it to practice painting and decals. Well, that's exactly what I am doing with it now and I've been learning a lot making use of it. 

It started when I was trying out the airbrush as this boxcar served as the very first test subject. After that it became the guinea pig for testing paint removal methods. So in the last few weeks I've been working to completely remove the original green paint job. I ended up using a combination of brake fluid and isopropyl alcohol to get the job done. Turns out this thing was originally a Model Power boxcar with a GE Lamps paint scheme. Click here to see an example. 

A look at the 50' boxcar with the green paint completely stripped away.

I did the best I could to remove the green paint, but that left the factory paint somewhat intact underneath. Rather than risking damage to the plastic, I decided to leave it as is and start painting over it with the airbrush. I went with the Testors acrylic "rad red" that came with the kit. It's a pretty nice looking red and I was thinking about making this boxcar a part of the little display track I built. It will look nice behind the Santa Fe locomotive I'm working on assembling. 

Working on painting the boxcar red in my makeshift paint booth. 

I've got the first coat down and it's looking pretty good so far. There are definitely some areas that will need a few more coats to completely cover the GE Lamps paint scheme. Other than that it just needs a quick once over with my Model Master flat overcoat. Then I need to get myself a set of Santa Fe 50' boxcar decals and try that out. 

More Progress Repainting the SD40-2

After clearing some space in the basement, I was able to find some time to get back at repainting my Soo Line SD40-2 as part of my new side project. Right now I am just trying out the airbrush and chose the yellow because it was the brightest and boldest of the colors that came with the kit. I may or may not keep this color, it all depends on how I think it looks when I'm done with it. So far it's looking like I will have to change things up, you'll see what I mean.

Here are some pictures of where I am at now:

A look at the SD-40 after several coats of paint from the airbrush.

A look at the right side after removing the blue painters tape.

A look at the left side after removing the tape.

A closeup look at the seam left by the painters tape.

That last pictures is what I was referring to. There is a pretty nasty looking transition from the new paint to the old and I'm not sure how to fix it right now. I may just leave it for now and move onto the next color and see what happens. 

Right now I have blue, red, orange, and black to pick from until I decide to go out and get any other colors from Hobby Lobby. I think something with the red and/or orange with some black added to it would look great. I'll have to work up some ideas for how I want the overall paint scheme to look. 

Testors Amazing Air Airbrush Paint Set

After going through all the hand painting for the structures on my nursery wall layout, I thought it would be a good idea to try out some airbrushing. I didn't want to get too involved in it without trying it out first, so I asked for and received a Testors Amazing Air airbrush beginner kit for my birthday a few months back. Here is a look at what the kit included:

Testors Amazing Air airbrush paint set

It's a pretty basic system with a plastic air sprayer that connects to a canister of propellant. The paint is fed in through a small plastic tube and cap right to the end of the sprayer. I don't really know anything about airbrushing, at least not yet, but this doesn't seem so bad to me. I'm sure there will be a learning curve, but that's half the fun of learning something new like this, especially something I can use for all kinds of things when it comes to model railroading.

So far I've been doing a bit of playing around with it and I like the results so far. I have an old Athearn Soo Line SD40-2 that's pretty beat up and missing a few parts, so I thought it would make a good candidate for my first loco repaint. Here's what it looked like before doing any airbrushing to it. 

An old Athearn Soo Line SD40-2 as my test locomotive

Before I started any painting I made myself a quick paint booth out of an old cardboard box. It didn't need to be fancy, just something to keep paint from getting everywhere. In the next picture you'll be able to see this and some of the yellow I tried out on the SD40-2. I even threw some blue painters tape on there to see how it would work. If I'm going to try and customize my own locos someday, I'll have to find a good way to use multiple colors and this seemed like a good place to start. 

My simple cardboard paint booth and some trial painting

You can also see an orange box car in the above picture. That is actually the old San Jose Sharks boxcar I showed off on the blog a while back. It didn't come out as well as the loco, but I think that's just because I was still trying to figure out what the heck I was doing with this whole process. 

Not sure what else I will try to do with the SD40-2, maybe throw on some of the remaining red and blue paint that came with the set. After all, this is basically a throw away locomotive so I will get as much use out of it as I can as a test subject.