Red Caboose Flat Car Brake

Hi Sarah,
That is a beautiful flat car, the deck colors are spot on.  The Red Caboose kits for their time were some of the best kits on the market (just my opinion).  I had about 4 or 5 of their kits a really liked them.  I believe Intermountain took over all of their tooling and then Atlas ended up with them in the long run.  This is what I was told but that doesn't really matter now.  You did a beautiful job on your kit and you should be proud of it.  Thanks for sharing.

@Sarah posted:

Dear Friends,

I've built my first Red Caboose 42' 10" USRA design flat car, a gift by Jay Criswell *THANKS*. It's a lovely kit but somehow I think the designers themselves had not really an idea of how the hand brake shaft and bracing would go together. I ended up with making a mistake by routing the chain in the wrong way.

Fellow model kit designer Ross S. Dando pointed out how it's meant to be done:

I'll have to fix that. It's a bit sad that Red Caboose did not really include much information about this but on the other hand I'm so GLAD they made all these plastic kits! I do own two of Ross' resin flat car kits and they are superior in every aspect. It's great that we have so many capable modelers out there and such a great community.

Here are some pics of the rest of the car:

Greetings
Sarah

Sarah, that is one nice job you did, well done. along with the water scenes you do.

Sarah, That is a gorgeous flatcar.  You did an exceptional job on the wood deck.

Malcolm

Yes Sarah, a real nice job, very convincing indeed. I to love the deck looks great.      cTr...(Choose the Right )

Nice done, i have some flats from red caboose also to finish

Looking at the handbrake, here a picture where it is done as red caboose made it

http://drgw.free.fr/DRGW/Freig...ar/CTS-00-283_en.htm

I know ,it is narrow gauge, but it is posible this way

Cor

Beautiful car, great job!  The wood deck is my favorite part!

Thanks! I fixed it in the meantime and added some more age to the whole car.

@Brother_Love posted:

Sarah, That is a gorgeous flatcar.  You did an exceptional job on the wood deck.

Malcolm

Thanks! I adore your work!

Sarah,

Beautifully done. May I ask what you used to get the deck to look so good?

Ralph

@Sarah posted:

Thanks! I fixed it in the meantime and added some more age to the whole car.

Wow... don't those P:48 wheels look great?  😊

Mark in Oregon

@HudsonORailRoader posted:

Sarah,

Beautifully done. May I ask what you used to get the deck to look so good?

Ralph

Hi Ralph,

I made a bit of a mistake by gluing the kit together and then thinking about the wooden deck to be painted on. On the next car I will paint the deck and then assemble the sides and ends. So I had to mask off the deck, something that could have been avoided. I used Tamiya light grey primer for a base coat. This helps the acrylic paints to stick on plastic even more and in this particular case the primer is also the actual color of the wood deck.

I've thinned down a light brown Vallejo Air even more and used this very thin color as a stain to certain boards. I did three different tones, one was sand and the third one a more reddish brown. This way I got some variation.

Over all this I went with ENAMEL wash by MIG (Dark Wash). Here I've also thinned down the wash even more with MIG enamel thinner. I've pained the thinner on with a broad head brush plank by plank, adding a bit variation here again. Finally I decided that it could be just a bit more brownish in general and added Vallejo ACRYLIC brown wash.

Here comes my experience so far: If you do multiple layers of paint, you might want to use a combination of enamel and acrylic paints. otherwise any manipulation by brush or just the soaking of the next layer would loosen the paint underneath. These two differently based products don't interfere with each other and give you a lot of freedom.

Lastly I added some fuel stains and splashes with MIG Streaking Grime sprinkling them off the toothbrush with my thumb. I've used a tiny brush to soften up the bigger splashes working in the direction of the wood grain.

Happy modeling!

Sarah

Beautiful model and great modification to the brake system and outstanding weathering Sarah. So easy to see you really enjoy modeling.

@Sarah posted:

Dear Friends,

I've built my first Red Caboose 42' 10" USRA design flat car, a gift by Jay Criswell *THANKS*. It's a lovely kit but somehow I think the designers themselves had not really an idea of how the hand brake shaft and bracing would go together. I ended up with making a mistake by routing the chain in the wrong way.

Fellow model kit designer Ross S. Dando pointed out how it's meant to be done:

I'll have to fix that. It's a bit sad that Red Caboose did not really include much information about this but on the other hand I'm so GLAD they made all these plastic kits! I do own two of Ross' resin flat car kits and they are superior in every aspect. It's great that we have so many capable modelers out there and such a great community.

Here are some pics of the rest of the car:

Greetings
Sarah

great looking car

Sarah, did you form your grabs?  They are exquisite.

Sarah.....beautiful work.....you make art....Like my pal Brother Love!

@Sarah posted:

Hi Ralph,

I made a bit of a mistake by gluing the kit together and then thinking about the wooden deck to be painted on. On the next car I will paint the deck and then assemble the sides and ends. So I had to mask off the deck, something that could have been avoided. I used Tamiya light grey primer for a base coat. This helps the acrylic paints to stick on plastic even more and in this particular case the primer is also the actual color of the wood deck.

I've thinned down a light brown Vallejo Air even more and used this very thin color as a stain to certain boards. I did three different tones, one was sand and the third one a more reddish brown. This way I got some variation.

Over all this I went with ENAMEL wash by MIG (Dark Wash). Here I've also thinned down the wash even more with MIG enamel thinner. I've pained the thinner on with a broad head brush plank by plank, adding a bit variation here again. Finally I decided that it could be just a bit more brownish in general and added Vallejo ACRYLIC brown wash.

Here comes my experience so far: If you do multiple layers of paint, you might want to use a combination of enamel and acrylic paints. otherwise any manipulation by brush or just the soaking of the next layer would loosen the paint underneath. These two differently based products don't interfere with each other and give you a lot of freedom.

Lastly I added some fuel stains and splashes with MIG Streaking Grime sprinkling them off the toothbrush with my thumb. I've used a tiny brush to soften up the bigger splashes working in the direction of the wood grain.

Happy modeling!

Sarah

Sarah,

Thanks so much for sharing your techniques. I am copying your post and saving for future reference. Thanks again.

Ralph