More weathering on some factory painted covered hoppers.
First up an Atlas offering



Just light weathering with Pan Pastels.
Coupled to the yet to be weathered unit.


Next a RDG flat from RED Caboose.I assembled the unit,painted the trucks,wheel faces and deck.Weathered with Pan Pastels and sealed with dull coat.



Don't know how prototypical the flat car is for the RDG.I picked up two for five bucks...couldn't pass it up.

Next,I assembled and weathered another Bowser covered hopper for the RDG's LOo class.

Picked up three undecorated Bowser covered hoppers to represent RDG's LOf's.Yes...I know the car is not prototypical for the RDG but its close enough for me.I completed two of the three,the third will be painted green to represent 79636.
For both I chose SCII MofW gray instead of the recommended D&H gray to give them a more faded look.The trucks were painted a weathered black.The models were assembled before painting except for the final assembly of the roof,trucks and couplers.
Decals used were from Highball Graphics.Pan Pastels for the weathering and sealed with dull coat.
First up my 79616


79624



Two LOf's and two LOo's



And finally I picked up the three Athearn RBL's.Again not correct and not yet weathered but they'll fit in.


Close up

Chris, your work looks great as always. It’s interesting to see how just a little weathering can really bring those Bowser cars to life and make them look much more detailed then they are. I was very tempted to buy a couple of those Athearn boxcars, but I’m getting to be a real stickler to details and if the car isn’t very accurate, I don’t buy. Are those molded on grabirons on the Athearn cars?

Most of my latest acquisitions have been Kadee boxcars that I’ve been paying between $30 and $20 for on eBay. Expensive – yes – but you get a lot of details and of course there is no need to install couplers.


Did that Red Caboose flatcar come decorated for Reading, or did you put decals on it? I have the same car, but in Northern Pacific.
Mark

Mark; yes the flat did come lettered for Reading, I have one also. I put 3 farm tractors on mine for a flat car load. Butch Curll

Well Butch answered your question concerning the flat.

Thanks for the comment on my weathering.I'm at the point where a unit isn't completed without some dirt or rust on it and I still have a lot of room for improvement.I've mainly been using the Pan Pastels and I think they work well.

I ordered the Athearn cars sight unseen when they were announced.In hind sight I should have ordered one.The cars are basically the old blue box model with no upgrades,wire grabs would have been nice.I was surprised to find that the couplers are held on by the old metal clip instead of being secured by screws. I'm sure Tangent will come out with a more accurate model since I bought Athearn's.

Yikes, sounds like Athearn really took a step backwards with that car! And, I’ll bet you paid around $18 or so for each one. That’s why I switched to buying only Kadee (or ExacRail, or Tangent) going forward; at least with those cars you know you’re getting what you paid for in terms of details.

Do you replace the plastic wheelsets on your Bowser cars? I’m debating about going through my Bowser hopper cars (built from kits) and upgrading them to metal wheelsets. I’ll probably use P2K wheels as I can’t justify spending the money on semi-scale wheels for them.

We really need somebody like ExacRail to release a nice northeastern coal car with separately applied details all around. Yes, I know it will probably be a $30 plus car, but if you’ve ever replace “all” the molded on grabirons on a less expensive car, you know it will be worth the money.