Scratchbuilding an A&A MOW car - Part 3 (Paint & Dump Truck load)

There were two final things I still needed to add: ladders and a tack board on the end of the car. The ladders were styrene castings from Precision Scale (#32100) which were specifically designed for 40-foot AAR boxcars, so they were a perfect match for what I needed. The ladders I had previously used on the B&M milk car were etched stainless steel and really wonderful but they were delicate and required drilling holes to secure with superglue. I wanted something a little stronger that I could bond with MEK, so I went with styrene ladders here. The tack board is just a piece of styrene.

The car was first painted by masking and spraying the underframe flat black. Then, the body was primed with gray paint which I mostly focused on the brown end casting. After that, it received several light coats of Tamiya "Pure Orange (#TS98). The A&A paints nearly everything in a standard bright orange (the stations, the coaches, the trim on the steam locomotives, the diesel engines, etc.) which is their trademark. However, the orange has a tendency to fade badly after long periods of sunlight. I chose to use a color that reflected the car as it appeared when recently painted. After removing the masking on the decking, I was very pleased with the result.

Next, I body mounted the trucks and couplers. The pads had already been drilled out before painting but I needed to clean the holes of paint and also drill through the wooden decking on the top. Because I was installing metal paneling I wasn't concerned about the appearance of the holes in the wood planks. To install the metal panels, I learned my lesson from the B&M's etched metal walkway and stayed away from superglue which would ooze through and fill the delicate etchings. Instead, I chose "glue dots" that I normally used to stick pictures in my scrapbook. One in the center of each panel was enough for a display car, though more would be stronger.

Then, I applied thin oil paint washes on the body and metal panels and two problems arose. First, you could see a faint circular outline of the glue dot through the panel as if it was sticking through the dots. Since I was covering it was a truck I was okay with that. Second, and more concerning, the mineral spirits reacted with the glue dots and was absorbed into the space between the adhesive dot and the panel, destroying the joint. I had to use superglue get to reattach two panels. The lesson here is to weather the panels before installation. I finished the panels by drybrushing brown "mud" onto the panels.

I wanted an eye-catching load for this car, and the A&A used to drive a gravel dump truck onto the deck and then move the flatcar to where ballast was needed. This sounded cool, and a picture I was sent from the A&A showed what the truck looked like. Not being a vehicle modeler, I asked on the Model Railroader online forum for recommendations for a proper truck. I found several, including a Herpa model in the exact paint scheme that was in the A&A's photo. I can't tell you if this truck would have been from the 1970s but it looked "boxy" and appropriate for me. They used the flatcar in the 1980s too, so a later model truck would be acceptable.

I first superglued all the axles in place so the truck wouldn't roll. Then, once that was cured, I sanded the truck's tires flat to look like the rubber was compressing under the weight of a ballast load. Next, painted the hydrolic cylinder shaft under the truck silver. Then, I went around with flat black and repainted the truck's frame, tires, and anything else that was shiny black plastic. After that, everything got a spray of Dullcote and the body and cab received oil paint washes of black and brown to represent exhaust smoke grime and mud. I finished a wet Q-tip that I scraped along the sharp edges which removed some of the grime down to the bare silver, which looked pretty good.

And with that, my eighth and final car was finished! Now, I just need to wait for judgment day...