Scratchbuilding a "butter dish" car - Part 4 (Decals & Weathering)

The last detail to be added was the brake wheel, and by now I had stockpiled over a dozen of them in my parts box. It was a simple matter to search for one with curved spokes to match the prototype. The one I used came from a Tichy brake detail set, and it was duly painted up and glued onto the end of the car. This is the only area of the car that seemed to show evidence of rust (at least based on the dated museum photographs I could find online) which makes sense as the wheel might need to be rotated by the museum employees if they shift the car around, and it would probably need to be greased or oiled too.

Decals were again custom ordered through my friend Ricky at Modern Rail Decals. Looking back at my notes, I have been purchasing through him for 17+ years and he always comes through. Champion decals once offered a set but they closed up a long time ago. Thankfully, there aren't many graphics for this car. Borden may have changed various fonts over the years, or maybe the plans were incorrect in RMC, but I had the decals made to match the car in the museum and not the drawings. That means "Milk Tank Car" is the same font as "Borden's." It took a while for the decals to arrive, but problems with the mail slowed things down and I needed them tweaked slightly.

After applying them, I added a very light coat of weathering to the body. This was done with mineral spirits dipped into the tiniest amount of oil paint and then touched where I wanted the effect. Mostly it was burnt sienna along the brake wheel chain, but I added some dark brown on the wheel itself as well as the welded patch marks on the end. The four "nubs" on the upper corners also received a little color, as did the door hardware. Anything more than a trace would be too much. I'd like to think that the museum is taking pride in this car, much as I am with my own miniature one, and I wanted it to appear well kept.

Then, I decided to add one final detail that I had known about for months but kept putting off. The pictures show a black painted data box on the lower end of the right hand side of the car. The article from R.M.C. didn't include them, and much of my car construction was based off of that article instead of prototype pictures. That is a lesson I will remember going forward: trust pictures, not other people's work! I had some extra decals of prototype car stencil boxes (ironically, from a custom made D&H blue Oneonta hopper set I ordered years ago from Modern Rails) and I used that. I didn't spray the frame gloss, but instead just applied the decals to the weathered body. Finally, everything was sealed with Dullcote and the car was done!