Home Page › Forums › Modeling the Missouri Pacific, Texas & Pacific, etc › HO Scale › Building a Missouri-Illinois billboard Cushion Car
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September 4, 2015 at 11:38 pm #5503peggyrothschildParticipant
After building the Mopac Cushion Car I thought I’d tackle the Missouri-Illinois boxcar next. If you want to follow this thread and build one yourself here’s what you’ll need to get started.
– Intermountain 50′ Single Door PS-1 HO boxcar. I found one on ebay for $14.99 with free shipping so they are around and cheap. It’s a very nicely done model and fits the M-I car perfectly (except for the Pullman doors needing to be replaced). Intermountain also offers the kit undecorated http://www.intermountain-railway.com/ho/hokit.htm
– Microscale Decal HO #87-1416 Missouri Pacific (MP) 40′ & 50′ Slogan Boxcars, 50′. This set covers both the MP and M-I 50′ boxcars.
– as noted the Superior doors will have to be scratch build. I haven’t figured out what Evergreen shapes to use so will cover that in a later update. But they aren’t complicated shapes so this should go easily.Intermountain gives the builder a choice of ladder sets in the kit one for the hand holds on the left of the carbody and right side of the ends or a set of short ladders like the M-I prototype used. I plugged the predrilled holes for the hand holds with Tamiya gray putty and then drilled new holes for the side ladders. The short ends ladders fit in the exiting holes on the ends.
I use to see these cars at Pine Bluff, Arkansas assigned to an agent pool for International Paper loading.
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September 7, 2015 at 1:44 pm #7206peggyrothschildParticipantMade two Superior doors last night using Evergreen styrene to match those used on the M-I car. Here’s the HO shapes needed to do this.
– .020 sheet styrene for the doors ( Evergreen item 9020)
– 2″x 3″ Evergreene strips for the horizontal stiffeners (Evergreen item 8203)
– 2″ x 2″ Evergreen strips for the area of the door that sits against the upper and lower doors guides and on the vertical sides of the doors (Evergreen item 8202)
– 1″ x 4″ Evergreen strips for the left and right vertical frame (Evergreen item 8104)Using a photo out of the Mopac Color Guide (page 46) I made a template on paper where the five horizontal stiffeners would be glued . I made the template lines longer that the door so I could center each piece. I started with the center of the door and glued down the first 2″ x 3″ and then did the lower one. If you notice in the prototype photos the upper and lower panel and slightly narrower than the two others. Once I got one door finished the other was easier as I could use the first as a reference point.
The wood route and bad order boards were made from scrap .020. I still need to come up with a latch for the door.
I also added a piece of Evergreen .020 to the back of the door to give it some additional strength.
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September 14, 2015 at 2:27 am #7230peggyrothschildParticipantAnother reference shot for model and weathering.
[attachment=0:2rk13pro]image.jpg[/attachment:2rk13pro]September 18, 2015 at 9:33 pm #7250peggyrothschildParticipantHere’s an update on the M-I car. Got the Superior doors glued in and painted the car yesterday with TCP-118 which is a brown freight car color. Then two coats of Tamiya clear airbrushed for decalling. Looking at the prototype photos I realized I’d left off the small reinforcement plates on the right and left lower sides of the doorway. So I got out the broadside view from the Mopac color guide and made up four plates from .005 clear plastic (you don’t need to use clear but its all I had on hand). I scraped away the paint from the areas were the plates would be glued and used Tamiya Ultra thin plastic cement to fix them to the carbody.
After they dried, I used Tamiya white putty to go over any dents in the drying process and lightly sanded the putty smooth. Archer decal rivets were used to replicate the rivets on the prototype. After the rivets were dry I went over them with a light coat of Future acrylic floor wax using a small brush as the acrylic coat ensures the decal don’t rub off easily’ then airbrushed the newly finished plates with the TCP-118 and started decaling the car.
Just some background as to why the model has the initial MP and not M-I; the M-I was merged into the MP in 1976 along with the T&P and C&EI and their equipment was slowly re-stencilled MP. Since I’m operating the branch as a Mopac looked in 1980 the car would probably have MP reporting marks by this date.
Next update will be on weathering and finishing the car.
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September 19, 2015 at 6:08 am #7251mopacKeymasterCharlie,
do you still want to replace the coupler pocket ?
September 19, 2015 at 2:08 pm #7252peggyrothschildParticipant@IndyCity wrote:
Charlie,
do you still want to replace the coupler pocket ?
Thanks for catching this, I was so focused on the door plates and making up the Superior doors I didn’t see the extended coupler pockets.
September 19, 2015 at 8:29 pm #7253peggyrothschildParticipantSprayed a deluted coat of Dullcote on the M-I car and the decals sealed nicely. Using the Tamiya clear as an undercoat for decalling has almost eliminated any issues with silvering under the decals. After the Dullcote dried I shot another coat of Dullcote mixed with some Floquil Roof Brown to knock off the whiteness of the decals. Then used white pencils to show the white paint chalking down the side of the car.
Oil paints then used for chipping and heavy weathering. I used a couple of photos in the Mopac freight car color book as reference. Wasn’t a hard project except for adding the reinforcement plates by the doors. Otherwise everything was basically ‘out of box’. After the oils dry will add a little dust and grime using military pigments and seal everything with a coat of Dullcote. Oh yes, I still need to find some door latches but they can easily be added later.
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September 19, 2015 at 8:59 pm #7254mopacKeymasterReally looks nice. Hard to tell if it’s a model or a real car. I remember seeing these cars running around when I was working.. I always liked the large lettering on these cars. Nice work Charlie.
September 19, 2015 at 9:13 pm #7255peggyrothschildParticipant@smcvey1951 wrote:
Really looks nice. Hard to tell if it’s a model or a real car. I remember seeing these cars running around when I was working.. I always liked the large lettering on these cars. Nice work Charlie.
Thanks, I remember seeing the MP and M-I cars assigned to Pine Bluff when I was down there in the last 70’s. Thinking these were bought after D. B. Jerks had just arrived on the Mopac and the Route of the Eagles advertising was being discontinued off the boxcars. It would be interesting to know if he had any input as to the large block lettering advertising ‘Missouri Pacific’ and ‘Cushion Car’ on these.
September 19, 2015 at 11:05 pm #7256louanne.lewandowskiParticipantFantastic work, Charlie. You’ve given us inspiration, prototype information, AND technique for a great car.
Mark Hemphill
September 20, 2015 at 12:17 am #7258peggyrothschildParticipant@MWHemphill wrote:
Fantastic work, Charlie. You’ve given us inspiration, prototype information, AND technique for a great car.
Mark Hemphill
Mark
Thanks for the kind remarks, my inspiration was the Winter 2003 Eagle. Am going to tackle the KO&G boxcar next.. I’ve have the Superior doors built and just need to add the reinforcement plates. Thankfully these are welded so it will go quicker.September 20, 2015 at 11:25 pm #7263peggyrothschildParticipantSince I’m moving the branch operations up to 1979-80 I needed to add the COTS stenciling and the U-1 inspection square with the yellow circle. I had some of the COTS on a decal sheet but had to order the U-1 decals. Micro scale makes a sheets with 1970 and 1980 COTS and another sheet with many U-1 stencils. Btw I cut and moved the coupler pockets out to denote a cushion cars.
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September 26, 2015 at 6:51 pm #7272peggyrothschildParticipantI was watching a weathering video on YouTube this week looking for some different ideas and one I picked up for showing the white lettering chalking was using oil paints that are water based. I’d initially used a white pencil for the chalking but thought using the white oils looked better. I added a little of the white to a various areas of the large letters and then took a small brush and dipped it in water and lightly pulled the white paint down. I took me a couple of times to get the hang of it and if you don’t like how it came out you can use a Q-tip dipped in turpentine and remove it.
I also added a Kadee roof walk, the ACI bar code, the COTS maintenance blocks and the black and yellow U-1 stencil. The last two items brings the car up to the late 1970’s. Think I’m finished with this one…except the wheels and trucks need some attention with rust, dirt and grime too.
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