Weathering and relettering the Red Caboose ART mechanical reefer

[Charles Duckworth]

If you look on page 121 of the Mopac Color Guide you’ll see an ART 57′ mechanical reefer. The weathering is interesting with the panels being darkened by industrial dirt and grime while the ribs are still orange. To replicate this effect I loaded the airbrush with a mix of Dullcote and a few drops of Floquil black and brown. I then set the nozzle to spray a narrow pattern and airbrushed over each of the vertical ribs, leaving the center of the panels a little lighter. After going over the sides, ends and roof with this mix I used Q-Tips dipped in odorless turpentine and removed the Dullcote mix from the top of each rib. You might have to remove some of the cotton from the Q-tip so the head is smaller and doesn’t remove any paint from the panels. Go slow on this step as to only remove the Dullcote from the ribs.

To restencil the car to its 1979 ARMN reporting marks I used a wood toothpick to scrape away the factory applied RMDX and made the area large enough for the ARMN decal to be applied. I found the orange in the new ART restenciling set (87-314) to be to light for this car. You can also use the tooth pick to pick up some of the paint around the ladders and doors to show wear.
There’s also a repainted orange patch over the trucks on the right side of the car you can replicate by scraping away the Dullcote with your toothpick.

The COTS and ACI label were applied using the photo as reference and all the decals set with Microscales red labeled decal solution.

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