On my laundry list of projects for the early sixties version of the LAJ layout is to add to my rolling stock roster, especially what I call “plain janes”, unpretentious cars that look like they belong. Looking at prototype photos, there were more fifty-footers than forty-footers.
The old Walthers Proto cars are really nice models with a high level of ultra-thin details. The trucks are very smooth rolling. I did some basic upgrades which included swapping in a thinner brake wheel from Kadee, adding Detail Associates cut levers, and replacing the couplers with the Kadee scale version.
When it comes to weathering some lessons learned the hard way are:
-Before you do anything, do NO HARM
-Work in light layers
-Know when to stop
All easier said than done. Going in my goal was to simply knock down the shine and tone down the white for starters. This was done with a very thin wash applied with an airbrush. I filled my airbrush cup halfway with Tamiya thinner and added a few drops of Hull Red. Test the wash strength on a white card NOT the car, again a lesson learned the hard way. A similar wash of Nato Brown was applied to the roof. A wash of Dark Iron was applied to the car ends and around the doors. After looking at the photos, my sense was it “needed something more”. It was soooo tempting to keep going. Judgement prevailed, and I decided to call it a day. I can always add more layers but you can’t undo over-weathering.