Model Railroading Tips and Tricks: Episode 1: Making the Details Count

Making the Details Count

Improving the appearance of HO scale model railcars

Adding simple details to railcars can improve a model

Some modelers swear by it and others find it to be an impossible task to get right, but either side of the fence you may find yourself; a highly detailed scale model railcar does improve the overall appearance of your train. To get satisfaction out of detailing your rolling stock people often think it takes too much time and a lot of extra money to improve your simple freight cars and instead they head to their local hobby shop and buy a ready to run highly detailed model and place it on their railroad and they are done with it. I have always thought why not spend half the price on say an Accurail model kit and do the work yourself or even improve upon the detail that comes with the RTR cars? Here are the two basic areas to address on a typical railcar to focus on for a simple re-detailing that takes on a few hours to complete:

The ends

On each end of any railcar you find an air hose, cut-lever bar, and a knuckle coupler. Other items found, depending on the side and type of car, would include a brake wheel, air reservoir, air cylinder, various grab irons, and a platform stand. Each and every one of these items can be added on and detailed if the model does not feature them or can be replaced with aftermarket replacements to improve upon the manufactures detail already present on the model.

Wheels and Trucks

Every railcar rusts differently so with that in mind painting the wheels to look like they are rusting away can be achieved in many different ways with many different colors. This can be done by mixing a series of different browns in separate jars and painting a wheel set with the different browns at random (for more information on weathering wheels see page). Make sure to clean of the flange and flat spot of the wheel where it contacts the rail. Also, don’t forget to paint the axel of the wheel and the back side of the wheel. The trucks can simply be dry brushed to bring out the details on them. Some brownish colors can be used around the springs and bearing caps. 

Working on the Railcar

For this post I went with two Intermountain Railway Company covered hoppers (stock number 45334-32 and 47069-06) they are great looking out of the box but they still can be improved within an hour’s time. For this project I replaced the small air hose and used an air hose from Details Associates to give the cars a better scale looking air hose. Also by Details Associates I used their eye bolts and cut lever bars to replicate a working cut lever bar. First by drilling a #80 hole on the bottom left corner of the coupler pocket and then on the molded cut lever support. Next I cut the shank of each eye bolt to a 1/16^th of an inch and super glued them in place. Lastly I slid the lever first through the support eye bolt then carefully through the coupler pocket eye bolt. I finished the details by painting it based off of reference photos. The air hose was also painted by using the same photos.

Cut lever bar and air hose added and painted.

Working on the wheels next, you need to mix up paint and simply brush on the paint to the inner part of the outer wheel face, the inner face, and the axle to achieve a realistic look. For this project I made up three mixes to add contrast on the truck assembles.

 Mix one is made up of Tamiya Dark Copper (XF-28), Flat Brown (XF-10), Dark Yellow (XF-60), and Titanium Silver (X-32). 

Mix two consist of Model Master Military Brown (1701), Dark Tan (1742), and Panzer Schokoladenbraun ’43 (2096). 

The final mix, number three, is a mixture of Model Master Dark Earth (2054), Burnt Umber (2003), and Burnt Sienna (2007). 

To aid in making the mixtures easy to mix up in small batches, I have always used bottle caps since they are easy to get and can be thrown out when they are done. For larger, mass custom colors I mix them in a glass jar that I can seal up for storage. For the trucks on these cars I went with a light dusting of Alphacolor Soft Pastels. Along with the trucks being weathered, I dusted the wheels also to high light the rusting of the wheels. 

One of the completed truck assembles.

Before screwing the trucks back on the railcar, I used the pastels again to simulate dirt and grime spatter from the wheels onto the bottom of the car. This can be done by wetting the brush that you use for apply the pastels and getting the chalk damp and brushing it on in the direction the splatter would naturally happen, from the center of the wheel and away from it. Study prototype photos for reference in weathering railcars, it can prove to be very helpful to see the real thing and set how it naturally happens instead of guessing at how it happens. Next begin to dry brush the chalk on the side of the car to simulate dirt build up. The darkest part of the weathering should be on the bottom of the sides of the car and lighter the higher you go up. 

For these grain carrying covered hoppers, I put little dabs of white glue on the top near the loading hatches and sprinkled Woodland Scenic’s Burnt Grass to simulate grain that spilled out during loading of the car over a period of time. Once the glue has dried, simply turn the car upside down and lightly tap on the bottom of the car to knock of the excess burnt grass that the glue didn't hold onto. Once all the weathering and detailing is complete it is best to clear coat the model railcar with a dulcote to take away the shine and make it look more used and a bused. 

And there you have it, two completely weathered cars that now are enhanced with easy to apply details that make the railcar look even more like the real thing. This project was completed in a little over two hours, something that can be done quite easily in an evening. TRWBM.