On the Bench - Hon3 DRGW Parlor cars

Picked up a couple of resin cast carbodies and underframes for a decent price. They're a bit crude, but with some TLC and aftermarket parts, I'll add some varnish to the Narrow Gauge Empire. This will be an intermittent,  fill-in project. 

Oh, who am I kidding, all of my modeling is intermittent  ;-).

Anyways, I'll be adding to this post sporadically as progress happens. All Aboard!

Fill, sand, prime, repeat.

Did a little online research on Pullman Green paint. Long story short, I had Tamiya XF-62 so I used it ;-)

Followed by some clear gloss and when dry, can take decals. Still, so much to do....

A short shot in one of the car floor castings means a little scratchbuilt detail and structure will be required.

I was careless in crafting the missing steps. The treads are the same width, but I made the sides out of much thinner material. Doh.

At least you won't see them side by side. All in all I'm happy with the result. Need some NBW detail on the end sill, and drilled for handrails, but so far so good. 
Now to source some trucks.

Since this was planned on being a budget  build in keeping with the low priced carbodies, I went with some economical all-plastic pass-truck kits from MRGS. They take a bit of "crafting" to get them together square,  but once assembled they present well. They are also easily upgraded later if needs be. Once on trucks, I can worry about couplers, as that determines how much work to get the proper height. Knowing I was already planning on using Sergent's excellent narrow shank Sharon couplers and draft gear boxes to hold them from Smoky Mountain Model Works, I cut off the existing draft gear box. The trucks come with a bolster, so looking at how that was designed to fit, I cut of the "pad" cast into the car frame.

That is still raised up a little too far, so some exacto trimming of those "center beams" down to the bolster level followed. This was followed by rounds of trimming, fitting, checking, trimming, fitting....in order to get the trucks as close to the car floor as possible and still turn freely.

Then you temporarily install the couplers and check height against a standard. As low as it will go, the couplers need to go lower still. Will have to fab a solution on each end of the car.

On the platform end, an extension of the end bolster, and a bit of shim below that. 

On the vestibule end, the floor is short of the end of the carbody, so we'll extend that with styrene sheet and strip to fill the gap and provide more surface to screw and glue to...

Disassemble and spray flat black

Shouldn't be too noticeable once assembled.  Now to reinstall trucks and couplers to test 

That'll do.

Now to replicate that on Car #2...
In the mean time, some queen posts and cartop roof details on order along with some nice gold lettering decals.  Stay Tuned!

Took a few minutes to add "glass" to the clerestory windows:

Micro-glaze is a good solution for those tiny panes.

I procured some Grandt Line 10" queenposts and installed them, adding tunbuckles on some fishing line truss rod.

On the rooftop, an assortment of vents and stacks, and the external line and boxes running the length of the roof were added, the latter being a strip of Styrene cut in 12 pieces, drilled, and threaded together on thin styrene rod, all glued down to the roof.

Some paper and tamiya tape, flat black spray, and the roof is done.

San Juan Decals provided the gold letter decals. Very thin film, so be careful/gentle with them. The car length DRGW was cut into three pieces, spotting "Rio Grande" in the center, and then adding the others to either side. I felt the full length would be too fragile to move in one piece. This car started out as the Chama, but being incautious while using decal set destroyed one Chama decal, so Durango it is ;-).

Here's a glamor shot before I add handrails and grabirons.

Handrails were cut and bent to fit out of some phosphor bronze .015 wire.

Some fairly simple, some more elaborate 

After placing the first rail, I used a piece of Tamiya tape behind it, and placed the other pieces. The while assembly was then put on the bench and the uprights soldered in place, then the assembly was glued into the end beam with ACC. It is now quite sturdy.

Excess was trimmed and filed down, and the railing painted semi gloss black

The tall uprights are part of the car mechanical systems,  the tallest waiting for a brake wheel. The car would look good with a drumhead on the rear....

In the mean time, I obtained and added a brake wheel...

...and a stirrup step, from Precision Scale and Grandt Line respectively. 

Exterior car details are far enough along that I can now matt spray the exterior and move on to the interior. 

The interior is rough, but the windows, though numerous, are small. After matt varnish-ing the exterior to seal the finish and decals, I made a simple jig with a piece of foamcore and styrene strip to more easily cut basic window shapes.

That, a steel straightedge, and a fresh #11 blade and soon you have 2 dozen small rectangles that fit the average depression inside the carbody. Due to imperfections and irregularities in the casting, individual trimming to fit was often required. Additionally, the original owner had replaced or repaired some of the original muntins ( those strips between panes of glass) with bits of balsa, which stuck up inside, meaning I'd have to cut into separate lower and upper panes :-(. Using Testors window glue,  I got them all installed and began to paint the interior in Modelmaster natural wood. It should be a darker varnished wood, so I'll see how it looks when dry, and cover it with a thin brown wash if it needs darkening.

From the outside, it's hard to get clear view inside.

Now for those little drawn curtains between windows...

Here's a few glamor shots of its current state (keeping in mind there's a second waiting for the same upgrades)

I like the remaining imperfections, the slight swayback, dents in the exterior, scuffed windows, it's clean but well-used.