To provide context for the following posts that were moved to this sub-forum, I have copied this photograph related to the topic.
Started the flat car kit today. It is not a Frisco prototype but looks quite a bit like the one in the photograph with the three dome tank car. The kit is amazingly detailed. You have to glue in individual crossmembers, the side sills and end sills are separate, obviously grab irons. Once it is fairly well underway I will decide what I will do for the tank. I have got a couple of spare single dome tanks but no three dome cars.
Flat car part of the model is built. Not painted, but built. It is not a Frisco prototype but looks reasonably close. The kit is pretty nice. Individually applied, grabs, stake pockets, underframe braces and gussets, etc. The best part is you get two flat cars in each kit for a total of $13. Obviously, less trucks and couplers. But it is still pretty reasonable by today's standards. The tank car in the photograph may be what I use for the tank on the flatcar. It is some oddball New York company I never heard of before and got the car pretty cheap, so I do not mind raiding the parts. Another possibility is to make a tank out of PVC or something, but that sounds like a lot of work.
The Solvay car was too large for the flatcar so I opted for one of those Roundhouse Old Time tanks with the goofy looking frame. There were two identical Sun cars in the yard, so now there is only one. It is probably not a true prototype of anything, but it looks like a tank car. Nothing is glued down or permanently attached. The flatcar will get painted yellow, except for the deck. The tank will probably be silver with a yellow dome. The wood will be weathered. The next question is what to use for the tie down straps. Thread?
Major thread drift, sort of. Doing research on tank cars for this project, I came across the model in the first photograph. It is a Semet Solvay car like the one I contemplated using for the tank on the flat. Look at the decal lettering under SEMET SOLVAY DIVISION. It is supposed to say Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation. Would you be happy with decals you ordered that were that badly misspelled? It reminded me of a brass Hallmark Models U50 I had back when I modeled N-scale in the 1980s / 1990s. The cab side is supposed to say Dependable Transportation.
The airbrush was being extremely cantankerous yesterday so I took the easy way out and painted everything silver. The original plan was to paint the flat car yellow and the tank silver. Looks like it is going to be a water car.
Gettin' close...Tom Holley gave me a ton of good ideas regarding MOW stuff. I tend to think too rigidly "inside the box", and MOW stuff tended to be whatever they had laying around to make what they needed. Anyway, it still needs decals, trucks painted, weathering, etc., but it is getting there. The paint on the wood saddles the tank rests on is purposely sketchy and faded. It seemed to me that that paint would have worn off and faded, so that's how I made it.
Have to say thanks to Tom Holley for the QA&P decals. Decals need to be overcoated; trucks need to be painted; needs some weathering. Sorry about the lousy cell phone photos. All I had with me was the phone.
