Yes! That is the green tape you see on the Daylight cars. I recommend a couple of widths of the AK or Tamiya tape as well, for small areas, fill ins and going around curved areas such as car end roof lines.
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Espeefan's Passenger Car Modeling
- Thread starter Espeefan
- Start date
Smudge617
Well-Known Member
Thank you, I'll order some now.
So, while everything is baking, let's take a break and talk. I know I've got folks probably saying "yeah but I don't own brass and I'm not likely to, it's too expensive, too finicky, and too much work." OK, fair point. It can be all of those at once. I got into it because I wanted accurate models, and if I can get an accurate model in plastic I will. I like to save a buck as much as the next guy. I started with Athearn shorties and had a Daylight set I just loved. Then I fell into bad company (prototype modelers) and started studying the trains I was modeling and developed a desire to model accurately. Passenger trains were built by spec for the railroads, so there are many types of cars. Sometimes these were common among the railroads, like with sleeper cars. Some floor plans sold more tickets than others. Some were one road specific like the SP's triple unit diner and club cars, or some of the early "City of wherever" equipment. So if you aren't a rich guy or your wife will divorce or kill you (or both) if you drop $500.00 or more on one model that isn't even a locomotive, what to do? Easy. Stand-ins. There are stand-ins and there are foobies. A foobie is a car the railroad never had, or one that appears in a paint scheme it never really wore. My old Athearn Daylight had a dome car, a few sleepers, and an RPO, none of which ever appeared on the Coast Daylight. I pulled it with Athearn Super-Power F units painted in Daylight, which also never happened. It was a comedy of errors, but I had fun with it, and it started me on a journey I've had lots of fun taking. Stand-ins are cars that are really close to the prototype, enough so that you have to look twice. I still use them. Like I said, I'll do cheap stuff too! A couple of good examples are these:
The top car is a Soho model of a correct SP RPO Baggage. The bottom car is a Walthers model. You save over $100.00 and your time to paint/decal/windows, diaphragms, and so forth.
Next up is a good one. This is the Roundhouse Harriman baggage car. It is super close to the prototype. In the photo below the center car is a brass model above and below it are Roundhouse models. The one on top is the "new" roundhouse RTR model, the one below is the older kit that still turns up on e-Bay or at swaps. The biggest difference is the door spacing. If you look between the doors of them, you'll see the brass model has four and a half panels between the doors, where the Roundhouse models have three panels. That's about it. There are a few things you can do to get it even closer, and the next project will lay all of those out. My mail train is full of these things and they're so close that I see no reason to replace them with models that would be much more expensive.
Last one up is a sore spot in the SP modeler's community. This car is Golden Gate Depot's offering of an SP RPO/Baggage car. GGD is the plastic model arm of Sunset Models, the brass manufacturer. It's got pretty much everything the car is supposed to have, but to keep costs down GGD used the same chassis for all of the models in the series. This resulted in several incorrect models and at their price point, people were unhappy. Many of the orders were cancelled. The photo below shows the model next to a brass model of the same car. It's a little short, innit? I looked at the promo material for these, and they actually said they were going to do this, so I accepted mine. They're not right, but they work, so I run them and enjoy them. So, two things: A big price tag does not necessarily translate to accuracy. You can model a reasonably accurate train on a budget!
The top car is a Soho model of a correct SP RPO Baggage. The bottom car is a Walthers model. You save over $100.00 and your time to paint/decal/windows, diaphragms, and so forth.
Next up is a good one. This is the Roundhouse Harriman baggage car. It is super close to the prototype. In the photo below the center car is a brass model above and below it are Roundhouse models. The one on top is the "new" roundhouse RTR model, the one below is the older kit that still turns up on e-Bay or at swaps. The biggest difference is the door spacing. If you look between the doors of them, you'll see the brass model has four and a half panels between the doors, where the Roundhouse models have three panels. That's about it. There are a few things you can do to get it even closer, and the next project will lay all of those out. My mail train is full of these things and they're so close that I see no reason to replace them with models that would be much more expensive.
Last one up is a sore spot in the SP modeler's community. This car is Golden Gate Depot's offering of an SP RPO/Baggage car. GGD is the plastic model arm of Sunset Models, the brass manufacturer. It's got pretty much everything the car is supposed to have, but to keep costs down GGD used the same chassis for all of the models in the series. This resulted in several incorrect models and at their price point, people were unhappy. Many of the orders were cancelled. The photo below shows the model next to a brass model of the same car. It's a little short, innit? I looked at the promo material for these, and they actually said they were going to do this, so I accepted mine. They're not right, but they work, so I run them and enjoy them. So, two things: A big price tag does not necessarily translate to accuracy. You can model a reasonably accurate train on a budget!
The cars are now painted! That Alclad clear gloss is great stuff. Ready to spray, goes on smooth, and dries nice and even. Here they are:
I'm happy! See that antenna on the bottom car? That thing was an exercise in patience. The antenna posts were soldered to the roof from inside the car. The solder joints were cold and failed a number of times and I had to re-solder from inside the car. This required resistance gear. Doing it without damaging the paint was interesting but successful. Modern models use stainless steel wire for these, but these old cars use brass wire, so it's never quite right. Luckily it got painted black, so it won't be too noticeable.
To Do:
Decals
Final clear coat
Windows and blinds
Interior (coach only)
Resistors (required at my club so the signaling system can "see" the cars)
Reassembly
Couplers and diaphragms.
I'm happy! See that antenna on the bottom car? That thing was an exercise in patience. The antenna posts were soldered to the roof from inside the car. The solder joints were cold and failed a number of times and I had to re-solder from inside the car. This required resistance gear. Doing it without damaging the paint was interesting but successful. Modern models use stainless steel wire for these, but these old cars use brass wire, so it's never quite right. Luckily it got painted black, so it won't be too noticeable.
To Do:
Decals
Final clear coat
Windows and blinds
Interior (coach only)
Resistors (required at my club so the signaling system can "see" the cars)
Reassembly
Couplers and diaphragms.
JimKrol
Well-Known Member
I am another Daylight Fanboy. I worked for the SP in San Francisco, and took the SP commuter train daily from Sunnyvale to San Francisco. They ran a lot of Vintage heavyweight passenger cars, and the running gag was "You can see the arrowheads". I too started with the Athern set PA-1, PB1, and several other cars. I still have them and may try to get them running again. This is a very interesting group, although my skill level is probably way behind the others here.
All skill levels are welcome Jim. Everyone starts at the beginning. Welcome to the forum! I'm also a Lark fanboy, an Overland fanboy, and a "City of" fanboy!
Morning everyone. Happy new Year again! Thanks Tom. I'm glad people are enjoying the thread. It's the quiet time here at the house. The women are still asleep so I can sneak a little bench time for another hour or so before breakfast and getting put to work.
I had to do a little decal 911. One of the red stripes got pushed out of position when I applied the herald. This happens, especially with thin stripes. I applied the Micro-Sol, and as it dried and things settled into place they got a little whopper-jawed. Sometimes you can re-apply your fixing agent and tease things back into place. Sometimes you have to remove things and re-do the area, and sometimes it's a little in between. I couldn't move things, and a mistake here would have cost me ten bucks, so I ended up applying a second layer of stripe over the affected area. It's more noticeable on camera than in person. It'll do!
This lettering is uncommon among decal manufacturers. The only manufacturer who does it is Thinfilm. Thinfilm decals are excellent. They are accurate and beautifully done. Their drawback is that they are ten bucks a set, and each set does one car. Maybe two but they wouldn't be in the same train. This is the set used on this project, Thinfilm set #155:
Each set consists of two of these sheets. Note you only get one herald per side. There are no spares, so a mistake means you buy another set. This is all I used for this car out of the set. I had to piece together the car numbers, as they are correct for the cars being done. Oh, and note the name: Thinfilm. They are delicate. Sometimes you can look at them mean and they'll crumple or tear. You have to soak them really well, and wet the surface before applying them so they don't grab too soon. I used Micro Set to position, and Micro Sol to fix them. The two cars took about six hours. It felt like ten.
Next up are the Daylight cars. They'll be fun of a different sort. Twice the striping of the yellow cars. The word for the day boys and girls will be "Tedious". Can you say Tedious? Each car side gets four stripes to separate the colors. For those I'll use Champ decals. Champ is long gone, but they still turn up on e-Bay, and some years ago I bought a ton of them because I knew I'd be doing this train. Note how thin the stripes are. these are HO scale 1". The prototype was 3/4". Close enough. Champ is the best fit here because their decal film is robust. Microscale stripes or other manufacturers of stripes this thin would be very difficult to handle. The strong Champ film is a blessing here. The bad news: For those of you who haven't used Champ, you'll note the stripe lengths. There will be several splices to align properly to get a good-looking stripe. To add to the fun, this is a solid sheet of film. Each stripe will have to be cut as close to the stripe as possible. I use decal scissors here, or surgical scissors. Regular scissors aren't precise enough. I'll probably wait a few days before starting these. This is the last day of vacation. Back to work tomorrow. Sigh!
I had to do a little decal 911. One of the red stripes got pushed out of position when I applied the herald. This happens, especially with thin stripes. I applied the Micro-Sol, and as it dried and things settled into place they got a little whopper-jawed. Sometimes you can re-apply your fixing agent and tease things back into place. Sometimes you have to remove things and re-do the area, and sometimes it's a little in between. I couldn't move things, and a mistake here would have cost me ten bucks, so I ended up applying a second layer of stripe over the affected area. It's more noticeable on camera than in person. It'll do!
This lettering is uncommon among decal manufacturers. The only manufacturer who does it is Thinfilm. Thinfilm decals are excellent. They are accurate and beautifully done. Their drawback is that they are ten bucks a set, and each set does one car. Maybe two but they wouldn't be in the same train. This is the set used on this project, Thinfilm set #155:
Each set consists of two of these sheets. Note you only get one herald per side. There are no spares, so a mistake means you buy another set. This is all I used for this car out of the set. I had to piece together the car numbers, as they are correct for the cars being done. Oh, and note the name: Thinfilm. They are delicate. Sometimes you can look at them mean and they'll crumple or tear. You have to soak them really well, and wet the surface before applying them so they don't grab too soon. I used Micro Set to position, and Micro Sol to fix them. The two cars took about six hours. It felt like ten.
Next up are the Daylight cars. They'll be fun of a different sort. Twice the striping of the yellow cars. The word for the day boys and girls will be "Tedious". Can you say Tedious?
Each car side gets four stripes to separate the colors. For those I'll use Champ decals. Champ is long gone, but they still turn up on e-Bay, and some years ago I bought a ton of them because I knew I'd be doing this train. Note how thin the stripes are. these are HO scale 1". The prototype was 3/4". Close enough. Champ is the best fit here because their decal film is robust. Microscale stripes or other manufacturers of stripes this thin would be very difficult to handle. The strong Champ film is a blessing here. The bad news: For those of you who haven't used Champ, you'll note the stripe lengths. There will be several splices to align properly to get a good-looking stripe. To add to the fun, this is a solid sheet of film. Each stripe will have to be cut as close to the stripe as possible. I use decal scissors here, or surgical scissors. Regular scissors aren't precise enough. I'll probably wait a few days before starting these. This is the last day of vacation. Back to work tomorrow. Sigh! 
KriegslokBR52
Well-Known Member
Awesome thread. Although i'm not an Espee fan, i very much like their "skyline" steam locomotives in normal black and silver. Also thank you for sharing your work here, knowing how popular SP is with fans and modelers, but few accurate pieces are available in decent price.
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I got the office turned around for "Work Mode". Vacations's over as of 8 AM tomorrow. All the "Honey-Do's" are done, at least for today.
I did a test fit of one of the Daylight car chassis with the D&G Model's trucks. They really make a difference. The cars have the proper stance, and the wheel wells don't look oversized. Note the difference:
Soho truck:
D&G truck:
All the "Honey-Do's" are done, at least for today.I did a test fit of one of the Daylight car chassis with the D&G Model's trucks. They really make a difference. The cars have the proper stance, and the wheel wells don't look oversized. Note the difference:
Soho truck:
D&G truck:
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Smudge617
Well-Known Member
WOW, this green tape you recommended is brilliant, thank you.
Glad it's working for you! Let me know if your lines start looking better.
Smudge617
Well-Known Member
Oh they do, no runs nothing, I've just posted a foto of the GP 18 on my thread, maybe I should take a close up too.
Happy Friday folks! I've had a few do-overs, things I just wasn't happy with. The Baggage dorm piloted well on the Overland (video in the Coffee Shop), and I had an issue or two that I needed to fix. The Daylight cars are getting striped this weekend. If you listen carefully, you may hear the swearing! Photos later!
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A few things happened that I wasn't happy with here that I'll share with you all. Problem solving is part of the process!
First up, on the baggage dorm. I lost a stirrup step. This happens with repeated handling, and of course the model is painted so I can't solder now! The fix was to solder some small pieces of wire to the rear of the step and SCC the step back to the car body. Pesky bad luck! The other thing was the car windows. I installed the clear styrene using canopy glue. Because the prototype usually had all the blinds closed, I used some white styrene and painted it silver, and attached it to the clear windows. The canopy glue squeegeed out much further than I expected it would, making the smears you see. It dries clear so I may leave it (it's not terribly visible on the layout) or I may pull the car apart and do them again. Time will tell!
I also had some missed masking lines which I had to do over. It happens! I didn't keep the tape quite straight enough, so I re-masked and shot some more orange. Too fussy? Maybe, but it wasn't that hard to do, and I wanted the stripes to look right.
After re-paint:
I've started the Daylight car decaling. The first thing I had to do was cut the stripes out of the decal sheets. That left me with sore fingers! And a bunch of stripes ready to soak.
These stripes are in a word, fiddly to apply. The ruggedness of the Champ film is the only reason I'm not insane right now!
The SPHTS Passenger car books have been invaluable to this work. They gave me letter positioning. There is also the SPHTS' Painting and Lettering guide. Did you know there were four different Daylight emblems for the red and orange cars, depending on when you want to model them? I didn't! Thanks to that book I have the correct ones applied.
These cars will also get full width diaphragms. I had some Broadway Limited sets on hand, and a test fit shows the masking and painting came out right. These can be attached with screws, which means drilling and tapping holes, or you can use Canopy glue, which I've tried and actually works very well. They'll go on last. Clear coat next, then windows. I may also do interiors for these. We'll see just how demented I am!
First up, on the baggage dorm. I lost a stirrup step. This happens with repeated handling, and of course the model is painted so I can't solder now! The fix was to solder some small pieces of wire to the rear of the step and SCC the step back to the car body. Pesky bad luck! The other thing was the car windows. I installed the clear styrene using canopy glue. Because the prototype usually had all the blinds closed, I used some white styrene and painted it silver, and attached it to the clear windows. The canopy glue squeegeed out much further than I expected it would, making the smears you see. It dries clear so I may leave it (it's not terribly visible on the layout) or I may pull the car apart and do them again. Time will tell!
I also had some missed masking lines which I had to do over. It happens! I didn't keep the tape quite straight enough, so I re-masked and shot some more orange. Too fussy? Maybe, but it wasn't that hard to do, and I wanted the stripes to look right.
After re-paint:
I've started the Daylight car decaling. The first thing I had to do was cut the stripes out of the decal sheets. That left me with sore fingers! And a bunch of stripes ready to soak.
These stripes are in a word, fiddly to apply. The ruggedness of the Champ film is the only reason I'm not insane right now!
The SPHTS Passenger car books have been invaluable to this work. They gave me letter positioning. There is also the SPHTS' Painting and Lettering guide. Did you know there were four different Daylight emblems for the red and orange cars, depending on when you want to model them? I didn't! Thanks to that book I have the correct ones applied.
These cars will also get full width diaphragms. I had some Broadway Limited sets on hand, and a test fit shows the masking and painting came out right. These can be attached with screws, which means drilling and tapping holes, or you can use Canopy glue, which I've tried and actually works very well. They'll go on last. Clear coat next, then windows. I may also do interiors for these. We'll see just how demented I am!
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