Westerfield Murphy SS Boxcar

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C

CNR Glen

Member
After spending a few months on the cargo ship project I needed an easier project to prevent burnout. At a local hobby shop I found a Resin Westerfield kit of a Murphy Single-Sided automotive boxcar. The price was right at only 15$ (35$ on the Westerfield web site)
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I've already made a fair amout of headway into the kit:
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All the main parts were sanded free of flash and washed. The kit has seperate wire grab irons supplied by Detail Associates. Most of the grab iron holes were already drilled or almost drilled through, as were the mounting holes for the brake componets on the brake end.
So far I've got the grabs, brake retainer valve, end platfrom and brake staff bracket installed on the ends:
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I also have the grabs, doors and door hardware installed on the sides.
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Although it isn't a prototypical Canadian National car, it does have a simularities to some single sheathed cars run on CN so I'm planning to adapt a set of decals on it.
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to tell the difference between new and old westerfield resin is the color the dark gray/black is the old resin. the lighter gray is the new stuff
 
Thanks for the tip Devlyn, I have been very careful and so far haven't caused any damage.

I got the box assembled, less the roof.
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The backs of the side and end castings are very smooth and have to be sanded anywhere you plan to glue to give it some 'tooth'. Other than finding that out the hard way things went quite smoothly.

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I'm finding the instructions very good and comprehensive but you have to read tham very carefully to avoid mistakes.
 
I got the roof and it's associated parts on the model.
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The corner grabs on the roofwalk parts are all pre-bent, as well as all th other grabs. Westerfield supplies some plastic eye-bolts for the corners of these grabs but I replaced them with metal Detail Associates parts. As with the other grab locations, the holes are almost drilled through at the factory.
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The roofwalk end supports are made from strip styrene, cut very small. The styrene is not included in the kit but I have the right size in my collection.
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Sorry that i haven't updated this for a bit. Summer stuff keeps getting in the was as well as a few other modelling projects. I have finished the car and it's now ready for primer.
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The stirups are bent from flat brass strip.The ladders are styrene castings
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I added a bit of the brake detail. Since I'm not building a contest model here I added the mechanicals but not the air lines, The instructions have pretty good diagrams and a finished photo that I used to figure out placement of the components.
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The 'b' end with the brake shaft and the retainer installed. Missing is the brake wheel which will go on after painting and decaling, it's too easy to lose right now.
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Non 'b' end. not much to see on this end except for the ladder.
I'll be spraying the primer shortly. Once that's on it will be a week or so before I spray the color coat since that will be acrylic and I need the primer to be good and cured before.
 
The primer and color coat have been sprayed. I was going to shoot a picture of the car in primer but photobucket had 'glitches' for a few days so I just waited til the paint was on.
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I used Walmart spray primer (in the blue can) I use it on amost everything that I build and it works great. The color is Poly-S light freight car red, sprayed with my trusty badger airbrush.
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I did manage to find the proper CN outside braced boxcar decals for it last weekend. Those will be going on shortly.
 
That looks great, except....wait a minute, it's too clean! The gondola next to it looks nice and dirty.
 
The Weathering will come next, in the meantime I decaled the car:
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I did but the proper decals for a Canadian National outside braced boxcar but the CN cars have larger spaces between the bracing. As a result the Canadian National logo wouldn't fit. However I figured I could sort of freelance it into a Maintenance Of Way goods car since I have the Mircoscale decal set for that.
The CN, car number, and car data were spare decal parts from old CDS decal sheets, the rest were from the Mircoscale set.
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I'll probably weather it moderately but not over the top. A bit of paint fade and rust. The white of the decals is a bit too stark so I'll tone them down a bit with oversprays.
 
The boxcar is finished and ready for action. I did some weathering with the airbrush.
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I did light oversprays of poly-s dirt and rust on the sides and top tofade the paint up a bit and tone down the white. The couplers and trucks also received a rusting treatment, a bit heavier than the sides.
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The roofwalks also got a bit heavier dirt application for a subtle comtrast as well as the ladders. a tiny touch of grimey black on the door tracks indicates some grease.
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I sprayed grimey black and rust over the freightcar red on the frame and brake gear.
 
CNR Glen said:
The boxcar is finished and ready for action. I did some weathering with the airbrush.
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I did light oversprays of poly-s dirt and rust on the sides and top tofade the paint up a bit and tone down the white. The couplers and trucks also received a rusting treatment, a bit heavier than the sides.
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The roofwalks also got a bit heavier dirt application for a subtle comtrast as well as the ladders. a tiny touch of grimey black on the door tracks indicates some grease.
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I sprayed grimey black and rust over the freightcar red on the frame and brake gear.
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Very nice. I love undercarriage detail.
 
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