Scrubber Car No 15 in "O" scale part 6

Back to my model of a Brisbane scrubber car for awhile and I am still waiting for the Brill 21E side frames. So I decided to mask off where the side frames are to be glued and press on with the painting regardless.

I had airbrushed the cabins brown as per the prototype by using a fine jet on my airbrush and poking the nozzle in through the windows. There was a certain amount of over spray as is clearly visible in the first photo. I mask up all the openings from the inside and all goes easily in the beginning but as you progress there are fewer and fewer openings to work through. I leave the doorway till last and that masking tape has to be fed in through a hole in the roof. A set of dental picks makes it easier to insure that the tape is sealed well and no paint can get under it. I find it amazing how far an airbrush can force paint into the smallest of gaps.


I wanted to depict the car in a very faded grey. What one would expect from too much exposure to the sun in a subtropical climate. These days I'm using Tamiya Acrylics and I find I have to blend colours to get what I want. My first blend looked good in the bottle but once on the model it was way to light. It could have been almost mistaken for white. So back to mixing and my second attempt came out OK but still not exactly what I was after. The ads have been ready for some time so I have put them on and the result can be seen in the next photo. I am still trying to determine when Coke and Fanta became available in cans in Australia. I believe it was generally available in the US in the early 1960s and this ad was on the car in March 1969 and I don't think it was very old at the time the photo was taken.

I took the opportunity to paint the internal cab fittings shown in the last photo but making most of them may have been a waste of time. With the roof on and the brown colour it is too dark to see well and when the motorman has been fitted it will be even worse. Looking through the door in the centre photo the air cylinders and the air compressor are just visible. The built in toolbox and locker are at the other end. I suppose that at least I will know that they are in there.


Now I have run out of work for the time being so I have no excuse to not get back onto the layout modules.