SVL: 2-Bay Hoppers for Ashgrove

Two hoppers with basic weathering in the front. Several more unfinished in the background.

For the last few days, I've been working on a bunch of 2-bay hopper cars preparing and weathering them for gravel service at Silicon Valley Lines. Most cars are getting new numbers. Since I don't want to completely redo the numbers on more than a dozen cars, I'm just replacing the last couple digits with new decals. 

That doesn't go without some surprises. The digits for the replacement 25 are from Microscale 87-694, a decal set for Golden West Service box cars. Not a perfect match, but the decal color is very close to the existing print on the car. However, the decals are partially transparent. The yellow of the decal and the blue of the car body conspire to create the greenish tint visible in the photo. I'm going to try and tone down the difference with gravel dust during weathering.

Today I finished painting wheels and trucks. When doing multiple cars, it really helps to set up the work in assembly line fashion and keep working on the next car while parts for the previous car dry. Four to six cars seems to be a good batch size when painting. 

For weathering with PanPastels, I can do two cars in a row before I want to work on something else. Hence I have a few other projects ready to go on the workbench as a diversion.

[ part 2 ]