Starting point

I managed to find an undecorated Atlas car.  I realize the Kadee cars are more accurate, however they are like finding hen's teeth these days.  I did however make more work for myself than I needed to.  I cut off the bottom portion of the dome (the top was a press fit and popped right off) and sanded it flush, only to realize when I looked at the photo more closely that the manway was added to the existing dome base on the prototype - whoops!

I used a piece of 1/4" diameter styrene tube with the top ring of the original dome glued on it to replace the original part.  It looks reasonable.  

 Wathers tank car parts were glued in place to represent the vents and manway of the prototype.  Their locations are approximate based on the single photo I have.  I'm sure they are not exactly located but pretty close.  

 On the manway I decided to add some more detail to make it pop a bit more as the Walthers part is pretty basic.  On the prototype there are latches that hold the manway cover in place. I drilled 0.0125" holes and glued small pieces of 0.0125" phosphor bronze wire in the holes to replicate this feature.  I also added a handle as seen in the photo that was used to open the manway.  This was made of 0.0125" wire and bent to shape, then glued in place.  

The holes for the original side platforms were filled with gap filling CA and 0.040" x 0.030" styrene.  When the CA dried the area was sanded smooth.  

I also added some weight to the car to bring up the overall weight.  Next up with be reassembling the car and adding the walkway and ladders, as well as the unloading valve on the bottom of the car.  

Marc Simpson 

test fitting the platform

 I test fit the platform.  The Yarmouth kit has a large dome so the platform is quite wide to accommodate this.  I think I'll have to narrow the platform to better fit the car.  A couple of strategic cuts should do the trick.  More pondering before I start down that path though.

Marc Simpson  

Custom decals

I had Bill Brillinger at Precision Design Company do some really nice custom decals for these cars a while back as part of a larger batch of decals I had him design and print for me.  They are designed specifically for these cars.  That will be down the road a bit, but I thought I should add this to the thread now before I forget.  

Marc Simpson

If they're printed in Canada....

Are they "deckulls"?

Either way, I could use a couple sets.  So could my friend Randy Schaefer, who likes kitbashing tank cars even more than I do.  Is that possible?

A lot of 11,000 gallon propane tanks were converted to non-pressure tanks starting in the mid '60s, since they'd been displaced by the 100-ton 33,000 gallon propane tanks.  Many of the first generation of clay slurry tanks were former propane tanks.

Scott Chatfield

Yes Decals are available

Converted propane cars

Hi Mark very nice work on the conversion. Just though I would give a little history on why these made there way to Churchill refuelling station. I remember in the early 80s there was a great over supply of diesel fuel. The salt caverns at Hardisty Alberta that had been constructed by Home Oil to store propane and field butane were rented by CPR and thousands of gallons of diesel were stored in them. Farmers were paying 2 cents a litre for it so everyone was buying all they could get. My best friend worked at the facility and told me that the cars were all conversions of the propane cars that they used to unload propane from. 

Modified platform, ladders need some work

I modified the platform to narrow it to a more prototypical width.  I guesstimated 5 feet across based on some other model tank car platforms. I added some 4x12 styrene strip for the platform walkways.  Based on the photos it looks like the cars had solid top walkways, I'm going to assume by the 1970's they would be steel.  Once I'm done someone will find a perfect photo of one of these cars showing that I'm totally out to lunch.  

The new platform will need new ladders.  I need to figure out that one.  I've got some ideas, we'll have to see if they work out or not.

Marc Simpson

More progress, ready for paint

On the rails, waiting for paint

Marc Simpson

Yo Mark

You are what modeling is all about.  Even if custom parts don't fit, you find a way to model it properly

cudos to you and your modeling style'

first coat of paint

 I got the tank car painted as part of my painting blitz yesterday.  I managed to smudge the paint in one spot so will have to figure out how to fix it.  I painted with a mix of black and dark grey Vallejo paint.  

Marc Simpson

snow day

Painting seems like a good snow day project Marc.

Whoopsie and recovery

I didn't mention in the previous post about the paint that I foolishly picked up the car before the paint had set so I smudged an area of the car.  Fortunately I was wearing gloves so managed to avoid actual fingerprints, just smudged it.  I tried to wet sand using 1000 grit sandpaper and it was actually going reasonably well until I peeled off some primer as well as the smudge. 

Plan A didn't work, move to plan B.  I trimmed back the peeled primer to a rectangular area and redid it with primer followed by (hopefully) a warm weathered black similar to the rest of the car. 

There is a bit of a lip around the repaired area but hopefully that will disappear when the car is weathered.  I can say that this car was patched in this area.  Yeah, that's the ticket...

A gloss coat and we're moving onto the decals.  You can see the patched area on the top right side.  

Marc Simpson

Ready to roll.

I got the tank car decalled up tonight, and I think it looks pretty good inspite of the paint whoopsie.  It will get some weathering down the road.

Marc Simpson