This is the third in a series of custom Iowa themed hoppers for a friend of mine. You might remember my first two from earlier in 2020 University of Iowa and Iowa State.
I was sort of happy that Iowa had no other major universities or colleges, when my friend came up with the idea of a "Field of Dreams" Hopper based on the movie which took place in Iowa featuring the 1919 Black Sox (Note the car number).
I found yet again an MTH 2 Bay Hopper ACF Demonstrator. I don't know why, but I found this same car three separate times dirt cheap, so it was a great choice for a repaint.
Special thanks the OGR members harmonyards, Charlie, Norton, Bob, Hancock52 and Ray of sunshine for educating me on airbrush paints and thinners. I used two different brands of paint (Tamiya and Tru-Color) which I do not recommend. Stick with the same brand for the entire project if possible.
My big lesson learned is I will NEVER paint a car white ever again. It shows ALL of the mistakes, blemishes and dirt. This wasn't my best effort.
Decals were a mix of home made on my printer and semi custom from Highball Graphics. Highball sold me ACF Centerflow decals in green and changed the Road Name and Car number to FoD 1919 for me. Because this was mostly stock and all he had to do was change a few letters and numbers, it was very affordable. Full custom decals for what I needed for just one car would have been cost prohibitive. He even threw in a second sheet in case I made a mistake.
This was fun and I was happy to do this for my friend... But now I'm ready to make something for myself. Of course, I can't help but think how good this would look on Arnold D. Cribari's layout next to Yankee Stadium.
Have Fun!
Ron
