MTH Rail King Wood Reefer upgrade

That looks great! JohnA

Thank you, John!

I finished another MTH reefer this morning. It is a Western Maryland 19th Century car I picked up cheap.

It was well used with paint scrapes and loose doors. I installed new door springs to hold the doors closed and added a slightly larger brake wheel platform. I also replaced the brake wheel and stem. The side door steps were also broken off, so those were replaced with small sections of Evergreen ladder pieces.

The paint wasn’t great, so I weathered it a bit with Vallejo washes and some very light dry brushing…

A tough car. I dropped it on a hardwood floor as I was putting it on a display track. It fell four feet and landed just right with no damage at all…phew…

Tom

Interesting Tom. I just picked up my first cheapy MTH Railking reefer. I understand being an early model the doors are fixed. Pretty devoid of detail. Steps are on the way but I got some paint work done.  Weathering is a good idea. Sides are so thin they were bowing out so I glued some styrene across the inside to hold them in.

Before

After

Pete

Nice work Pete.

The painting of the hinges and other hardware makes the car pop.

When installed the stirrups, I painted them yellow to make them stand out a bit more, making the lower part of the car a little less “straight”. The Grandt line stirrups worked well as they flex a bit with light bumps and don’t break off unless they are really stressed.

Vallejo makes a wash just for yellow painted “vehicles”.

https://www.hobbylinc.com/vall...-acrylic-paint-76503

I use a dark brown wash for the roof and ends. Then some light dry brushing with a lighter earth or tan. All sealed with Dulcote.

Tom