Q Connection CB&Q NE-10 Modernized Waycar

Longer ago than I'd care to admit, friend Al Hoffman asked if I would paint, decal, and lightly weather a model of a Burlington waycar that he had built. The model is a Q Connection resin modernized NE-10 Waycar.

Al is a talented builder. I agreed, hopeful that I wouldn't diminish his finely detailed model. The model as turned over to me is as seen in the "in-progress" photos shown herein.

I blasted all of the metal, wire, and engineering plastic surfaces with 220 grit aluminum oxide in preparation for painting. I followed by cleaning all surfaces using dishwashing liquid and a soft toothbrush. I thoroughly rinsed the model and allowed everything to air dry.

For painting, I began with a coat of TruColor primer on both the interior and exterior surfaces. For the main body color, I used a mixture of TruColor Daylight Orange and MEC Harvest Yellow. I masked the areas that would remain orange and sprayed the remainder of the model, including underframe and trucks with Tamiya XF-1 flat black. Imagine my horror when I removed the masking tape and peeled up large strips of the orange. A closer examination revealed that there were many areas of the car body that had a decidedly glossy sheen.

After an outburst accentuated with many colorful bits of verbiage, I put the model aside. After several months, I came back to it. I took it to the blasting booth and hit every area that I could see that might pose problems with 220 grit aluminum oxide. I repeated the washing procedure. I sprayed the orange areas using a mix of Tamiya paints, about 80% X-6 orange, 10% XF-59 Desert Yellow, and 10% XF-19 Sky Grey. I again masked the areas to remain orange and sprayed the rest with XF-1 flat black. With great trepidation, I removed the masking tape. Success!

The orange areas were glossy already so I applied the decals without any extra gloss coat. The model was lettered with Microscale 87-1197 for CB&Q Way Cars in the orange scheme (1954-1970). At this time, I also drybrushed orange on to the top surfaces of the running boards. I sealed everything with Tamiya XF-86 flat clear.

I lightly weathered all surfaces with Bragdon's weathering powders. Soot gray powder was applied to everything including the trucks and wheelsets. Grimy black was applied to the roof and truck sideframes. The powders were sealed with the same Tamiya flat clear. Small black rectangles were added to the car along with white repack stencils. These were also sealed with flat clear.

The final detail was to add window glazing. The glazing is 0.010" clear styrene cut to shape. To affix these pieces, I dipped them in Future (now Pledge) floor polish and nested them into the back of the window frames. I added a little more Future from the back, which served to "glue" the glazing in place.

I assembled the car body to the frame and screwed the Tahoe Model Works trucks in place. I then met Al at Pepe's Pizzeria in New Haven to receive my reward - a pepperoni pie.