Alclad 2-Rivarossi Budd Sleeper to Stainless Steel

[antoniofp45]

Hello Crew,

Did this earlier this year and posted on the old Atlas forum, but thought to bring it here.

This is a Rivarossi Budd Sleeper (based on a 10-6 AFAIK). I refinished it into the SCL scheme with the name "Lake Wales". The Lake Wales was one of the few ex-SAL units that did not have its roof painted black immediately after the ACL/SAL merger, so it ran with an unpainted roof for a good while.

Although my preference is for the Walthers cars, which I'm currently working on......I like these because they're excellent for paint practice, easy to disassemble/re-assemble, and they're inexpensive ( be patient when searching ebay. Often times Riv Budd coaches, diners, and sleepers have winning bids of less than $20. I saw one go for $9! ) . When painted and detailed, they look quite nice imho.




1. Proceeded to disassemble the unit. Since I'm modeling the 1960s, I cut off the skirting and finish-sanded the wall bottoms with: 80 grit, 220 grit, and 600 grit abrasives. When doing this it's a good idea to use a block sander.





2. Unit was paint stripped with 91% Isopropyl alcohol:

Rivarossi-

3. Basecoat color formula: Alclad2 Light Grey mix formula that is based on the New York Central "Light Gray" color. This was a very close match to Scale Coat 2's version.



Followed by Alclad2 #303 Base Clear. *This Alclad gray was originally an experimental primer so it required a clear for gloss. The new Alclad grays will be High Gloss versions.



Alclad2 bottle shaken and poured into the airbrush cup. I tested the Airbrush on a scrap locomotive shell, then applied to passenger car shells ( I got that Bachmann F-unit shell for .50 at a train show ):



As recommended, Alclad2 is applied in mist coats. Two coats usually does the job, but I apply 3 for good measure. In warm temperatures I generally wait 5 minutes between coats.



Later in the day, I applied Alclad2 #600 Aqua Gloss Clear on the shell for sealing and a decal foundation (one coat - 25psi):



Comparison between the Sleeper and the Budd diner that I Alcladded a while back. Indoors, illuminated by natural sunlight. Note that the Sleeping Car shell's tone appears "warmer" (aging stainless steel).



Alclad2 reflects it's surroundings, just like polished stainless steel.

[antoniofp45]

Underframe

Light washes of Polly Scale Grimy Black, Dirt, and Freight Car Brown were applied on the underframe. Instead of the airbrush, I used Taklon Artists paint brushes. Each color was thinned 70% and brushed on with vertical strokes.



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Interior: I used a spare IHC HW Sleeping Car interior that I bought and painted about 15 years ago. The sides had to be trimmed to fit the underframe.

Window Glazing: I airbrushed Alclad2 #408 Armoured Glass. Four mist coats gave me a nice, "greenish" prototype finish (3 minutes between coats). For window shades, I used Plastruct Styrene Strips, cut them into needed lengths and glued them on to the glazing in varying positions. Microscale's Kristal Klear worked very well to secure the glazing on to the shell and the strips on to the glazing.





Letter Board. Made with Plastruct Styrene strips .010 x .150 that were painted with a Dark Gray base color under the Alclad metalizer.

The Microscale Seaboard Coast Line decals were applied using Microset and Microsol.



Finished Car Forgot to mention that I still need to body mount Kadees.







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Comparison to stock Walthers SCL 10-6 Sleeper


Walthers car with factory "Silver" finish:


Rivarossi car with Alclad2 finish:



Once I finish metalizing more of my Walthers units, including the one pictured in the stock silver pictured above, I'll add the hose details to all units and body mount Kadees on the Rivarossi's.

[antoniofp45]

Just adding this in since the cutting of passenger car skirts is being discussed on another forum.

I use two "End Nippers" which you can see in the photos. I start with the larger one (1 1/16th" inch wide jaws)and finish cutting with the smaller nipper ( 1/4 " wide jaws). Takes me approximately 3 to 5 minutes per pliers, per side. After cutting off the remaining burs and nibs with the small nippers, I sand the wall bottoms starting with 80 grit and progress with finer abrasives until I finish off with 600 grit.

Since I can be a bit of a klutz, I take a #2 pencil and color in the corrugated pleat that will become the bottom of the wall, so that I don't accidentally cut it (been there, done that as I gritted my teeth, LOL! ). Now, I skip one pleat (the one directly below the one I colored in) and cut the skirts from there with the large pliers. After that, I use the small nippers to cut the lone remaining pleat underneath the penciled in one. By doing it this way, I have a little wiggle/accident room. I've worked Rivarossi's and Walthers cars this way and the results, so far, have been decent.

[calzephyr]

Antonio
Great article. Cutting that pleat off of the car is serious work! One slip and you start over.


Larry

[antoniofp45]

Yes, you're right about that one slip!

But this is why Rivarossi cars are good units for practicing on as they're still inexpensive and plenty of them pop up on ebay.

I did manage to "mangle" two Rivarossi shells when I first started cutting skirts. But once I started to cut below the intended bottom pleat, it has been a piece of cake ever since. After I became comfortable cutting off the skirting on Rivarossi units, I started to cut those on my Walthers cars.

Aug 23, 2013 13:42:31 GMT -8 calzephyr said:

Antonio
Great article. Cutting that pleat off of the car is serious work! One slip and you start over.


Larry

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