Back some six years ago now, I described a few minor upgrades to bring an ancient Laconia Industries kit up to my layout standards (or into that vicinity, anyway), keeping in mind the fine historical character of the kit. Recently another of these cars came to me from Jim Radkey, who was passing it on as a survivor of a dismantled layout. That previous project is described in this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/02/restoring-chateau-martin-wine-car.html .
Back in that day, Laconia did offer this kit, as with many of their kits, in multiple car numbers. This newly acquired car happened to have a different number than the one I previously restored, so I decided I could keep it. But it does need some restoration and a little upgrading, including the longitudinal streaking on the roof.
My first step, as was the case in the previous post about one of these cars (see link in first paragraph, above) is to fix the exposed edge of the cardboard sides at each end. This exposure is evident in the photo above. This requires matching a paint to the color of the car sides. As it happens, there is an acrylic point from Acrylicos Vallejo or AV, their no. 70.945 in the Model Color series, that is called “magenta.” This is what I used on the other car, and used it again here.
Painting the exposed edges made a noticeable difference, as you can see below. Also, here at the B end of the car, the end sills were missing, as was the rod to the hand brake. The end sill parts were in the kit box in which I received the assembled car, so these could be added. And the No. 4 coupler box lid, and coupler, were missing too. I will simply add new Kadee couplers in their own boxes at both ends. Shown are the original trucks.
Next, the grab irons, sill steps, and ladders had some wear in the black paint, as you can see in both photos above, exposing brass metal, along with some funky weathering, so these were all touched up with black. Lastly, the roof was repainted a grimy black mix, and still needs to be weathered a bit, as you can see below.
The nice thing about having a second Laconia Chateau Martin car like this, with a different number from my first one, is that switch crews working the Zaca Mesa winery in my layout town of Ballard may now have the experience of picking up one loaded Chateau Martin car, and replacing it with a second one.
I have always found the Chateau Martin wine cars and wine business interesting (see, for example, this post about the wine business: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/02/wine-as-industrial-commodity.html ), and these two cars add to that. I look forward to seeing them in an operating session.
Tony Thompson
Really enjoy your blog. I am thinking that reasonable stand in for the Wine car could be had with f&c wood milk car, K4 decals, and Tamiya lavender spray paint.
ReplyDeleteSome prototype photos of the Chateau Martin cars do tend toward the lavender, but if I were you, I would stick to the magenta end of the range. My impression is that most cars were that way.
DeleteTony Thompson