The Yarmouth GN box car, Part 2

In the preceding post on this topic, I showed the Great Northern 50-foot single-door box car kit from Yarmouth Models that I had agreed to build for a friend (Yarmouth kit no. 140). In that post, I had completed the underbody detailing and begun work on the car body. You can read that initial description at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2026/01/building-yarmouth-model-works-kit.html  ).  

The attachment of detail parts to car sides and ends was much like any box car, since I had decided not build the beautiful but fussy Yarmouth ladders. The placard boards were some resin ones I had on hand. I used A-Line sill steps, bent to match the shape of the GN ones. They were  attached, as were all these details, with canopy glue. Below is a photo of the model at this point. 

At this point I like to paint the underbody, since later when everything is complete one may not want to rest the car on its roof. I used Tamiya “Red Brown,” TS-1. Following that I attached the etched stainless running board (using canopy glue) and other final details. 

Having washed the body when it was received, I could now paint the entire car, also TS-1. As I usually do, I attached “paint shop trucks,” trucks used only for this purpose, and that is what you see below. 

Next came the decals. The kit decals are quite nice, and I chose the lettering applied when these cars were first rebuilt in 1954. My only grumble was applying the 14 individual small circles, representing reflective material, along the each side sill. But it wasn’t difficult, just tedious. 

Next I wanted to weather the model. I used my usual method with acrylic tube paint, applied as washes (for detailed description of the method and illustrations, see the Reference pages linked at the top right of this post). In addition, a few chalk marks and route cards were added. The car is shown below resting on its kit sideframes; the recipient of this model wanted to add his own wheelsets and couplers.  

At this point, it my be of interest to show the photo of a completed model in this scheme that was provided initially by Yarmouth Models.

I have now delivered the model to its owner. It was an interesting model to build, and I’ll repeat my sentiment at the beginning of these posts, that Pierre Oliver and Yarmouth Models are already very much being missed in our hobby.

Tony Thompson