ADDING WOOD GRAIN

POLA casts grain into some of the plastic parts representing wood, but many have none or need more. Adding grain is easy. Before you assemble the tank, run the teeth of a razor saw over all exposed parts representing wood. That includes not only the timber framing but the trim on the tank roof and even some of the staves on the tank itself. I snapped an old razor saw blade into sections. The small saw pieces make it much easier to scribe areas difficult to reach. They also give me more control. I make my initial pass, then go over the grooves as many times as necessary to get the depth I want. Sometimes I want heavy grain, sometimes light. Remember to wiggle the saw now and then to create wavy lines. Wood grain is rarely dead straight. As you look over each piece of the tank you'll notice some parts already have enough grain, some need more, some have none at all. Some show casting marks but this treatment will obscure the marks. And don't forget the ends of the timbers. Use the point of a pin or a Number 11 blade in a hobby knife to score in cracks, rings, and chips. Use a single-edge razor blade to remove the fuzz resulting from all the scraping and scribing. Even though this process can take several hours you'll find the results worth the effort.

COLORING PLASTIC TO LOOK LIKE UNPAINTED WOOD

I learned this technique from an article in a 1983 issue of the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. Take every "wooden" part of the tank to your painting area and spray each with light gray primer. Some primers take a while to dry thoroughly so put aside the tank pieces for at least a week. When the odor is gone and the parts are obviously dry, airbrush on a thin coat of Floquil Roof Brown. I suggest a dilution of about 40-percent paint and about 60-percent Diosol thinner. The idea is to mist the color on lightly. Some gray should show through. This time you only have to let the paint dry for about twenty minutes. Then, using a fiberglass brush from The Eraser Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4961, Oliva Drive, Syracuse, NY 13221 (available at a few art stores but they can be hard to find), lightly remove some of the Roof Brown. Be sure to remove none of the gray primer. And do this everywhere. When you have finished you may head right back into the paint room and mist on a 40-percent dilution of Floquil Depot Buff. Again, after twenty minutes or so, use the brush lightly to scratch off some of the Buff. At this point the model will look absolutely terrible. Also, you'll be using up a lot of the brush, maybe even an entire refill. (The bristles come out in much the same way as the lead in an automatic pencil.) When you have scratched off the Depot Buff, repeat the entire procedure a third time using a dilute mixture of Floquil Grimy Black. By this time, though, the parts of the structure should look like unpainted, well-weathered wood.

NOW PAINT THE "WOOD" AND "CONCRETE"

If you want all or part of the structure to appear to have been painted, airbrush on whatever color your railroad uses (for example, Floquil Boxcar Red or Depot Buff) in the same 50- or 60-percent dilution as you applied the other coats. Then, again using the fiberglass brush, buff off as little or as much paint as you think appropriate for the degree of weathering you want. On the tank itself, don't forget the bottom third often tends to become discolored very quickly from water seepage. The plastic base of the tank has "concrete" footings but they look very little like real concrete because they're the wrong color. Airbrush them with Floquil Concrete paint. They'll dry almost immediately. Then "streak" them with a very dilute (15- or 20-percent paint to 85- or 80-percent Diosol) mixture of Floquil Rust. You may want to darken the Rust with a drop or two of Roof Brown or Boxcar Red depending on your taste. When the paint seems dry it's time to add dirt or ballast to the base. Sift enough cat litter or decomposed granite onto the base to cover all the plastic except the footings. Use a medicine dropper to apply a mixture of 50-percent white glue (such as Elmer's) and 50-percent water with a drop of detergent as a "wetting agent" to help the glue sink in. When the glue dries, most of the ground cover should stick to the base. But if you find any "bald" spots, cover them with more ground cover and re-apply the glue mixture. When the glue dries it will become invisible and the ground cover should hold tight. This step may be a marginal idea if you plan to leave your tank outside since white glue is water soluble. You may also want to "plant" some weeds. I used strands of rope to represent dry grass, lichen for tumbleweeds, and also tossed on a few tiny twigs. I glued everything down with white glue. And, once again, I used a very thin mixture of Floquil Rust to tone various bits of scenery. Other Floquil weathering colors work well, too.

FINALLY, BUILD THE TANK

Now that all the pieces look like real painted or unpainted wood, assemble the tank just as POLA tells you. You may use the metal hoops POLA supplies but you should first paint them a dark rust color or the base color of the tank. I prefer flat hoops, though. I made them from Evergreen styrene strips .010-inch thick. The five bottom bands are 3/16-inch wide; the top four are 1/8-inch wide. As the strip comes, it is too short to wrap around the tank so you'll have to splice it. First I embossed rivets into a short strip of styrene the same width as the band I wanted to splice. Then I cemented the splice over the joint with the convex side of the rivets facing up. You may use MEK to "weld" the plastic parts together or CA (super glue) to stick them together. Then wrap one band around the tank, trim it to exact length, and use it as a guide to cut the other bands. A hoop fastener will overlap the joint where the ends of the band meet. Hoop fasteners are like turnbuckles; railroad crews kept them tight to hold the tank staves together. I represented mine with carved pieces of plastic but if I were to do it again I would try a more realistic and easier method. Just glue a couple of pieces of .030 brass wire to the top and bottom of a splice piece. I airbrushed my bands the same finish color as the tank body, then over sprayed it here and there with Floquil Rust. Once again, I used a very dilute (20- or 30-percent) mixture of Rust and Diosol. Alternatively you may use rust as the color of your bands, as though they had lost all their paint. Remember to use two or three shades, though; real rust is more than just one color. Let the paint dry for three or four days. Then use CA to cement the bands to the tank. Use the horizontal indentations as a guide and be very careful to put the bands on straight. Also make sure to use very little glue; you don't want any excess to leak out and mar the finish you have spent so much time creating. Remember to stagger the hoop fasteners as POLA's instructions indicate. On real tanks the fasteners were always staggered.

FINISHING UP

Once the hoops are on, glue the tank to its supporting timbers and install the spout assembly. Finally, add the roof. I painted mine Floquil Grimy Black to represent tar paper, and applied it over the "unpainted wood" finish. That way I could rub the Grimy Black off the wooden trim on the roof to show a contrast between construction materials. I painted my chain and counter weight a rusty brown. The spout is rusty silver. When I had assembled the entire tank I scraped various shades of pastel chalk into powders and applied them with a small brush to accentuate the rust and various other colorings. I lightly airbrushed the entire tank with a 50-percent mixture of Testor's Dullcote and thinner to seal everything and my tank was done. [Editor's Note: According to some reports, Floquil paints hold up pretty well outdoors. But Dullcote cracks and flakes if you leave it outside. If you over spray your model with Dullcote you should keep it indoors and take it outside only when you operate trains.]