The other day I had some solo time after the kids went to bed and I was feeling pretty lazy but wanted to do something modeling since I haven’t been doing too much lately so I grabbed my BLMA Grab Iron Drill Template, some grab irons and my pin vice parked myself on a table in front of netflix and started drilling holes. I got all of the end grab holes drilled and started on the side grabs before I got tired. I also seem to recall buying stirrup steps but those have for the time being proved elusive.
None of this is glued yet as I have to trim the lengths and do some filler and sanding yet but it’s very rewarding after fiddling about with the drill template and pin vice and doing a test fit. The pictures not terribly great because I was tired but I was fiddling about in Photoshop and had to resist the urge to clean up the rough edges of the model itself.
I also keep going back and forth on how I want to paint it, I’ve thought about doing the CNW mow scheme (grey with red ends), a yellow like a TTX yellow or CNW yellow or even a CNW green. I know the CNW had a thrall 53’6″ in the grey and red and I plan to scratch build one of them next so I’ll probably opt out of that. I don’t know if there is a prototype for the yellows or CNW green. I might just do a Boxcar red as a color test for my DMIR ore cars that need painting and either finding a prototype or just go full freelance on the lettering. I’m also open to suggestions if anyone has any interesting prototype information.
Matt's Railroad Blog 