Eastern Car Works Small PS Covered Hopper

Eastern Car Works Small PS Covered Hopper Eastern Car Works Small PS covered hopper...
Eastern Car works makes a fabulous covered hopper that is similar to the Roundhouse one. If you can find this kit, buy one. It is a nearly perfect match for the HC3 class of C&O cars #1399-1699.

Below is a pic of a real HC3 covered hopper.

John Whitmore pic

How to:
1. Find a ECW kit. I got mine second hand. It was assembled and painted light grey.
2. Apply weathering chalks to simulate rust.
3. Spray shell with gloss coat. Paint 3 areas shown in pics below light grey to simulate where car was reweighed (area just below the #1690).
4. Decal the car. I used Champ C&O covered hopper decals, Microscale consolidated stencil, reweighed data and wheel inspection dot.
5. Spray with dull coat.
6. Paint the bottom black.
7. Drybrush the bottom of the car with shades of grey and white. This should leave a dark grey appearance.
8. Dabble on small spots of rail brown paint. This simulates rust spots. When dry, sreak down with reddish rust colored paint from the spots to simulate streaking.
9. Dry brush and streak the car with white paint to make the lettering look faded and simulate spilled cement or sand.
10. Spray the whole car with dull coat to seal in the weathering.
11. You are done, enjoy your beaten up covered hopper.

Below is the covered hopper with the initial rust colored chalk on it. This kit came assembled and painted in the light grey color.

Below is what happens to the color and coverage after Testors dull coat is sprayed on. The chalk actually melts together and gives a nice surface rust look.

Below is the only real "surgery" needed in this project. The C&O logo needs to be cut into four parts. The large "C&O" is one decal, the word "FOR" is one, the word "PROGRESS" is another (eventually you will want this to be "PROGR" and "ESS" to fit around the rib of the car), and the last two are the line that runs across above "PROGRESS". See photo below for the pieces and the original decal in the same pic.

Below is the decaled car. Notice how the C&O logo goes on the car.

Below is the bottom of the car painted black.

Below is the bottom of the car drybrushed with greys and whites to look dark grey in color.

Below the rust streaks and spots were added last, as was some white streaking to simulate spilled sand and cement. This car is very old in the Chessie Era, so it looks worse than most cars.