What would be a good colour to paint the under floor of a 40’ box car for cn and then weather it? i am just learning to airbrush. rambo1…
The color of the car.
You should be able to find the info pertinent to your modelling era HERE.
Wayne
What date or era are vwe talking about?
One of the things that changes is the type of brakes fitted and what the brake shoes, pads or discs are made of (not that a 40’ Box will have the more modern types of brake).
Other factors that change are where the car has been… in heavily wooded areas in autumn there may be some spray from wet leaves on the track, in desert most of the year there may be sand dust… in coal territory… a 40’ car might be carryinging bagged cement or lime…
So where it has been and what time of year are critical… like the top and sides… BUT mostly the weathering will have had to come upwards or been a fog (like dust) to get up and into the underside.
The ends under the slopes of hoppersw and covered hoppers -which are frequently semi protected by the car either side are even more complex areas with the same issues. Bits like brake cylinders can get dirtied from on top, Also, except for mintenance no-one usually climbs in there…
Work calls…
On many cars everything underneath was painted black.
The CNR originally painted the entire car boxcar red - roof, sides, ends, underframe, and trucks, and I’m not sure when this practice changed. It didn’t take long for the underbody to get dirty, though, and then it was difficult to tell what colour the paint underneath was. I’m modelling the '30s, and have done CN cars with both black and boxcar red underbodies.
Other than the truck sideframes, this car’s boxcar red underbody looks similar to that of the black one below it:
The red underbody on this car is a little more noticeable only because it represents an almost new car, built in October of 1939:
Wayne