More Flat-Car conversions

Last year I bought a lot of 2 used flat-cars. I actually bought it the just to get one of the flat-cars, the upper one in the following photo looking like a heavy duty one. The lower one just came with the deal and I have several similar of this type in my collection already:

Heavy Duty Flat-Car

In my fleet of Flat-Cars I wanted some of them to stand out, and this one looked like a larger 'heavy duty' Flat-Car for heavier loads. It also looked almost ready as is and would need minimal efforts and changes to be ready for military service in a rake in some of my G-scale military trains:

This is actually an American Standard Gauge Flat-Car by Accucraft, which also runs on 45mm gauge. I wanted to make it look more like a narrow gauge car so I 3D printed and added buffers to the buffer beams. To the buffers I added hooks for the 3 link couplings for my WDLR train:

The bogies were of an American type and had American knuckle-couplers attached to them. As I don't use this type of couplings on my rolling stock I just tried to replace them with LGB ones, but they didn't fit very well on these bogies. So I replaced the American bogies with LGB ones which had original LGB couplings attached. The LGB bogie (lightly weathered) to the left, and the original American one I replaced to the right:

The floor was given a blackwash followed by a drybrush, and I washed the wagon sides to make the rivets looks rusty:

The other Flat-Car in the job lot

I have several similar Flat-Cars of this type already, but it followed the purchase. This was brown and had American lettering:

It didn't have any buffers usually found on narrow gauge rolling stock, so I 3D-printed some from a free stl-file found on Thingeverse:

To make it fit my other military rolling stock I just spray-painted it grey in a slightly other shade than the similar Flat-Cars and painted the floor:

Salvaged from spare box

This is strictly not a pure 'Flat-Car' as it has more similarities to stake-wagons. It was included in a job lot I bought a couple of years ago. I couldn't use it as it was so heavily used that it's axle-slots had become oval and the wheels didn't spin properly and the wagon wouldn't roll anymore. I didn't buy the job lot for this wagon in the first place, so it was sent to my spare box for future projects. 

While working on some of my other military 'wagon projects' I got some Miliput left over and I decided to stuff it into the oval axle-slots to see if I could repair them. When it was completely cured and hard I drilled new holes for the axles. This seemed to work, as the wagon and wheels were running freely again now. Then it was given a coat of grey paint, had the floor painted and finally given a blackwash and drybrushed:

I didn't make any loads which I fixed to these cars as I want to be able to swap out different loads on them.

Creating an 'Army' of the 'dirty dozen'

Last year I bought a bag of (probably) the worst Army men ever made, in a local toy store. They looked so bad that I did not know what to do with them or use them for, or to use them at all.

Among these 'sub level quality' figures the grenade-throwers, originally originating from Matchbox American Infantry but now cloned to the unrecognizable, were probably the 'least poor' in the bag. They were still looking so bad that it was difficult to take good photo of them:

This pose is not so useful in general wargaming, but they can be used as 'snowball fighters' as I did in another wargame I played last year. Ironically the grenade-throwers I made back then in 1:87 scale looked better than these thin strange looking 40mm-ish clones. Mark man of Tin has also converted similar figures into 'snowball fighters'. So I decided to try convert these to civilian 'snowball fighters' by adding 'bobbles' or 'pom poms' (to their helmets, making it look like a bobble hat), scarfs  and snowballs made of Miliput. Their 'mittens' will just be painted later on:

Then they were primed:

At this point I thought I should ask ChatGPT for a suggestion how to easily convert these figures into civilian snowball fighters. Except for my reference photos and being more 'well proportioned' the suggestion was almost similar to the conversions I've made to them already:

Due to these figures semi-flat bodies, thin limbs and bad proportions I kind of got a 'tin- or lead figure' feeling. Inspired by Mark Man of Tin's 'Faking lead' conversions of plastic figures, I decided to paint my figures in silver to see if it would give such a resemblance:

Beside an original semiflat tin figure in 40mm from Prince August I casted with my oldest son many years ago, it looks pretty 'close' I think:

I have a (bad) habit of 'overdoing' things when coming to modelling, so even if this 'faking leads' were pretty close to an original tin-miniature as is, I decided to blackwash them as well just to suggest some oxide and dirt:

It would be tempting to just keep them like this, but as I plan to use them for snowball-fight wargaming, it would be nice to tell them apart. Keeping them to this 'vintage' and 'faking lead' style calls for solid colors without any washes or drybrushing and a glossy finish. This will be the very first miniatures I paint this year:

Note to self; don't choose opaque paint for solid colors unless you're very patient.

Since I plan to use them for snowball-fight wargaming I painted them to give a hint of 2 different teams. Team Blue:

-And Team Red:

I haven't painted miniatures in a glossy finish since I was a young kid, back when I didn't know the difference between 'Matt' and 'Gloss' from the local 'Humbrol rack'. I think these turned out just fine in 'Gloss' giving them a hint of a 'vintage style-ish' look. I considered 'drybrushing' silver just to give a hint of wear and the 'faking lead' underneath, but I was happy with them as they were. Actually I think these figures justified buying the bag of these bad looking soldiers in the first place. 

I was very intrigued by Mark at Man of Tin when he made a blogpost on 'What-if' Airfix snowball fighters, so I wanted to make one for these figures as well:

I guess they're about ready for the tabletop, or even better, outdoor wargaming now. We've had snow and it's interesting conditions outside. Please follow this blog (if you don't already does) and get updates as soon as I post them.

Blog PostScript 

Last month we arranged the first scale model builders meeting in the city where I live, Moss. Yesterday afternoon/evening the second meeting was held with a small secondhand market and a small 'competition'. Most of the 'members' are also IPMS members, but I brought my RC Combat Boat 90.

A simple conversion gone complicated

Last year I bought dozens of used and cheap LGB-wagons on online auctions in Norway. They were starting to pile up in my hobby room, so I decided to start converting them so they eventually would look like something that could belong to and be hauled behind my large scale Heeresfeldbahn and War Department Light Railway (WDLR) locomotives.

I decided to start with an already grey low board wagon with nice German markings and lettering on it (which I wanted to keep). It would probably just need a blackwash to be ready for service:

I immediately noticed that this car had several unsightly holes in it's floor:

Off course I could just cover them by making another false floor like I've done on similar wagons, but then they would still be visible if the loads or floor was removed. -So I decided to fill them with Miliput:

When turning this wagon around it was just like turning to the dark side of the moon. I've only seen one side of it on the online auction, but when I turned it and saw the backside, it was literally a 'backside' (!) I dont know what the previous owner had done to this wagon, but along the 'backside' both the buffer beams were cut off, and so was the bars on the side holding the planks together and the shunter's steps were missing. I got it really cheap though and I guess you get what you pay for:

This was not going to be the very simple conversion as I thought as this was going to need a little more than a simple blackwash. Firstly I needed to make new buffer beams for both ends. I found a free STL-file for a similar chassis on Thingiverse which I converted and 3D-printed 2 new buffer beams:

-And 2 more steps:

Then I decided to trim off the bars on the intact side, to match the cut-offs on the 'backside'. I have so many identical wagons of this type so it will simply just add some slight variation among them:

Then I painted the floor, weathered the chassis, reassembled the whole ting and finally gave it that coat of blackwash:

I think it's ready for service now:

I guess the next pull from the 'pile of project wagons' will need less remodelling than this one.