Cotton Brute Restoration 4.5

When I last posted, I opened by saying that matching the paint is the most difficult part of this rebuild.

In this photo, part of the body has been painted and part has not. Can you tell which is which? If I hadn't been the one to do the painting I wouldn't be able to.

For the record, Cotton Brute Gray is a 50/50 mix of Model Color 70.866 Grey Green and Model Color 70.894 Cam Olive Green, available at your local Hobby Lobby. The red is Badger Model Flex 16-153 CB&Q Chinese Red. A shot of Dullcote blends everything together nicely.

When the paint dries completely I will paint the outer uprights of the handrails in white, and the work on the body shell will be complete (except for the addition of the air horns on the pad above the conductors side front window). I still need to build an end to the fuel tank, but now I have the proper paint color the hard part of the cosmetic restoration is behind me.

For my next project I am going to revisit the wiring. I am not happy with the way the wires are attached to the trucks, I am afraid the wires will break off if left as they are now, so I am going to see if I can find a better way to attach them. I am also going to measure and check to see if a sugar cube speaker would fit in place of one of the lead weights without fouling the driveshafts, and if so how much weight will be lost. After that the decision will be made to fit a sound decoder or a regular decoder.

But that is a tale for another time.