I started these cars with undecorated and some decorated (the lettering will have to be removed) Walthers quad hoppers. They are close to the prototype but the Tangent cars are a little close. The Tangent cars a expensive and if you are trying to build a fleet of coal cars the cost would be pretty excessive. The Walthers cars a reasonable and once they are decaled and weathered they look very good. I used Curt Fortenberry's quad hopper decals. Before the cars were painted I installed custom made coupler cut levers, Kadee #58 couplers and air hoses. I painted the cars black and sprayed them with gloss coat. I then decaled the cars and sprayed them with flat clear. The first coat of weathering is with the truck paint mix (2/3 Polly Scale Rust and 1/3 Polly Scale Grimy black). I then sprayed gloss clear on the cars and installed Microscale reflective decals. Spray flat clear on the car again. Then spray a varying coat of Polly Scale dirt paint. I then sprayed a light coat of Polly Scale grime on the inside of the cars so they could be used in either gravel or coal service. For the trucks I used Intermountain wheels with the stock trucks. I painted the wheels with Rust-Oleum rusty metal primer paint. Then I used the truck paint mix (see above) to paint the wheels and trucks. The trucks were then installed on the car body. The last step was to dry brush the coupler with rust. The car is then ready to put into service.

Parts List

Curt Fortenberry
AK-18

Kadee
#58 coupler

Detail Associates
.015 brass wire

Intermountain
40051 36" wheels

Hi-Tech Details
6036 brake hose set

The Tangent quad hopper is a fine model for the Alaska quad hoppers. I removed the lettering from the one that I bought. Follow the Walthers quad hopper article for step by step information. The tangent model won't need the couplers, air hoses, cut levers or the metal wheels.

Parts list

Curt Fortenberry
AK-18