It's not freight cars per se, but the application works for them. See:

http://home.att.net/~pullmanproject/Archer1.jpg

and

http://home.att.net/~pullmanproject/Archer2.jpg

These are Archer's smallest rivets and closest centers. I cut strips
of them from the decal sheet and applied them in the standard way.
They're on Microscale decal paper, so I used Micro Sol to set them.
After they had dried overnight I sealed them with a spray coat of
clear matte lacquer. The rivets were a bit fragile before the seal
coat, with a tendency to chip off if you weren't careful with your
fingernails. Not surprising, considering they are real 3D objects.
Very easy to repair, just cut another one from the sheet. Being
decals, you have a lot of freedom (and time) to get them in position.
Once sealed, they are very rugged and withstood the mold making
process with no problems.

To be indelicate, under very high magnification they look like little
piles of dog poop, but once on the model and sealed I think they look
pretty good.

Tom Madden

Since some folks model bird droppings - why not use the rivets to model, well, other kinds of droppings?

Quoting Tom Madden <tgmadden@...>:

To be indelicate, under very high magnification they look like little
piles of dog poop, but once on the model and sealed I think they look
pretty good.

Tom Madden

Another fine-scale modelling application!

Seriously, I'm slowly working on a project to build a tank car tank using these, and your results are very motivating Tom. Thanks for posting the photos. When are those roofs going to be available?

Rob Kirkham

I've submitted some photos for Moderator review to the Archer Decals
Photo folder on STMFC. I recently completed a project of New Haven
33000-33499 Post War AAR 40' 10'IH Steel Box Cars. To do this I used
IM 1937 AAR carbody and roof with IM 3/4 late IDE's (welded seams)
that I backdated to the early riveted style with the Archer decals.

I'm also building one car with Branchline 3/4 Early IDE's cut down
from 10'6"IH to 10'IH in case someone doesn't want to try their hand
with these decals. I found them very easy to use and I'm very
pleased with the results. I'll be presenting a clinic on modeling
these cars at the NHRHTA Reunion in November.

Hopefully posting of the photos will be approved by the Moderator.

Regards,
Peter

--- In STMFC@..., "Tom Madden" <tgmadden@...> wrote:

It's not freight cars per se, but the application works for them.

See:

http://home.att.net/~pullmanproject/Archer1.jpg

and

http://home.att.net/~pullmanproject/Archer2.jpg

These are Archer's smallest rivets and closest centers. I cut

strips

of them from the decal sheet and applied them in the standard way.
They're on Microscale decal paper, so I used Micro Sol to set them.
After they had dried overnight I sealed them with a spray coat of
clear matte lacquer. The rivets were a bit fragile before the seal
coat, with a tendency to chip off if you weren't careful with your
fingernails. Not surprising, considering they are real 3D objects.
Very easy to repair, just cut another one from the sheet. Being
decals, you have a lot of freedom (and time) to get them in

position.

Once sealed, they are very rugged and withstood the mold making
process with no problems.

To be indelicate, under very high magnification they look like

little

piles of dog poop, but once on the model and sealed I think they

look

pretty good.

Tom Madden