# Painted More Lil Big Hauler Cars...



## Sampug394 (Dec 30, 2010)

Lots of images here, ye be warned. 

Had a recent birthday, and had my eye on more of Bachmann's Lil Big Hauler line, specifically their green coach and a silver North Star tank car, which were henceforth ordered from Reindeer Pass, along with metal wheels per the standard.










Already had four of the coupler adapters leftover from a prior buy on eBay to retrofit the Boxcar beforehand, so coupler swapping was nice and quick and painless.

Obviously the shiny plastic had to go, and I knew it wouldn't be long before the sparkling sheen of kid-oriented rolling stock would become nice dull, weathered additions to the roster.










First up was the coach, which was quite easy actually. The roof separates with the prying of four tabs underneath, which allowed the lettering panel to be blackened right away, and the whole body to be coated without loose splashes going awry.










Part of the fun of drybrushing is the texture that appears out of its own application. Wood grain, and roughness from supposed repainting like you see on short and tourist lines.










Next up is the tank car, which was painted two days later. Having previously done lots of washes on cars before, I knew what I was in for as far as how oil and rainfall behave on a cylindrical surface. Like the coach, the body comes off the deck and chassis with two screws. Simplicity is wonderful! 










Pretty dirty and dusty. The deck was painted brown, and later had matching grey oil/dust/grime slathered onto the middle.










Further coats of liberal watery-madness and touchups, and I realized real tank cars tend to have rust forming on the top of the tank, so I added corrosion for good measure. 










Both cars done, sealed with matte finish, and on display together.










...And paired with the boxcar. The dome of the tank makes it quite tall, though compared with a regular Bachmann 30' tank car, their overall girth is nearly the same, but the lil bug mauler tank is fat and pudgy with its short length. Much bigger than Hartland's two axle tank cars!

That's all for now.  Quick and easy paint jobs make a big difference and are tons of fun. I highly recommend these cars, as they make a nifty size bridge between bigger 30ft four axle cars, and smaller stuff like dump cars and Hartland's minis. Really the only stopgap is the coupler swapping, but the adapters can be found on eBay. (Hold onto the extras!)


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

Nice job!


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

very nice
Dennis


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

Hey, those make nice looking cars. On my freelance traction line the hook and loop couplers are being used while everything else has Bachmann Knuckles - these cars I'd likely use for the traction line.
Okay, I see now on B'mann's website, the Lil Big Hauler hook and loop couplers are inverted with hook on top. That's odd.


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## rdamurphy (Jan 3, 2008)

Very nice indeed! Bet there's a prototype for them somewhere, too...

Robert


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## MJSavage (Dec 27, 2007)

Well done.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Neat! gonna do the passenger car interiors? I modified mine with leftover interior parts from a couple of Big Hauler and LGB short passenger cars.


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## Sampug394 (Dec 30, 2010)

vsmith said:


> Neat! gonna do the passenger car interiors? I modified mine with leftover interior parts from a couple of Big Hauler and LGB short passenger cars.



Funny you say this my good man, this exact idea is already in contemplation. 

Thanks for the responses everyone! Figured the forums could use an injection of creative madness lately. Been quite busy with my roster and the hobby as a whole, probably having too much fun too...


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## Sampug394 (Dec 30, 2010)

vsmith said:


> I modified mine with leftover interior parts from a couple of Big Hauler and LGB short passenger cars.


If you don't mind, could you explain how you went about this? Been looking at the seat panels from LGB 3000 euro coaches and they are about 7 inches long - Which is almost exactly the same interior length as the LBH coach. Not afraid to do some cutting, and actually intending on adding a pot belly stove so there'd be minus one seat anyway.


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## Garratt (Sep 15, 2012)

Sampug394 said:


> ... Not afraid to do some cutting, and actually intending on adding a pot belly stove so there'd be minus one seat anyway.


There goes a good pair of trousers. Passengers aren't supposed to sit on the pot belly stove. 

Andrew


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

IIRC I cut the aisle out of the center of the Bmann seat insert as the big hauler cars are wider than the Lil haulers, then cut out and arranged the chairs and glued them down to the Lil haulers chassis, being careful to make sure I didn't foul the mounting tabs so I could remove the body if needed. For the LGB's I just took the seats from the cars, cut off the mounting pegs and glued them to the Lil Hauler chassis, to each of these I added whatever figures would fit. I also added clear plastic to the windows. Its not fine scale modeling by any standard but it makes for a marked difference between the stock Lil Hauler cars without interiors or glazing at all.

I still have 2 more Lil Haulers coaches to modify, but i dont have any more seats


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

I have made seats with some wood trim for corners glued to square dowel wood.

Doug


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