Kitbashing SFE 1456-class HW Diner (Part 2) - More Body Work and Paint

In the previous article, Kitbashing SFE 1456-class HW Diner (Part 1), I covered the overview and some starting body work.  

Left side of SFE 1456-class Diner kitbash as of 20260425

Right side of SFE 1456-class Diner kitbash as of 20260425

Let's continue on in this post with the rest of the body work details.  The Decals also came, so I'm looking forward to putting some paint on the body and then doing the "complicated" Shadowline decals on... which everyone says is hard, but look fairly easy.  I believe most of that challenge will be in the details of getting the edges of the Shadowlining to match up with the faux-letterboard lines, etc to get the lettering to look good on the car.  I will say that I haven't sorted the 0.005" Styrene that I need to for the roof rivet strips, so I'll delay all work on the roof until Part 3.  Let's get started!

Witness Paint Coat and Finishing Louvers

I'm using Tamyia Spray Gloss Aluminum for my silver paint on the car.  The underframe, trucks and roof will have to catch up later.  So when you see the body suddenly change from brown to silver is when I figured I was far enough along to start moving into the witness coats.

Finishing Frame Flanges

Left side frame extension to the end of the car.

I grabbed a couple more short strips of the 0.020" x 0.010" to form the end sections of the flange outward from the stirrup steps.  

Right side flange extension to the car-end

Once I got them to weld in place with the Tamyia Liquid Glue, I used my flush cutting nippers to cut off the extra plastic strip even with the end of the channel sidesill frames.

Door Panels

As the photos above show the door modifications, let's finish up looking at that detail.

Chamfering of the corner complete on the left (kitchen) side.

I used a section of Evergreen 108 to fashion the bulge panel onto the sides of the kitchen door.

Chamfering of the corner complete on the right (aisle) side.

Filling Vent Louvers

So last time I was focusing on plating over the upper transom windows, this time I'm doing the other body filling work on the dining room end of the car.  

I used Evergreen Scale Models #107 (0.010" x 0.156") and #108 (0.010" x 0.188") styrene strips to fill in the vent louver areas.  I had to narrow the material a little more and spend some time getting it to fit, then bond in with a healthy drop of Tamyia Liquid Plastic Glue, then using the tip of my Xacto blade to drop the filling plate into the opening.  This did tend to squeeze some plastic out near the rivet rows, which I'll have to sand or scrape down with the tip of the Xacto blade when it dries.

Plugs placed into the vent cavities.

I removed the horizontal rivets above and below the louver areas, trying not to touch the rivets on the letterboard, roof edge, or belt rivets, only the ones on the middle of the window band.  

Rough scraping with the edge of the Xacto blade wasn't clean enough, as shown by the first witness coat of aluminum paint.

I also tried to keep the two vertical rows of rivets, but it's very hard to get the sanded and filled area right up to the edge of the rivets.

More aggressive flat scraping with a chisel blade before sanding 

Eventually, I gave up on trying to keep the vertical rivet rows as well, just like Colin Kikawa did on his kitbash.

More scraping!

These vent plus probably have taken the most focus of any part of this kitbash so far to get it to come out smooth and finished with good fit.

Time to get into sanding, but trying not to hit the other rivet rows.

At this point I started working with much finer sand paper to clean up the final and very fine issues.  

Micro sanding pads from Hobby Lobby (which is about my only 'local' hobby shop).

I also alternated this with limited point-applied surfacing primer to fill some of the very small holes where the plug was not 100% effective in closing the vent and providing a solid surface.

Over the last 5-10 years I've come to the conclusion that 'fillers' such as Squadron White really are only useful for large and grossly problematic holes and surface issues.  Filling 0.005-0.010" seem lines and stuff really needs a more fluid filling material, not the flaky paste of the Squadron White.  So in the last 1-2 years, this is now what I'm starting to use when I need a 'thin viscosity filler'.

Window Sill Modifications

Kitchen window modifications.

I looked a little closer at the prototype Stan Kistler photo in San Diego and decided that I need to raise the lower window frames by a couple inches. 

Intermediate window modification.

I used 0.060" high x 0.040" deep styrene strips on the intermediate small windows in the space between the pantry and the dining section.  The Kitchen windows need a series of 0.04" x 0.04" styrene strips.  I scrapped the inner edges of the windows to remove the paint down to the bare plastic so that I could use the Tamyia liquid glue to weld the styrene strips in place.

More Surface Work

After my first pass on the dark gray areas around the windows.

This close work on the Kitchen window sills made me take closer note of the remains of the incorrectly tooled window bottom sills, which I mostly removed earlier.  However I left behind some very shallow remains, which the Aluminum witness coat made more obvious that I would need to still deal with some more.

I did a bit more scraping with the chisel blade to take down the last of the ribs.

This area is still not received another witness coat as of April 25th, but should clean up nicely at this point.

Overview of Progress

This is how the model looks with the roof put back in place as of April 25th, 2026.

Left side of SFE 1456-class Diner kitbash as of 20260425

The areas around the kitchen windows still shows the last of the cleaning up needing another witness coat, as does the finely sanded area of the covered vents at the rear end of the car.

Right side of SFE 1456-class Diner kitbash as of 20260425

The right side is pretty well finished up, just needing another witness shot at the rear of the car where I did the final sanding on the vent patching.  I did do a total of about three cycles on the vent patches to get them to really be closed and sanded smooth.

Future Plans & Closing

I am considering looking closer at the prototype photos to see if there should be any remaining vertical rivet lines on the sides of the vents.  If so, I'll use some Archer Rivet decals, but I'd like to do that before I do the last witness coat.

I'm also considering doing the rest of the body's mechanical work to do all the work to install the couplers, truck bolster modifications, and prep the ends for the Hi-Tech Diaphrams to be fitted.  The roof and underframe detailing work is still in the future.  I also am planning to put in cut lead sheet down the centersill fish-belly to provide the car's weight.  I want to have that all done before I start doing the Shadowline decals, so as not to risk damaging them during the mechanical work and handling.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Kitbashing SFE 1456-class HW Diner (Part 1) with a Rivarossi Model and Opening Thoughts - My Part 1 of this kitbash.

Articles from Other Authors:

SFE 1456-class Diner kitbash by Colin Kikawa, along with multiple other interesting kitbashes - Enjoy!

Tom Casey's ATSF_hwt_Diner.pdf - SFE 1404 Kitbashed Diner

Kitbashing SFE 1456-class HW Diner (Part 1) with a Rivarossi Model and Opening Thoughts

Jason, Why Are You Modeling The Santa Fe?!

For many years I've thought about doing a Santa Fe Heavyweight passenger train.  Probably something like a Grand Canyon or California Limited consist.  A number of a years ago I also picked up some Walthers HW metal-sided kits for various Santa Fe cars to do such a project, mostly these were HW Chair Cars and a HW Lounge, but I didn't get a dining car sadly.  Thankfully, I knew the Rivarossi HW Diner is a good starting point for a fairly involved kitbash for a SFE 1456-class Diner using Colin Kikawa's pdf file from the 4th Quarter Warbonnet (which is also on-line in pdf form, linked here).  So that's what we'll be looking at first.

The goal of my kitbash is to do a modern kitbash of this kitbashed model by Colin Kikawa.

I've also decided to model this car as one of the Santa Fe's unique "Shadowlined" cars with the faux fluting, which was painted on over the aluminum painted HW cars to blend in with the newer Santa Fe streamlined trains circa 1947-1948 (iirc).  The Santa Fe kept some cars in this scheme for a while after the extra Budd consist cars were delivered, until most of them were repainted into the TTG by the 1950-1952 era, as I recall.

I also don't really want to paint the Santa Fe's TTG scheme on any more cars than I have to.  Many of my cars for this project will need to be painted in the more 'classic' Santa Fe 'Coach Green' and I'll be debating what scheme to paint the HW Lounge in.  

Santa Fe's TTG scheme was not like SP's, but added a splash of Aluminum (Silver) to the roof and trucks.

Speaking of Santa Fe TTG, I already have one TTG car, a Walthers 6-6-4 that I'll plan to include in my train, the Chama Valley.  I still need to do some finishing on the model, a little running weathering and some window shades will be nice to give the car a more completed look. 

For my example here, a Centralia Shops N-scale 6-6-4 in MoPac scheme that I'm considering doing.  This image is one I found on a ebay sale tonight. - Where's all my MoPac modelers to help me with this one?

I also have a second Walthers 6-6-4, which is undecorated that I picked up about 15 years ago with the intention to paint it also in either the 'shadowlined' scheme or in the much more challenging MP Eagle's blue and gray-scheme, if I can find some good decals and paint color info for doing that scheme, that is.  So far, my research suggests the name 'Colorado River' would be a good choice for the car.  Sadly, I've never seen a Walthers 6-6-4 car done in the MoPac's scheme.

The reason for the seemingly random choice for MP car is that the two 6-6-4s that they regularly used on the Richmond (Oakland) Grand Canyon "North" trains used one that was assigned for the through passengers to New Orleans on the MoPac connection.  Thus 1/3 of the days a MP car was assigned to the pool to balance mileage for that assignment.  So it wouldn't be a surprise to see a MP 6-6-4 running in the Santa Fe's train west of New Mexico.

Tom Casey's SFE 1404 extreme kitbashing of two Rivarossi Diners to make his model. - his photo taken from his pdf kitbashing article, linked below.

One of my delaying factors was that my friends pointed out that the larger 1401-1418-class cars should be used for modeling the HW trains that went over Tehchapi Pass, but at this point I don't want to go to the trouble of kitbashing a 1401-class car.  Those cars have been modeled before by extensive kitbashing, as seen on Tom Casey's ATSF_hwt_Diner.pdf on the old.atsfrr.org website page.  While Tom did an AWESOME job on this model, I am already up to my ears in SP Diner-bashing projects!

The Starting Point for My Diner

I'm deciding to start with a second hand PRR-painted Rivarossi HW Diner body.  Most of the modifications are removing a couple of the older kitchen window dividing frames, and adding a lower flange to the car's channel-frame, which is visible below the side-sheets.  In the kitbash pdfs that I'm using for reference, they remove the whole underframe and replace it with completely new styrene fabricated floor and underframe.  That's a bit too much work to do on this 'simple' kitbash, so I'll be keeping the underframe of the Rivarossi car and only doing the modifications.

Right side of the car with no work done yet.

Left side of the car with minimal work on the vertical kitchen window bars.

I seemed not to have taken a picture of the kitchen windows before I removed the vertical bars from them.  Oh well.  Here's the mostly stock left side of the car.

Detail view of the kitchen windows being cleaned up.

The upper windows (called "gussets" according the Santa Fe articles, but SP modelers would know these as "transom windows") need to be covered and filled, except for the kitchen windows, which were kept as full height windows on the Santa Fe 1456 in San Diego.

Transoms Covered

Right side with roof installed, transom windows covered, and NERS A/C Duct installed.

The Dining section had the transom windows covered along with the aisle transoms covered as well.  I used some 0.010" x 0.100" strips cut to length to fit inside the depressed window frames.  The original kitbash article calls for 0.010" x 0.125", which I assume was done by removing the top of the bar of the window, and allowing the plate to cover down to the main window.

I had put a section of New England Rail Service air conditioning ducts on over the dining section.  The kitchen end of the duct is a little short, so I'll probably need to extend it a little with solid styrene, as we'll see later.

Left side with roof installed, transom windows in the dining area covered.

The left side is coming together with the transom windows going away in the dining area.  The prototype photo of 1458 in San Diego in Shadowlining, has the upper windows still operable, and the left two are open in that photo.

Adding Lower Flange to Frame Channel

Scrapped lower edge of the channel so the glue may bond to it.

While the original kitbashing article called to remove the whole channel details and replace it all with 0.100" x 0.030" vertical strip and 0.010" x 0.040" wide flange on the bottom, I don't really want to do all that so I'm trying a simpler version to see how it looks using a single 0.010" x 0.020" strip, which is aligned flat to the channel, this way it will only stick out 0.010" and be stronger bond to the body, making it less likely to get knocked off.

Strip installed down the length of the carside.

Mid-car frame flange.

Detail of flange across the stirrup step installed.

The main trick is that the end of the car, I need to make the flange look like it goes behind the stirrup steps.  After looking at this detail view, I still need to add some little bits of the strip at the very end!

Completed channel flange Right side.

Completed frame rail Left side.

The car body's starting to look pretty good now.  

Removing Unwanted Underframe Boxes & Tanks

Removing the Boxes and Tanks except for the double-box.

The double boxes are mostly correct for the SFE 1456-class, but the rest of the underbody tanks and boxes have to go.  I remove them by carefully cutting with my key-saw Zona razor-saw blade.  

Underside view with most of the bits removed, notice that the tank is part of the center sill.

I probably should have done this before adding the frame flanges, but I was able to do it without damaging the flange.  If I decide to remove the rest of the tank remains on the centersill, I'll have to do it with my Dremal end-mill bit, and very carefully mill it away.

3/4 underside view with parts removed.

I finished up with some light file work to clean the plastic edges of the boxes and tanks up to the channel flange.

Underside view of removed parts.

The new underbody parts will need to be built up with styrene blocks to support them below the channel flanges.  I'll also fill in the openings with some styrene plugs later.

Model Within The Model? - The Roof!

This is one of the fun parts of this whole conversion, building all the roof details!

Colin Kikawa's kitbash roof view photo, which is what I'm working from.

The roof needs a large number of strips with rivets added.  Colin Kikawa used 0.005" strips with rivets added.  I'll probably use some of my spare Archer Rivet strips to do this on the Santa Fe Diner which I picked up to do all the rivet replacement on SP 10014 project car.

I started by removing the existing details from the roof.  This includes three small box vents, the small roof hatch at the end of the car and also the injection point at the center of the car roof needed to have a little sanding and cleaning up.

Right side of the roof with my pencil notes.

I spent a bit of time working out from the photos of the other kitbashed model where the details should go.  The major square patches are where the Steam Injector Air Conditioning hatches go.  On this side there will be an overhanging vent intake and one of the small hinged hatches.  I'm using a mechanical pencil to sketch out where the details will go on the roof.

Left side of the roof with my pencil notes.

The lines across the center of the roof will have some narrower roof vents on them with a peak, for now I'm just roughing out the size of how large they will be.  The right two of the clerestory side vents should have a box vent built-up on them.  There will also be some smaller hinged hatches, one near the A/C duct and one between the door and the end of the car.

Straight down top view of the marks.

The roof hatches are roughly 6.5ft x 5ft towards the kitchen end and 5.5ft x 5ft long towards the middle of the car.  I may enlarge these bases of the Steam A/C hatches, as I have some new info that Colin Kikawa sent me.

Scribed bonding surface of the roof.

So I decided to scribe the roof with the corner of my chisle x-acto blade and then bond the hatch 0.020" base plate on with ACC glue.

The 5ft roof hatch is glued on now, and the 6.5ft one is scribbed to be glued on.

On the second hatch, I decided to glue a 0.040" x 0.040" styrene strip down the center to create a more pronounced ridge line to the hatch.  Extra ACC was used this time to fill the triangular voids between the hatch piece and the scribbed roof.

Here's with the second hatch bonded onto the roof.

If I end up needing to make these pads larger, I'll probably do that by adding strips of styrene of known size around the edges of the basic pads before I add the 0.010" cap sheet on the top.

The 6.5ft roof hatch needs 4" of elevation, so I added another 0.020" set of plates to it.

In Closing

Someday my shadowlined diner will be done?

I think that will do it for tonight... Lots more to do on this project but I'll close with the end-goal photo of what I hope to achieve when I'm done.

Jason Hill

P.S. Much and many thanks to Colin for getting in contact with me and offering more support for this project.  I look forward to putting some more information into the next part of this blog as I continue working on this model.  Currently, I'm researching and digging up parts to continue the project.

Related Articles:

SFE 1456-class Diner kitbash by Colin Kikawa, along with multiple other interesting kitbashes - Enjoy!

Tom Casey's ATSF_hwt_Diner.pdf - SFE 1404 Kitbashed Diner