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