Paint failure = learning opportunity

I painted some of tank hopper models last weekend when it was nice and sunny.  I forgot that acrylic paint dries very quickly when it is too warm.  I stopped painting when I realized that I was getting a rough finish on the cars as it was quite warm (34C or 93F).  1 slab side hopper car and 4 of my recently completed tank hoppers were affected.  %$%$#!

I tried a couple of approaches to see if I could fix the issue.  On the slabside I used 1000 grit sandpaper to see if I could remove the roughness.  It worked!  This photo shows the in progress sanding.  The paint is nice and smooth and will work for decalling once a gloss coat is applied.  

I tried the same process on one of my tank hoppers but this was the result:



So I have stripped the car and will repaint it.  I will repaint it CN grey as a number of these cars were repainted into the grey hopper scheme the rest of the CN covered hopper fleet wore.  

I waited a few days to see if the paint cured on the other cars and retried the 1000 grit sanding approach.  It worked much better the second time and the car sides have lost the roughness.  I'll try another pass of silver to even out the colours and hopefully will  be able to call this a learning opportunity instead of a mistake.  Any other issues will be covered up with spilled cement.  These cars often were covered in cement and lime from sloppy loading procedures.  This is a great help to cover up screw-ups...

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