Hi everyone,
I am no expert modeler, but decided to try and convert the wood load in the tender on the UP 119 4-4-0 (bought it ~4 years ago before Bachmann issued a new one with coal). I first tried to see if I could remove the wood, but wasn't sure if it would expose the decoder if I did. So I went for a much more cruder method, and it seemed to work fine. I applied some scenics cement to the wood in the tender with a small paint brush, and then carefully sprinkled some mine run coal (both cement and coal from Woodland Scenics). Finally, I sprayed some of the scenic cement on to the coal, and had to fill in a couple of spots here and there since the mine run coal is very fine and some moved when it was sprayed. But all in all, it looks pretty good. I debated using their lump coal, but was surprised how well it turned out using the finer grade. I'm sure there are better and more accurate ways to do this, but it seemed to do the job.
I am no expert modeler, but decided to try and convert the wood load in the tender on the UP 119 4-4-0 (bought it ~4 years ago before Bachmann issued a new one with coal). I first tried to see if I could remove the wood, but wasn't sure if it would expose the decoder if I did. So I went for a much more cruder method, and it seemed to work fine. I applied some scenics cement to the wood in the tender with a small paint brush, and then carefully sprinkled some mine run coal (both cement and coal from Woodland Scenics). Finally, I sprayed some of the scenic cement on to the coal, and had to fill in a couple of spots here and there since the mine run coal is very fine and some moved when it was sprayed. But all in all, it looks pretty good. I debated using their lump coal, but was surprised how well it turned out using the finer grade. I'm sure there are better and more accurate ways to do this, but it seemed to do the job.