RED + BLU TF2 Boxcars

Two plastic, HO-scale boxcars painted and lettered for the two iconic fictional holding companies from the cult game Team Fortress 2— and of course inspired by the grundgy boxcars owned by these companies as seen in the game itself. The logos and lettering were applied via decals custom-made by yours truly, using graphics found on the internet for the bases of the former. Various paint “patches” were applied the same way, and then the cars were heavily weathered with acrylic paints (a bit too heavily in the case of the RED car, unfortunately, but live and learn).

The plastic car shells themselves (cheap Life-Like products— I probably shoulda used Athearn) have been modified/improved very little, since these cars are inherently tongue-in-cheek creations anyway.

A few details don’t show up well in the photo... for instance, the RED car was last serviced at “2 FT” (for 2 Fort) in ’62, while the BLU car was last serviced at “WL” (Well) in ’59. Both cars bear barcodes, which were first introduced in the mid 1960s (keeping true to TF2's setting)— those on the BLU car are of a fictional layout inspired by the myriad designs experimented with at the time, while those on the RED car are of the “rainbow” type that was eventually made official in the 1970s. The “X”s after each company’s reporting mark (“BLUX,” etc.) mean that these cars are privately-owned (as opposed to railroad-owned— railroad markings are oddly particular that way).


For a before-and-after comparison, see the bright green cars in this shot— two of them are the same cars seen above (while the third one is still kicking around unmodified): [link] .



RED, BLU, and their logos © Valve