My interest in the OCS/Research type vehicles continues with the #48 Research and track inspection as Caboose #52.
 

Starting with an Athearn Ready Roll NS Caboose #557501 the conversion begins.
First things first, the cat walk, ladders, stove pipe and windows are all removed.
This is followed by removing the lettering.  Using lacquer thinner on a Quetip gently, but quickly rub the lettering. The thinner will loosen the paint or decals in just seconds. 
You will need to switch out Quetips constantly.   Do not press hard or stay in one spot to long or you will soften the plastic and perhaps do some damage. 

The next step is to fill in all cat walk, and ladder holes on the roof.  I did this using regular household spackle.  Spackle dries quickly, cleans up easily, and sands with little effort.  I use a small brush with water on it to clean the spackle that gets into cracks or between the rivets.
After the roof one window on each side of the caboose needed to sealed off.   I used sheet styrene to cover each window.  This was accomplished by cutting a small piece to go across the inside of the window. Next another piece was cut to fit in the window where the glass originally was. 
Again spackle was used to fill any cracks as well as to make sure the filled hole was now flush with the wall of the caboose. 

After removing the couplers primer are applied.  This will expose any in-perfections with your filling. Once the primer is dried you can go back and sand your filled holes, then apply another layer of spackle if needed.  It was needed on this project.  In fact I had to repeat this step three times to get things flush. 

Now the caboose is off to the paint shop for some fresh burgundy and white paint. 
The roof is the first section to get painted. Model masters bright white was used.  So far I have had good luck using both Model Masters spray paints along with scale coat spray paints.  Rustoleum and Krylon on the other hand do not mix well with other paints, even after letting the paint dry for days. In keeping with all of the other OCS / Track Inspection locomotives and cars, I used Caboose red scalecoat II paint for the sides.. 

After letting the roof dry for a couple of days I tape it off to begin spraying the rest of the Caboose.
I normally use a couple of light coats then apply the paint heavier the final coat or two.  Those first couple of light coats will help seal any scratch marks as well help the final coasts bound better without running.  Again the paint is left to dry for a couple of days so as not leave any finger prints while completing the model.

#48 had a red flashing light centered on each end of the Caboose roof.  Tiny 1.5 volt red bulbs were used for this.  Using a resistor they are wired to a TCS (Train Control Systems) FL4 decoder. The decoder is setup as #48 and the bulbs are set to pulse.  

ShellScale Decal Kit  #161 was used to number and letter this Caboose except for the NS letters. These I made myself using designs from earlier projects.
 

To power the dcc light decoder to control the flashing red light the wheels were replaced with a set that would transfer track power.  Extra weight was added (not shown) to help make better contact. Being that the light is suppose to flash I was not to concerned about using track supplied power. 

The original rails on each end of the caboose were cut and new rails installed that run up to the extended roof ends.  The ladder was also cut down even with the roof line.