The Detroit & Mackinac had a batch of unique N5 cabooses that were based on former Pennsylvania designs. I am not a D&M expert by any means, so I am not pretending to offer any type of exact details on this model, but one of the original cabooses is located on display in Grayling, MI.  Lucky for me, my good friend Steve Nowakowski was able to stop by in early April 2018 and take some great pictures of D&M #207 after a late Spring snowfall (see bottom right).

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My N Scale version of #207 started with a basic Bowser model of a brown D&M caboose. I stripped it down to bare plastic before applying a coat of caboose red paint. I then used Testors aluminum for the roof. Decals were individual letters applied from a generic roman numeral lettering sheet produced by Micro-Scale. True confession: more than once, as I embarked on this lettering effort, I fervently wished that the railroad had simply painted a large "D & M" on the side, instead of opting for the fully spelled-out name! It was quite a challenge to place each letter and keep everything in line, but I think it turned out reasonably well, all things considered.

 

And this is as good a place as any to advise the reader that when working in such a small scale, the "eyeball test" is usually good enough - but you need to beware of the harsh reality that model photos will reveal! I have quite a few models that look great in person, but then the pictures show every slightly off-kilter character or tiny paint blemish. So you have to be willing to either live with the original effort (which I have done for my non-AA models), or to re-do some of your early efforts to make suitable corrections.