Sunday Photo Fun 11/26/17

[ChessieFan1978]

Here's my contribution this week, some ICG power that Southern Tier Modelworks did for me.


20171029_081332_wm by Matthew Fisher, on Flickr

[Great-Northern-Willmar Div]

Thought I'd try my hand at some other type of modeling. When I was kid I had a 1/43rd scale AMT kit of exterior post trailer and Peterbilt 359 cab. I still remember what a mess I made out of the kit. I didn't know about decal setting, airbrushing, etc. I glued it together and swabbed it with a brush. Ugly!!!!


This kit has been around since the early 1970's. It was originally made with a chrome body. This has since been eliminated. I have a couple of 1/25 scale cabs. An AMT 1/25th scale Peterbilt cab over, which nearly extinct in the United States, and a 359. Now I want to find a dry van trailer of the 40 foot variety. 

[slowfreight]

Jim, I used to have an AMT kit for a 40' Watkins reefer trailer, like this one www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-AMT-Watkins-Fruehauf-40-reefer-trailer-open-1/253279168861?epid=1200727160&hash=item3af89d695d:g:w7EAAOSw1g9Zoynq. I did slightly better than yours, using a spray can for the silver before I started brush-painting the suspension. It's long gone, having been disposed along with an AMT 359 kit that I assembled without even trying to paint. But that's how we practiced our skillz back in the day.

Crazy that it's all the same kits, no one's released anything new in ages, and the prices just keep going up...totally not like HO modeling

[slowfreight]

I did some tank truck modeling a while back, using an earlier version of Model Power's toy-grade trailer, before the piping got simplified:







Starting point:



Also upgraded the old Herpa 359 to backdate it and improve the details. Ditching the factory wheels makes a huge difference. Headlights are salvaged from an Athearn White/Freightliner.



Windshields are from an Athearn blister pack. I also added the air intake to the roof, and only the lightest weathering. It usually pulls this upgraded trailer with air dam.

[TBird1958]

It's been a little while since I've worked any trucks....... I started this with a Boley International, the cab is modified Athearn with some super cool Plano mirrors.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Truckin’ right along guys, good stuff.

If I recall, the decals on models back in the day didn’t take to Solvaset too well. They worked with the same water slide methodology but didn’t cuddle down to details like model rail decals.

T-bird, great truck. I have one of those Boley rigs in the one of these years pile somewhere. My plan is to backdate with a cab swap, too.

[fr8kar]

This holiday week kept me pretty busy, but with my crazy schedule I was able to squeeze in some time at the bench. Continuing with the truck theme, I got a few more chassis built for my grocery hauling fleet. The fifth wheels and other parts should arrive from Shapeways tomorrow. I'm ready to install them on these:




Another kind of truck I worked on were trucks for my growing trilevel autorack collection. Walthers puts their regular trucks on these with 28" wheels and calls it good. I have used the beautiful Exactrail 70-ton trucks with 28" wheels on several autoracks and some of my own 3D printed National swing motion trucks on others. The last time I posted something on an Athearn Impack car a fellow Rescue Forumite suggested I use the Athearn trucks on my autoracks and save the detailed Exactrail trucks for the spine cars. Great suggestion! I bought a pack of Athearn Impack trucks on ebay and transplanted the wheels from the Walthers trucks and they work great. I haven't tried the Exactrail trucks on the spine cars yet, but I'll give that a go at a later date. Anyway, here are the Athearn trucks with Walthers wheels:




Finally, not truck related at all, but a problem that's been bugging me every time I run my Atlas chlorine tanks: the giant protruding draft gear. I cut in some Moloco parts and so far so good. I'll be working on the other car soon:

[MrMRL]

A smattering of pics from a very recent fun-run at the La Mesa Model Railroad Club in San Diego, CA...

Oil train through springtime scenery in the Tehachapi Mountains.












~ Mr. MRL

[onequiknova]

Loving the trucks this week. SlowFrieght, the nee windshields make that 359. Nice work.

[stevef45]

I've been hammering out the SD33ECO build lately. Nearly the home stretch. Banging out the led's in the ditch lights was a huge accomplishment for me as i hate doing ditch lights. Also started stripping the paint on 2 more projects.

1124170535a_HDR by Tripps Pics79, on Flickr
1123170213_HDR by Tripps Pics79, on Flickr
1123170306b_HDR by Tripps Pics79, on Flickr
1123170306a_HDR by Tripps Pics79, on Flickr

This is a project I've wanted to do for a long time and finally started to work on it. Its a "what if" BNSF kept some F45's and had them rebuilt and upgraded to lets just call it an F45-3 and painted it in the new BNSF livery.
Added the AC unit, relocated the horn to the long hood similar to how NYSW's F45 was done, went with a K3 horn, will add ditch lights front and rear, led's and eventually sound. Not sure if i want to go with a 20cyl or 16cyl sound file.
1124170533_HDR by Tripps Pics79, on Flickr
1123170546_HDR by Tripps Pics79, on Flickr

And these are my next project. I felt so guilty stripping the parts off and tossing them into the "dip". The SP unit will be getting modified to an Norfolk Southern SD33ECO rebuild, the SF unit will become a NS RPU6D to mate with the ECO.
1126171456_HDR by Tripps Pics79, on Flickr

[Deleted]

Getting my next project ready while the primer cures on my current project.

Here I am using the Kato GP35 chassis, sill unit and cab sub base. I modified the sub base to accept the GP30 cab. To get the raised deck on the right side I sacrificed a spare junk GP35 deck and cut the raised portion off. Modified it to fit properly.

Everything worked out well. As the build progresses, I will fine tune it all, plug the stanchion holes and relocate them and anything else that needs to be done. but the conversion works and I can now start the build. Last night I finished the truck side frames.

KATO_2K_GP30_01 by Brian Banna, on Flickr

KATO_2K_GP30_02 by Brian Banna, on Flickr

Brian

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Nice scratch builds guys.
Looking forward to seeing the F45 project.

[riogrande]

Great photo's everyone.

I just got moved to a new home with a bigger basement and only got internet working this morning so late to the party.

[jbilbrey]

There wasn't as much progress for me over this long Holiday as I had first hoped. I dug out an old Athearn "Blue Box" P-S 5344 boxcar South Branch Valley Railroad that I first built in the 2002-03. Deciding it was time to update the model as well as bring it up to what the prototype would've looked in the 1990's, I "faded" the green stripe to more of a light blue and placed decal patches over the reporting marks and logos. That's about as far as I got as I had to order new stirrups to replace some broken ones and wire to finish out the underframe.

I managed to take my son over to NS's "Rathole" to watch couple trains while my wife and daughter attended a tea party in Rugby, TN. That led to the other "task" of the weekend while applying decal setting solution over the patches on the boxcar - uploading photos and assigning captions to other photos on my Flickr page. The captions on the freight cars are taking a bit to write as I am trying to include such information as date, location, capacity, builder, original railroad [and series] and build date [if known] to each of the photos. While tedious at times, it has been an informative process. It is also interesting to note all the different cars that are available now that weren't when I started taking the photos in the late 1990's/early 2000's.

James Bilbrey
LaVergne, TN

[packer]

Nothing really picture worthy. Started assembly of an IMRC 2-bay centerflow that I had to get end cages for. The problem has been trying to get a match for the gray they used on this Mopac car. Also due to looking at prototype photos; I'm gonna have to change the stirrups which isn't too bad, but that paint again. Any tips for color matching?

I've also came up with a plan for a sort-of foobie of an SCL ex-ACL boxcar I have. Seems like it's the wrong number series, and the sill cut kinda cut up. I'll need to match some paint up for that.

I did however splurge a bit, I picked up 5 of the Exactrail covered hoppers in BN since they were on sale. (thanks to Exactrail for making their pictures big enough so i can see some of the data stuff that can be used to date cars)