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Post by fr8kar on May 24, 2020 10:55:51 GMT -8
Happy Memorial Day, everyone. Here's the Athearn auto parts boxcar I've been working on lately. I applied the clear coat yesterday and it must have been too humid because it crazed in a few places. I was able to sand those areas down, touch up the paint and put on some more clear today. It's still quite humid so I'll let it cure for a week or so before I attempt any weathering. I used Oddballs decals, which have some great artwork but quite a few artifacts from the printer in the lettering. I'm happy enough with the effect of the separate door bars and new grabs that I'm looking forward to the next one.
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Post by valenciajim on May 24, 2020 11:00:45 GMT -8
Ryan--nice model. If you are having trouble with humidity, come to southern California. It is hot and dry here.
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Post by fr8kar on May 24, 2020 11:04:43 GMT -8
Don't tempt me, Jim! But I don't think my conductor seniority would work too good there right now.
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Post by onequiknova on May 24, 2020 11:31:57 GMT -8
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Post by GP40P-2 on May 24, 2020 11:37:09 GMT -8
Happy Memorial Day, everyone. Here's the Athearn auto parts boxcar I've been working on lately. I applied the clear coat yesterday and it must have been too humid because it crazed in a few places. I was able to sand those areas down, touch up the paint and put on some more clear today. It's still quite humid so I'll let it cure for a week or so before I attempt any weathering. I used Oddballs decals, which have some great artwork but quite a few artifacts from the printer in the lettering. I'm happy enough with the effect of the separate door bars and new grabs that I'm looking forward to the next one. It's great to see what can be done with some of these old models, and that they can still be viable at a fraction of what a new Athearn/Atlas/Exactrail/Arrowhead/ScaleTrains/Tangent one would cost. And you get the satisfaction of having done it yourself. Jim
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Post by drolsen on May 24, 2020 13:05:58 GMT -8
That was some quick work on that boxcar, Ryan. It looks great! It’s a shame that things went south with Oddballs. He had a lot of useful decals sets that no one else offers. Since last time, I finished the handrails, rebuilt the engineer side of the clean air room, repowered the chassis with Stewart F unit parts, built the fish belly frame, and added some detail below the sill. That looks fantastic, and the considerable amount of work that you put into it is obvious. How do you feel about the durability of the handrails? They look really good, and I keep getting tempted to order some. Dave
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Post by onequiknova on May 24, 2020 13:44:52 GMT -8
That was some quick work on that boxcar, Ryan. It looks great! It’s a shame that things went south with Oddballs. He had a lot of useful decals sets that no one else offers. Since last time, I finished the handrails, rebuilt the engineer side of the clean air room, repowered the chassis with Stewart F unit parts, built the fish belly frame, and added some detail below the sill. That looks fantastic, and the considerable amount of work that you put into it is obvious. How do you feel about the durability of the handrails? They look really good, and I keep getting tempted to order some. Dave Thanks, Only the front and rear handrails are glued into place right now, so the Jury is still out on durability. I did however bump one of the end railings pretty hard at a bad angle, and did bend a stanchion a bit. I think the stanchion will end up being strong enough for regular handling and minor bumps. The only thing I'm a little concerned with is the tiny mounting pins. They don't protrude all the way through the sill, which I'd prefer for a stronger glue joint. I'll have to use thin CA and let it wick into the mounting holes from behind, and hopefully not ruin the paint.
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Post by fr8kar on May 24, 2020 13:54:34 GMT -8
Thanks Jim, Dave and John. I have a handful of the Walthers cars so it's nice to have a little variety among those giants.
Did you solder the handrails to the stanchions, John? The model looks amazing at this stage so I can only imagine how nice it will be as you get it painted.
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Post by onequiknova on May 24, 2020 14:04:57 GMT -8
Thanks Jim, Dave and John. I have a handful of the Walthers cars so it's nice to have a little variety among those giants. Did you solder the handrails to the stanchions, John? The model looks amazing at this stage so I can only imagine how nice it will be as you get it painted. No, I chickened out. I ended up using Bob Smith Industries super thin CA, and the joint is very strong. I mistakenly bent the conductor side railing to follow the proto 2000 railings instead of going out and over the electrical cabinet filter like the prototype. My fix was to cut the handrail at the first stanchion, and splice in a new piece of railing, using the stanchion to hide and strengthen the gap. I had to soak the original joint in acetone to get it apart, and the new joint passed the pull test.
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Post by dti406 on May 24, 2020 16:58:15 GMT -8
Finished another Intermountain PS1 40' Boxcar Kit, painted with Scalecoat II ATSF Red and lettered with decals from the Ann Arbor Historical Society. Car was in paper service from Wisconsin to points all over the map. Many of these cars went east on the car ferry to the Ann Arbor in Frankfort, MI. Car was built in 1950 with the standard boxcar red and black paint, then repainted in 1962 with the bright red paint scheme along with the Packers Football (three part decal). The 5th Athearn ACF 4600CF Covered Hopper kit I have completed, painted with Scalecoat II UP Covered Hopper Gray and lettered with Herald King Decals. Car was in use on the system hauling grain products mostly on the southern end of the system. Car was built new in 1973 for the DT&I replacing older lower capacity cars that were on lease. ] Brought out an old picture I took on the Strongsville Club layout, PRR N1s 2-10-2 with a coal drag going up the hill with a string of coal hoppers, its normal life on the the PRR with the return trip hauling ore to the steel mills. A large thanks to all that commented on my pictures from last week, sorry I did not reply earlier on that thread. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski
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Post by dti406 on May 24, 2020 17:22:46 GMT -8
I painted my DT&I Hi-Cube the same color, but I remember them being more of a lilac color that faded to that weird pink, hopefully I will get one in the color I remember. But here is one of not very much modeled 86' Hicubes. The Green Bay & Western had a group of 12 cars made by both Greenville and Thrall with all the numbers intermixed between manufacturers. They were eventually sent to the Ann Arbor and then repainted. Rick Jesionowski
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Post by fr8kar on May 24, 2020 17:51:59 GMT -8
That car looks really good, Rick. The embedded image is a little small, but I was able to right-click and see a bigger version. It looks like you used the DW coupler pockets as well.
I'm going to weather the magenta car to look something like this:
dti.railfan.net/Pototype_Images/rs/DTI26840box86JEager84.jpg
There seems to be a sweet spot in the mid to late 80s where the cars were toned down by age but hadn't started to become rust buckets yet. Which is just how I like them.
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Post by dti406 on May 24, 2020 18:24:17 GMT -8
That car looks really good, Rick. The embedded image is a little small, but I was able to right-click and see a bigger version. It looks like you used the DW coupler pockets as well. I'm going to weather the magenta car to look something like this: dti.railfan.net/Pototype_Images/rs/DTI26840box86JEager84.jpg There seems to be a sweet spot in the mid to late 80s where the cars were toned down by age but hadn't started to become rust buckets yet. Which is just how I like them. Thanks, I did use the Details West wide opening coupler pockets on the car as I have done on most of 86 footers. I also used some ladders out of my scrap box rather than the grabs as I was trying to do a Thrall car which used ladders instead of grabs like a Greenville car. I was going to post a picture of one of my Ann Arbor cars but the pictures have disappeared from Photobucket when they had their problems last year. I will retake them and repost (as soon as I find the cars). Rick Jesionowski
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Post by ChessieFan1978 on May 25, 2020 6:08:11 GMT -8
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Post by TBird1958 on May 25, 2020 6:48:18 GMT -8
I'm a day late...…. Finished a pipe load for my scratch built F60KH.
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Post by riogrande on May 25, 2020 10:19:43 GMT -8
Nice pipe load. What did you use for the corrugated pipe on the top layer?
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Post by TBird1958 on May 25, 2020 10:26:05 GMT -8
Jim, it's rolled aluminum.
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Post by riogrande on May 25, 2020 10:36:37 GMT -8
So you took a flat piece of corrugated aluminum and rolled it into a pipe shape? It came out very well!
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Post by TBird1958 on May 25, 2020 12:46:05 GMT -8
So you took a flat piece of corrugated aluminum and rolled it into a pipe shape? It came out very well! You roll it around either a dowel or a dowel that's been shape like corrugated, Jaeger Products used to have a load kit that required this - fun stuff!
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