Thanks for the comments. The laser cut wood kits are definitely a jewel to assemble and for the most parts require just a few tools. Single edge razor blade to finish removing the parts from the wood sheets, a sanding stick, and a good square to align corners. I prime both sides while still in the sprue and usually just use a light color coat on the outside. Minimal touch up then needed for the areas where attached to a sprue or the edges. The open air section was an addition I put on and not part of the kit. The vents at the roof peak were also my added parts. For about 90 percent of the kit I used Elmer's carpenters glue including the fine ballast which is an Arizona product. For the styrene to wood for the addition ACC. The whole structure is a little less than 5 by 5 inches. Done without the addition 5 inches long by 3.25 wide. My MicroAce mallet will fit inside with just the tender sticking out.
After buying a FEF-3 I've decided to backdate to the UP in the 50's. First project is a F3a with unique UP plow. I started with an ATSF F3a shell I had laying around. Drilling holes for grabirons, winterization hatch before the shell goes for a dunk in 91% alcohol.
Where did you get the plows? I've got a pair of F's I'm wanting to make into Rock Island F9AMs bought from the UP that have these plows.
Been exploring a Hulett unloader to complement my Great Lakes freighters. I'm still working out the manufacturing details, but here's an advance look. These things are huge, and have hundreds of parts and subassemblies, but are fairly straightforward. All the mechanisms move, so this could be animated with some care. Also, custom brass for railings and stairways will be added as I go along. The tape is just to hold the temporary wire pivots in place. I'm wondering what folks would be willing to pay for this enormous kit.
Pete those will be really cool at the water front. For those not familiar with them take a look here. I look forward to the finished models. This should get you some NMRA MMR points !!!! [video=youtube_share;JErREoMOdDc]http://youtu.be/JErREoMOdDc[/video] Mike
So far it is all styrene, although some parts might be better in brass, such as the rails and wheels. But I don't have those here in Alabama. The railings and stairways will be brass, obviously. I started drawing it on Sunday AM, so three very long days. Computers speed things along. It is by no means ready for production. Adjustments often take much longer than the first drawings and prototype cuts. I can not often see some of the tolerances from the plans, which are often a rough estimation rather than a precise blueprint. So I'm often faced with this type of question: do I make the bottom platform 1 mm wider, or the rolling platform 1 mm narrower? Or do I compromise and leave them as is, and adjust a few of the guides, which is just as much work in the end?
Mike, I think I've scratchbuilt everything on the MMR schedule except a locomotive. I'm not much for documenting things. The directions for building this will probably take twice the time of building it. I'll build it in Z scale for the documentation, just as proof to myself that it is buildable. Building one is fairly easy, because I can fudge things. Building it for a kit is a completely different matter.
Looked at the video of these critters working and they are some huge machines. Curious of what type of footprint one of these will take up in N scale.
With temperatures in the minus zero range for a few days and snow on the ground and more snow called for, going on a shopping trip for supplies to build some docks and piers will wait another day or two or week maybe. Going out in this stuff after the stroke has me moving slower and more awkward than Dr. Frankenstein's creation or Igor. Always on the look out for something that is a little different I ran across a kit of an ocean research vessel that is not quite Z scale and not quite N scale but somewhere in between the two. Thus a 2nd NUMA vessel is taking shape on my workbench. This will end up being a smaller vessel than the first with about a 150 foot length. Already have taken a series of drill bits and enlarged the side portholes to be closer to N scale. Most of the other dimensions are fairly close to N being somewhat less than a foot off. At some point I am going to go digging for my mine module that is incomplete and finish it up.
With almost six more inches of snow and about a half inch of ice I have been busy at the workbench. Found a neat kit that had the possibility of being converted to another N scale research vessel for the harbor. And the RV Sandecker is finished. Small craft of about 160 feet long fits my space requirements. Shown here with a N scale tug of 60 feet for comparison. The addition of the N scale figures helps reinforce the impression of N scale.
Thanks. The tug is a TomyTec kit while the research vessel is a Revelle kit in 1:200 that I did some minor enlarging of a few things on it to bring more in line with N scale. One of those things was to enlarge the portholes. This is shorter than the RV Cussler and some of the things that were built for the Cussler will shift to this vessel.
added a barbed wire fence to the areas recently 'static grassed'.... Yesteryear Creations....not too bad ('barbs are oversized) but it looks like barbed wire... Bruce
