Teaser... Still working all the details like weld lines, etchings, etc... No date set for release, no details on RTR or kit pricing, no details on road names/numbers yet... Just a FYI.
Tim, These will be solid resin. They weigh out at about 12 grams so far (casting and wire details, with trucks and couplers) without the etchings. The car is about 57' long, so just a tad heavy for the 60'/12 gram rule of thumb. Just have to assume these are loaded with all the nasty stuff they can carry!
Ed, when are we going to see photos of your hand layed track layout? Ed, Use to go to your old website to look at the huge hand layed track layout you were working on. The updates never came! How is the hand layed track coming? Did you ever finish it? The large photo above shows a hand layed track yard! May we see more? Hobo Tim
I am happy to see a modern tank car, but I rather see it hollow. All that weight is going to limit the amount of cars a train can pull.
On the casting list they have talked about using some kind of lightweight filler, like tiny spheres to reduce weight. I wonder if that's do-able?
Traction Tires Option! John, don't worry, you will soon have pulling power with TRACTION! :teeth: Hobo Tim
Casting Weight I've used a featherlite additive with lightweight resin from Smooth On quite a bit and you can cut the weight by about 40% right off. The other thing you can do to get the center of gravity down some is to cast upright so you pour from the top and add Bronze powder to the resin. If you go with something that gels in 10 minutes, most of it will drop to the bottom and make that center mark a lot lower. Hope this helps Joe MTL
Yeah, I have to figure a few things out yet... That is why these are still in development. I will be meeting with Alumilite soon to discuss my options. The easiest way to get these hollow is injection molding, but of course the cost of tooling is out of this world. I really can understand the hesitation of larger companies like MTL upon release of new models. It's a risk, especially in the not-as-popular scales, such as Z. But I am a believer in Z scale, and have a hunch that it will be taking off like never before. Tim - I'll have some more pics of the layout soon. I took a step back, and actually have been redesigning much of it. Making it bigger yet, and more modular. I think I will be moving within a year or so, so a bigger basement is in order. If you remember the large yard, it is has twice as many tracks, and 3 times longer! And of course it's all hand laid code 40 trackwork.
