HO Scale - What's On Your Workbench?

RDGbuff56 Nov 17, 2009

  1. gmorider

    gmorider TrainBoard Member

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    My thinking is to not have blanked out windows and encourage the crew to shoot back if needed. (y)
     
  2. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    I agree Tom, stellar work there Bud!
     
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  3. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    On the workbench right now are two Walthers 45’ Stoughton trailers. I have had these for a few years now, but I decided to do some detailing to them. In the HO purchases thread, I posted some new trailers a few days ago, and the Walthers ones pale in comparison to the newer Athearn RTR models.

    I think the Walthers tooling is decent, but to bring it up to speed, it needs to be painted. I have one trailer masked off for painting already. I’ll keep the white body, but the rub rails, trim pieces, and roof will be painted aluminum. The door lock rods are also exposed to receive paint. Cutting the masking tape for those was crazy.[​IMG]

    The second trailer is in the Vermont Railway scheme. Walthers uses the Stoughton tooling for almost all their modern trailers, but the Vermont prototype is actually Pines-built. I scratchbuilt a Pines landing gear set to make it look closer to the prototype. The rivet pattern on Pines trailers is different, but I don’t think that is a big deal. Otherwise the model is a close match. The landing gear fits in the existing mounting holes for the Stoughton-style gear. I modeled it in the retracted position for intermodal flatcar loading; the deployed Walthers gear sometimes prevents the trailer from sitting all the way down on the flatcar hitch, so I’m glad that it’s gone now.[​IMG]

    I also have A-Line spoke tires for these models. Some Vermont trailers have disk wheels, but I thought the spoke wheels gave it an ‘early 2000s’ feel, when older trailers were still around. Tomorrow I’ll paint them up, but it might be a multi-day affair. I’ll see how many colors I can get done.
     
  4. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Nice looking trailer Trainiac
     
  5. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    The two trailers are done today, I think I cracked the code to the Walthers Stoughton trailers: silver paint and A-Line wheels. I am happy with how they turned out; the lines are pretty crisp. I was worried the tape wouldn’t hold out. The wheels look a lot better than the low-relief plastic ones that came with them. They even look nice next to the Athearn RTR Fruehauf trailers.
    [​IMG]
    Of course, my red paint is dry, so I will need to get some new stuff to paint the tail lights. Other than that, they are done.[​IMG]
     
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  6. rch

    rch TrainBoard Member

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    The trailers look great. You're absolutely right about getting rid of the stock wheels and adding detail paint. A world of difference! Nice job on the landing gear, too.
     
  7. dti406

    dti406 TrainBoard Member

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    One of the projects I am working on now.

    [​IMG]

    In progress shot of a Walthers Thrall Gon, where I installed the piping and rods for the brake gear so it looks like something is under the car.

    Thanks for looking!

    Rick Jesionowski
     
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  8. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Nice work all
     
  9. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    I like to post my HO models here because it amuses me to show an HO model that will soon go under the knife for a 55n3 model.

    Just got this old Rivarossi/ AHM Bowker for 20 bucks on ebay. It will soon get the chop and have the cab made taller and the boiler details redone and moved around. Need to add a front coupler too.

    I used the 9 volt battery to test the motor. Dang if it isn't a fairly quiet and smooth running motor for being so old.

    I put a 55n3 figure in the tender to show how it scales out. Really need to raise that cab up a bit. ;)

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    That or use shorter people! This will be interesting to watch!

    Dale
     
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  11. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    If you look at the cab the window is really big. Even if it is raised about one head height for the figure it will look very normal. Nothing I make is fine scale by any means. I am just getting to look enough like narrow gauge and moving to the next project. I am also tired of making detailed things that I inevitably break just playing with my trains. Most of my cars don't even have break wheels and grab irons yet. I watch the On30 crowd spend thousands on trains - nope not me. :D

    The odd Bowker steam device needs to come off. The front sand dome needs its bell removed and it needs to slide back. Then a bell where the front dome was. Also could use a better boiler grab. The one it has right now is really toy train style.

    I want to remove the cast in front draw bar and install some kind of false drawbar with a metal pin as a coupler, so that my loco can do some switching from either end.

    I am considering widening the loco, but it's such a small light weight loco That it would lose some of its Narrow Gauge quality. Right now it is 6' wide. Some of my rolling stock goes up to 9' wide.

    The tender just needs a real lumber, or coal load for now. Maybe add some little extras later.
     
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  12. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Should be an interesting build
     
  13. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Welp the beginning of my phase 3 GP9 arrived today so now can get started on it
     

    Attached Files:

  14. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    This model has been calling my name for years, and I finally picked one up at the shop today. It’s a Lonestar Models Wilson Pacesetter bottom-unloading grain trailer. Any kit is a plus in my book, and detailed kits are getting harder to find these days, especially for modern prototypes. This version of the trailer was introduced in 1998, which is perfect for my 2001 timeframe. The white sides are pre-painted, but the ‘aluminum’ parts are just unpainted silver plastic. I might use the same technique that I used on the Walthers trailers (see a few posts ago) to repaint it with better aluminum color. The rubber tires and translucent lenses for the taillights are pretty cool too. There are a few different paint schemes and Lonestar has different decal sheets and tarp colors for various operators. Mine is just the basic 'owner-operator' version without any corporate logos. The black tarp version was out of stock, so mine has the blue cover. I'm debating whether or not I want to repaint this part too. I'll have to do some research to see what the most common colors were.
    [​IMG]


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2021
  15. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Like the way it's coming along

    I have to make do with this trailer for my fall 1979 era
     
  16. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    This trailer is probably a decent stand-in for that timeframe though. I like to use equipment auctions for reference photos, so sort by model year to compare different bodystyles. I think the biggest difference on earlier trailers is the ends. The Lonestar model has white painted ends, while earlier trailers I have seen have corrugated aluminum ends. With a few modifications, maybe swapping out for spoke wheels too, you could backdate it, or at least make it look like its backdated.
     
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  17. gregamer

    gregamer TrainBoard Supporter

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    Your trailers look great Traniac. Any tips on masking them?
     
  18. rch

    rch TrainBoard Member

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    Big fan of truckpaper.com and purplewave.com here! I was able to find a ton of detail photos of a pretty obscure trailer on purplewave, enough to make drawings and 3D print it.
     
  19. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    The Stoughton trailers were pretty straightforward because the components I was leaving unmasked were raised details. I butt the the tape right up to that edge. The tape follows the rivets and panel lines, which is easier than freehand masking locomotive paint schemes. I like to imagine I'm masking pinstripes on car restoration TV shows. Your eye is very good at noticing errors in straight lines, trust your gut and try to keep the tape pulled tight as you apply it.

    I use the Tamiya tape for the edges and come back with the blue tape to cover the larger areas. The Tamiya tape acts as the seal around the edges. I like it because it gives good clean lines, but at the same time, is not super tacky: It won't rip up the paint underneath. blue tape from the hardware store is good for covering large areas, but sometimes paint will bleed underneath. I use the two types in conjunction with each other, using a ton of thin Tamiya strips to cover the entire model will get pretty expensive.

    The door lock bars were masked off with multiple strips cut to the correct width. I used a scale ruler to measure the distance and cut strips to the same width. The handles were cut out after the tape was applied. Be careful here; use a sharp blade, but try not to cut into the model. This is easier than having to measure where the handles are and then transfer that to each strip before it's applied.

    After that, it's mostly airbrush skills, especially on the roof where any errors will be pretty noticeable.

    As a project update, the Pacesetter is getting complete stripped. I noticed some errors in where the bottom edge of the white stops. At the lower edge of the white side panel, there are rivets. On one side, the rivets are white, but on the other, they are unpainted as part of the trim. They should both be painted white as part of the side panel. I will strip the paint off and repaint the body white, mask it, and then do the aluminum trim.

    I'm a bit of a rivet counter, and this model has the potential to be really good. The tooling is very nice, and with all the lights and separate details, this could be a real gem in the collection. If I see an error, I will fix it. That's the beauty of kit-building.
     
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  20. RailMix

    RailMix TrainBoard Member

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    Is that odd steam device a fire pump by any chance? Might be a cool thing to leave on and even expand with a hose reel if that's what it is.
     
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