I came across this company and their web site today while surfing. http://www.fathernaturetrees.com/ Anybody know how long they've been around or done business with them? They seem to have a lot of shells. I am interested in their SD40T-2, U36-C, SD45B, SD39, & GP39-2 to name a few. Brian [ 20 September 2001: Message edited by: brian ]</p>
Some photos of N SD-38's made with father nature shells and Kato SD40 frames can be seen at the DT&I modellers website, from what I understand is they are resin castings and do require some trimming and clean up before use.
I ordered two 'Train Master' shells back on 2/19/2000 from "Father Nature". Received both in a short period of time with no problems. Paid by check. Quality may have improved since then? I rate my shells a 6 when 10 is perfect. The shells will require alot of trimming and in my case, some addition of body putty in thin (missing areas). I found the body work to be a welcome challenge and a somewhat rewarding effort compared to 'out of the box' ready to run. Need chassis to fit the shell. Must make your own handrails. No two shells alike....detail work, etc. Of course I bought the shells because I wanted a PRR Train Master.......!! then ATLAS comes out with the model! Could be same with you. If only source for that model, then take a chance. ...Eddie [ 20 September 2001: Message edited by: eddelozier ]</p>
We have seen Father Nature set up a few train shows through the years. They seem like very nice folks however their engine shells are cast in resin which (to put it nicely) is a challenging substrate in which to work with. For the manufacturer resin is great because it can be poured into inexpensive rubber moulds. This means there is no tooling needed making the costs quite affordable for those who only want to make a few hundred pieces as apposed to paying up to $100,000.00 for tooling like say, for example KATO does when making a tool that can be used for plastic moulding injection. Unfortunatley resin can have some poor attributes as a modeling material. First off, it's VERY brittle. So brittle in fact that we stopped selling ANY resin products years ago as we are mail order and many times the products were arriving damaged to our customers. Even if the product does arrive in good shape most resin products require a lot of "clean up" before they can be painted and when you cut/sand/file resin you get that TOTALLY OBNOXIOUS SMELL & TONS OF DUST! Finally, it has been said that the half life of unpainted resin is only 10 years. DON'T FIGHT US ON THIS IF YOU DISAGREE - this is what we were told by a chemist - maybe you have some unpainted resin that is over 10 years old and still good. I don't know this to be 100% true but it is quite probabable that resin is NOT a lifetime substrate as I have seen some resin products that have turned to dust but I didn't ask how old they were. The bottom line is that if you are going to purchase a product that contains resin parts you should have some modeling experience under your belt. Resin products are definitely NOT for the beginner.
I found the DT&I SD38 from a Father Nature shell that you were refering to. I am getting used to working in resin. I have made resin castings of many of my models. Your right that most resin castings have a lot of clean up, but I'm not holding my breath for an SD-39 from KATO, and besides thats what "Modeling is all about! If I have to clean up a bit of flash, so be it. Brian
Father Nature will be at the Great Scale Train Show in Timonium MD, Oct 6&7. Their shell are very rough and require a good deal of work but they are available and a good point to start bashing from. Also note that not all the shell fit on current production chassis. Some shell were made to fit on things no longer available. Prior to ordering make sure that you have the right chassis. Jerry
