An NKP-1000 Series Caboose to be specific: The backstory: Earlier this summer, a fellow Trainboard member (jdcolombo) sent me a private message inquiring as to whether 3D-printing could be used to manufacture the iconic 1000-Series Cabooses that his NKP collection so desperately lacked. I responded that it was indeed possible; so, after making a 'commission' arrangement, we got to work. The pictures above are the finished result! Like all 3D printed models, the cabeese come unfinished and unweighted. They accept MT trucks, body mounted couplers and can run on radii as tight as 9 3/4." Hopefully John will be willing to share some of his finishing techniques with us.
The cabeese are priced at $21.95 for a single; $55.95 for a 3-pack (add $6.50 for shipping/handling). Easiest way to find them is to go to the Shapeways web site and then do a search for "NKP". John C.
My sincere thanks to Matthew for his work on this project. The 1000-series caboose was an icon of the NKP right alongside the Berkshire steam loco. Originally built in the 1880's, the cabooses survived past the 1964 merger (though most were retired immediately after), with some staying in service until 1969; I think one made it to 1970. Unfortunately, the design was so unique (and so far ahead of its time in 1880) that no other roads copied it. As a result, the likelihood of it ever being produced by a manufacturer in plastic is slim and none. There were some done in brass in HO scale; and I think there was both brass and a wood kit in O scale, but that's pretty much it. Knowing that I needed about a dozen of these for my home layout and that scratchbuilding them probably wasn't going to happen with everything else on my to-do list, I turned to the 3D printing process as an option, and I think the results shown above speak for themselves. In my next post, I'll do a complete complete guide to finishing the caboose. John C.
My guide to painting/finishing the 3D-printed NKP 1000-series caboose Materials used: Bestine (see explanation below) Small glass jar with tight-fitting lid. The jar needs to be large enough to fully immerse the caboose in the Bestine. Very thin CA cement (to fix any breaks in ladders/grabs) 1200-grit (or higher) sandpaper (auto supply stores; used for auto paint finishing) Vertical Brakewheel (options are Tichy Train group; Gold Medal Models brakewheel on .015 brass wire; or MicroTrains vertical brakewheel part). PollyScale light gray primer PollyScale Caboose red PollyScale Engine Black Testor’s Model-Master Signal Yellow Testor’s Dullcoat (or similar clear flat final finish) Paintbrush assortment, including a flat ¼”; flat 1/8”: 0, 3/0 and 5/0 rounds. Microscale NKP Caboose minical, catalog number 60-4243 (each minical will letter two cabooses) A-Line ¼-ounce lead weights or other similar weights. Trucks/wheels/couplers (I used MicroTrains Bettendorf trucks w/o couplers; FVM metal wheelsets, and MT 1015 couplers). Explanation regarding Bestine. Bestine is a solvent used for thinning rubber cement. It is often available at art-supply stores; I bought three small cans of it at Hobby Lobby (it was located in the drafting supplies section next to the rubber cement). Step 1: Pre-painting Preparation. The underbody of the model comes with two diagonal supports from the underbody floor to the ladders. These are there to support the ladders in the printing and shipping process. You will need to remove them from the underbody so that the ladders are free-standing. Shapeways-printed FUD models have a wax residue on them (the wax is used in the printing process to support the model during printing). This residue must be removed before painting. Fill a glass jar big enough to immerse the caboose shell and underbody/ladders with Bestine. Immerse the caboose, cover and let stand overnight or for at least 12 hours. The Bestine will dissolve the wax coating. Remove the caboose and let dry (the Bestine evaporates very quickly – five minutes is enough). If the model is clean, it will turn to a milky white. If you want to take an additional cleaning step, you can spray the model with some orange-based cleaner, VERY LIGHTLY scrub with a soft brush, rinse with water and let dry. Step 2: Painting caboose body. The other thing you will notice about FUD material is that it sometimes (not always) has a sort of “fuzz” or “grain” on the surface, rather than being completely smooth like injection-molded plastic. You can see some of this if you look very closely at the photos Matthew posted at the beginning of this thread. If this bothers you, use some 1200-grit or finer sandpaper (available at auto-parts stores; fine sandpaper like this is used for automotive paint finishing) to lightly sand and smooth the sides out. You may also find some FUD “dust” on one end of the model; I use a hobby knife to scrape this off (be careful around the ladders/grabs when doing this; the FUD material is fairly easy to break, unlike Delrin plastic). Painting is a standard light-to-dark sequence, except that the grab irons should be painted last. First, I painted the entire model with a single coat of PollyScale light gray primer. Let dry. Next, mask off the area between the top of the windows and roofline (this will become the “stripe” where the “Nickel Plate High Speed Service” logo will go. Note that this stripe was light gray, NOT WHITE – prototype photos of the 1000-series often give the impression that the background stripe was white, but it wasn’t. It was “nickel” – e.g., light gray). Paint the sides and ends of the body and cupola caboose red, using a ¼” flat brush. An airbrush is not needed for this and in fact is probably not even a good idea. You can airbrush the primer if you wish, though I also hand painted even the primer. Use at least two light coats of Caboose Red and pay special attention to painting around the grab irons on the body – you don’t want the paint to “pool” around the grabs and fill in the space between the grabs and body. Again, 2-3 (or more, if needed) light coats of red works best. Use downward strokes with the flat brush for the sides and you will get a much cleaner separation line for the masked-off stripe. Next, paint the roof, cupola support struts and smokestack black. Note two things here. First, the fascia board around the roofline is black, as is the “fascia” around the very top edge of the caboose cupola. I just very carefully painted these areas with a very fine round brush; you could try masking, but it would be hard to do with the support struts in the way. Very careful hand-painting is the way to go, I think. When the body is dry, use a very fine (5/0) round brush to paint the grab irons signal yellow; I thin the Testor’s model-master paint about 10% when doing this. Step 3: underbody and ladders. First, add vertical brakewheel with CA cement. It goes on the LH side of the ladder assembly, between the support strut and the curved end railing (I hadn't yet added this detail to the model when I took the photos Matthew posted; you can see the position of the brakewheel clearly on prototype photos, and if you need such a photo, e-mail me). The end platforms of the underbody and steps are caboose red. The ladders are black, with the curved side rails painted yellow. See photos in the first post in this thread. Different photos of the 1000-series show some variations. In some of the photos, the ends of the underbody are red, and only the top-half of the ladders/support strut is black. In other photos, the entire ladder structure and ends of the steps are black, except for the curved ends of the ladder structure, which was yellow. I chose to go the black route. I painted the entire underbody black. Let dry. Step 4: Decals Refer to the photos in the first post of the thread. The Microscale minical will do two cabooses. The “High Speed Service” logo is spaced out along the length of the caboose. I found that to get the spacing exactly like the prototype, you will need to cut each word apart and apply them separately. If you’re not that picky, you can simply apply the whole logo as one piece across the gray stripe. Note that the Microscale decal set has three different versions of the "High Speed Service" logo; for the 1000-series in the 1950’s livery, the middle version of the logo on the minical is correct (the bottom one is larger, used on the bay-window cabooses; the top one is the first version of the logo used in the 1940’s). The “Nickel Plate Road” logo is centered on the body just below the top of the windows, with the number right underneath. You can add the repack date below the far right window near the bottom of the body shell, and the “work safely” logo to the top step (4 of them). If you’re going to moderately or heavily weather the model, you could simply leave off the “work safely” decal, as that lettering seemed to disappear pretty quickly in service. I use several coats of Microscale red decal setting solution (Micro-Sol) to get the decal to fully settle in over the paint. You’ll know you have reached the right point when wetting the decal doesn’t result in seeing a “frosted” area anywhere on the decal. Once you are there (it usually takes 5-10 coats of the setting solution), let everything dry for at least 24 hours, then use some very mild soap and water to clean off the setting solution. Let dry, and finish the model with a coat of Testors’ Dullcoat or similar final coat to hide the “shine” on the decals. Step 5: Final assembly. I didn't use any window "glass" on the model, but if you want to do so, add it to the windows on the inside of the shell before final assembly. Add lead weights to the floor of the underbody (I used three 1/4-ounced A-Line square weights for this, right along the center line of the caboose). The final weight of the caboose should be about ¾ oz. to meet NMRA weight standards; by using ¾-ounce of lead, my final weight is just a hair high, but I prefer that to underweighting. Add trucks/couplers. Fit underbody carefully into car body, paying particular attention to the ladders – don’t let them get caught under the roof, or they will break. Note that the sides of the body shell tend to bow inward. What I do is fit one long side of the underbody into the body shell, then use a small screwdriver on the other side through one of the windows to lever the other side of the body out so that the underbody can fit fully into the body shell. Make sure the ladders/support strut fit into the holes provided (if these got filled with paint, be sure to ream them out with the tip of a hobby knife before final assembly). Touch up any paint as needed. You’re done. John C.
Very nice John C and Matthew ! ! ! Have any of the usual manufacturers threatened either of you for the new competition that can and will do just about anything that they will not do? ? ? LOL Carl
Hey Matthew, Nice job on the NKP caboose. How about doing a PRR N-8 cabin car (caboose)? Bower has done the N-5 and N-5c, but I would like to have a few N-8's. I have some brass ones that you could borrow if it would help. Thanks, Scott
I got some brass Milw road boxcabs .. hmmm I did sent you a PM Matt Muktown .. must be from Mukwonago Wis... we may be related Randy
Just a quick note before everyone starts inundating Matthew with requests for their favorite piece of rolling stock ignored by the mainstream manufacturers: Matthew did this work on a commission basis (as in "a commissioned piece of artwork" or a "commissioned symphony"); that is, we agreed on an up-front fee designed to compensate him for his time doing the design work. Doing this sort of design work is a highly skilled job; no one should expect it to be done for free or "on speculation," even if there is some possibility of profit on the sales of the final models (which I suspect will be modest at best). I, in turn, got an iconic model and saved myself what probably would have been hundreds of hours of scratchbuilding (which in truth I probably never would have undertaken given the daunting nature of that task) plus I get some satisfaction of helping out other NKP modelers who were in the same boat I was and keeping the NKP "alive" in N scale. So I was tickled to be able to come to an arrangement with Matthew that satisfied both of us. I suggest that those of you interested in a similar arrangement contact Matthew off-list to discuss whether he might be interested in your project and what the financial arrangements would be. I do see the world of 3D printing opening untold opportunities for the hobby, particularly N scale, which right now is the "sweet spot" for this kind of work: the models are small enough to be cost effective, but still large enough that you can render the detail reasonably in scale. Z would be too small to render detail appropriately; HO would be far too expensive in materials cost. For once, we N-scalers have found baby bear's porridge, chair and bed (though I hope we don't break the chair). John C.
Excellent! Thank you Matthew, thank you John! While I do not need a Nickle Plate caboose, this neat little project truly illustrates the "sweet spot" John noted; let's hope this is just a beginning of a business model that works, because people with talent and skill willing to take on projects like this need to get compensated in some reasonable way to do more projects for others. Great start! Kind regards, Otto K.
I love this caboose. There are so few N scale wood cabooses out there. The Montour caboose below kind of looks like yours. Could it be an ex-NKP? Also, have you thought about the possibility of modifying you design to accommodate the various caboose cupola conversions that Panamint is making? They are really cool. http://www.shapeways.com/model/6942...a-athearn-mdc-w-int.html?li=productBox-search http://www.shapeways.com/model/6901...pola-for-athearnmdc.html?li=productBox-search http://www.shapeways.com/model/6867...upola-ath-mdc-w-int.html?li=productBox-search
I'd guess that it IS an ex-NKP, or at the very least a copy of their design. The giveaway is the curved "potbelly" handrail at the end of the caboose. This was a distinctive feature of the 1000-series, and I don't know of any others that had similar handrails. The ladders are a bit different at the roofline, with curved railings extending above the roof, but that could have been a later addition/improvement over the standard NKP design. John C.
The Montour caboose looks like it has a steel underframe maybe even its an all steel car? Were the NKP cars plywood sided ? Randy
Steel "side-sill"/underframe showing on the Montour-don't see it below the sheathing on the NKP. Differences in the cupola. No end windows on the NKP. Different steps-note the dog-leg and inset mounting on the NKP. As for the "loop" in the end rails- I did a search on "caboose photos" and in about 10 minutes turned up 8 other roads with loops like these, and several more similar types. No rhyme or reason/consistancy I could see to which ones had them... JimR.
