Most of the stamp rubber is RTV red, and comes 1/16" which is a bit thick to use for tires, but the magnetic tape is available in 1/32" which is a scale 7" wide. The color is OK too. I might be able to make depressed white letters too, just fill with paint and wipe the excess off. Small o-rings work but don't have a nice sidewall profile. -Robert
Bill, I believe Spine cars (note no L in there) first appeared in the early 1980's. Some of the model names were FuelFoiler and 10-packs (10 unit cars). Randy
I have a better suggestion. Tell Bryan, but don't tell everyone else in the Z scale world so they can bid against me...... I have ten or so of those in my watch list now, but I'll probably only go after 3 or 4 of them. I MUST have the Swift set.
I have 4 of them, but I like the tiny magnifying glass the best! I emailed Jim Shiff that I want a sprue of his new trucks. He said his new RP process yields .001" details, and that you could see the lug nuts on the wheels! I have to have some of those! -Robert
Hi All, I finally got around to assembling one of the paper trailers (mostly - I left off the stand on the front for now) The pictures are a little blurry, so please forgive my poor photography skills - The images I usually work with are X-Rays. I just glued some paper rims to the wheels for now, and I'll need to make some slight changes in the overall design, but here are the results thus far: In the above picture the middle trailer is Marklin and the USF Holland trailer is one of the 1/256 trailers from ye ole auction site. - Phil
Yeah! Cool!That's a cheap way to expand the trailer collection. Thank you for the pictures. Regards Jürg
That looks REALLY nice Phil! I want about twenty of them, when you can get around it. Seriously. Those are sweet. How about some in "Swift" paint? Keep those progress photos coming!
Phil, I am amazed what you do with paper. It looks too real. How do you cut and bend paper so clean? The paper hopper car was also real nice. Kim
Very Nice! Looks Like My Scratch Building Days are at an END! Please tell us; What program did you use to create the artwork? What kind of printer did you use to print? What thickness of paper did you use? Awesome! Tim
Thanks for the compliments everyone! Here are the details: The paper I'm currently using is 44 lb, 9 mil matte photo paper (it's the thickest matte finish photo paper I could find so far). I'm considering trying a semi-gloss photo paper for the trailers as it's not too much of a stretch to see a shiny trailer. I think that it will yield better detail than the matte finish. That's the trade-off that I've found with the different papers, the higher the gloss, the better the print clarity, but it doesn't bend so well. Not too much of an issue with the trailers, but with the Top Gons, it's murder. Since the paper is so thin, the areas (most) that need more support are 2-3 sheets thick. And superglue goes a looong way to strengthen the really critical smaller areas. The printer is your average HP Officejet printer (v40xi). The details come out better than the photos show, but NOT as good as you'd see on MT cars or Tim's decals. It can be made to print a little better, but the paper becomes an issue - (see above). The programs used are Microsoft paint (yep, the freebie program in Windows) and Paintshop Pro. Most of the drawing I do in MS Paint, just out of habit, but I turn to the other program for the more advanced stuff. Below is a picture of my "work station" - a.k.a. My mess! A nice sharp pair of scissors, super glue (liquid and gel) and several sharp x-acto knives with the blades cut to different widths (with a dremel) I also used magnet tape & a 3/16 hole punch for the wheels, a small paper clip for the axles, and a thumb tack - cut off - for the hitch pin. I'm still working on other variations of the 53 footer - including some Triple Crowns - an idea I got from Tim's beautiful work - and some different 45' traiers including UPS. Bryan, I'll see what I can do with the Swift. However, it'll probably take me a little while to finish up all of them, as other bothersome things like work and school get in the way! - Phil [ April 07, 2006, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: Phil ]
Outstanding work on the trailers! Hey Tim, looks like with a styrene bottom to work with... these would make right nice RoadRailers! (and probably be a lot easier to assemble... what do you think?) Adam
Absolutely awesome Phil! I was gone for a few days and it's things like this that I get to see as I catch up. Just awesome. Randy
I bought the ABF tandem truck and trailers off Epay, and am going to repaint them for GN orange and green and stick em on a 50' flatcar!
48' & 53' Trailer Updates! I have just finished the first part of two 2 part molds that will be used to produce resin castings of a 48' and 53' trailer. Hollow of course! They weight as much as one of MTL's 40' containers. Without paint and decals. Hopefully by the end of this coming week I will be able to post photos of 48' and 53' cast resin trailers! Tim
