N scale "What's on your workbench?"

Mark Watson Oct 28, 2009

  1. bumthum

    bumthum TrainBoard Member

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    Finally got my Minitrix "Blue Dip" B&M 4267 finished and thought I would show my earlier (a few years ago) effort of making a B&M F7 out of a Life-Like unit (yes I know 4224 was not an F7 number but I didnt want duplicate numbers on my road when I upgrade motive power).

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  2. timhar47

    timhar47 TrainBoard Member

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    Heres what is doin tonite - working on the 'modified wedge' DPM 'Hayes' kit. Also painted up the old Life-Like Switch Tower, and gave the LL Water Tower a new base, as the tower legs would never ever fit the original base (probably why Walthers has 'omitted' that base in their 'new release'

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  3. SinCity

    SinCity TrainBoard Member

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    I built that same LL duo kit in the 80s and looks like cr*p. I recently redid the water tower many months ago and the watch tower last week and they came out much better.
     

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  4. SinCity

    SinCity TrainBoard Member

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    Found a NOS Pola crane at my LHS this past Thurs for $3.75 and put it together tonight. It is now in primer getting ready to be painted.
     

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  5. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Continuing on with my attempt to replicate a Burlington home built dome car using the dome from an old Arnold domecar and a Concor coach. The dome is fairly close to the original and I used silver decal stripes to outline the framework of the dome and silver paint for the center section. Research on the car has found that the seating originally was aligned facing the windows, and the aisles were along the sides of the dome, although no photo has been found showing that. Subsequent remodeling of the car evidently had the seats rearranged to face fore and aft although the person in the window seat better had not been a tall person. Since the seating in the Arnold dome had the outward facing seats I have chosen to model the early seating arrangement since it better fits my era. There is some discrepancy in the Concor coach window size at the end but I am leaving that alone. Too much trouble to try and modify those and not end up messing up the fluting on the sides. So my main effort will be in the dome and the roof vents, etc. As far as the old out of scale Arnold car it may be moddled as a wrecked car at some time in my modeling endeavors perhaps having a fire destroying the center portion.

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  6. G&G Railway

    G&G Railway TrainBoard Member

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    Converting my Atlas and MT rolling stock to metal wheelsets.
     
  7. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Finished my version of a Q homebuilt dome car. Added some roof vents made from sprue parts of a core kit. Standard Budd dome is in back for comparison. Still have to give it a name but it and the business car will have to be done letter by letter because the decal set is not currently available that has the names.
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  8. Jim Wiggin

    Jim Wiggin Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    John, looks great. Any chance you could do a thread detailing how you built this? I have a Kato E8 I plan to detail and paint up in the Q and will need some passenger cars at some point.
     
  9. Arctic Train

    Arctic Train TrainBoard Member

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  10. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    If you go back about one post prior to this it pretty much sums it up and there are a couple more posts prior to that in the last week. Essentially I took an old Arnold dome, now Model Power, that I had laying around since it did not match anything I had. I had noticed that this dome matched the home builts in shape and decided that I would try for this car to include in the Q business train consist. There were only two of this type of dome on the Q. What I also noticed is the the dome has that sort of triangular or vent window on each corner and the Arnold dome has that feature and sits lower. I cut the dome away from the window glass insert retaining just a little lip to attach to the new car roof. I thought about revamping the windows in the Arnold car but they just did not match in size so it was consigned to the parts box. It was far easier to get a corrigated coach closer in window size and arrangement and cut out the roof opening to accept the dome. I used a Concor CB&Q coach since it saved painting and lettering. I drilled out a outline slightly smaller than the dome and then cut it out. Sanding sticks and a #11 exacto blade finished the cut for as tight a fit as possible to avoid having little if any space to fill in. The structural frame for the dome is heavier than on a later Budd dome and the windows smaller. To get that effect I used silver decal stripes following the cast on ribs and doubling them up on the ribs running end to end. Real pain since I used more stripes on that little dome than if I had striped an E unit or car side. The dome was set into place with Micro Kristal Klear since I both wanted to fill any small gaps but also not fog the dome windows. Plus the dried Kristal Klear allowed me to apply a little bit of silver paint where needed.

    You can see in this photo that the dome has those triangular corner windows and the dome was trimmed leaving the cast on curved tab at the base of the dome that fits under the car roof. This dome does not sit as high as the standard Budd dome behind it.
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    The original window inserts, which were in two sections in the Concor coach, had to be trimmed to clear the dome inside the roof, and below the dome sides for the windows there. Other than coming up with something for the small ventilator domes at each car end that was it. I used some round headed pieces of sprue from a car core kit, but medium to large headed straight pins would work. Of the decals sets I have for Q cars there is no car name on them although it may be on the set that has the business car names, which is not currently available, so it will be a letter and number set in black RR Roman font.

    I re-used the Arnold seat insert since it was again close to what I wanted. The dome had two seating arrangements. One which had the seats facing the sides, probably as built, with the aisles running down the dome sides. The 2nd and most photographed was the normal fore and aft seating in pairs with the middle aisle. I chose the earliest version because it fits my era better. The only two homebuilt cars carried the names Silver Dome and Silver Castle. I haven't found a photo of the Siver Castle but photos do exist of Silver Dome in Amtrack service.
     
  11. bigford

    bigford TrainBoard Member

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    working on two HO bridges
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    proof its HO there really was nothing to do to convert it to N
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    just not sure what color i like better
     
  12. oldrk

    oldrk TrainBoard Supporter

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    GP7 and GP9s repainted and detailed for C&O. Ok, there is a B&O shell there. Is that so wrong? I had to have at least one.
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  13. dmidkiff

    dmidkiff TrainBoard Member

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    My first custom paint on a locomotive, California Northern GP7. I still need to add a few details and put a light weathering on the entire thing. Next up will be one more GP7 and a GP40-2.

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  14. RCB

    RCB TrainBoard Member

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    Man I need some GP7s. But I am trying to best not to buy anything else until my layout is done. It's hard though. Very, very hard. Rolling stock doesn't count right?
     
  15. Primavw

    Primavw TrainBoard Member

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    Atlas Viaduct kits
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  16. arbomambo

    arbomambo TrainBoard Member

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    not necessarily 'ON' my workbench...
    Put the fascia on the layout...
    this is my first fascia experience and the only advice I have after doing it is-try to have a helper, if at all possible-or, grow another arm!
    I used 1/8" hardboard, pretty simple to use...
    ...and I decided to screw the fascia in place, THEN contour it with a jigsaw...this was much easier than I had imagined it woild be.
    and, of course, was possible because I installed the fascia before any real scenery is done-I would really recommend this method.
    I countersunk the screws as best I could without punching them completely through the hardboard-after wood putty and sanding (I need to 'back' two seams and putty these as well) I can start laying track.
    I'm not going to paint the fascia until I have added everything I'll find that I need to add (cutouts for control panels, etc)

    Thanks for looking,
    Bruce

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  17. bigford

    bigford TrainBoard Member

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    thats a whole lot of foam!!!!
     
  18. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

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    That's a very nice paint job on the Cal Northern!! Did you do the detail work too?
     
  19. dmidkiff

    dmidkiff TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks! I did do the detail work as well; grab irons, cut levers, sunshades and radiator fans so far. I still have Z scale couplers, MU hoses and air hoses to do yet.

    It has been a very fun project and I'm looking forward to doing some more of them.

    Doug
     
  20. Delamaize

    Delamaize TrainBoard Member

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    ok I have been holding out on you guys, here is my latest projects:
    NP A5, Built from a Kato GS4 and a resin kit from Superturbine3. Me and all my infident wisdon, I didn't read his instructions or look at his pictures, and decided to try to mill out the shell a little more, and blew out the side of the smokebox. So I decided to try to rebuild the entire locomotive shell with brass, Styrine, and details salvaged from the destroyed shell. I'm pretty happy with the result so far, Although their is some things wrong, but once it is done, I don't think anyone will notice.

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    The next project I have been working on is a London Underground 1997 stock from Shapeways. I just got it powered the other day, and got the first coach rolling and coupled. I got the 3rd coach in the mail, and still gotta order the other 3. Once I get back to the states here in the next few months, I'm hoping I will have better luck finding what I need to clean the shells and get them painted.
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