Here is a picture of a custom project I'm doing for a friend of mine. This is one of an eight car train, plus two locomotives, all in this scheme. As a prototype modeller I'm finding this project pretty liberating as I don't have to worry about getting things exactly right. I can use any car I have laying around without worrying if it's the correct window pattern, is a full 85' car, etc. This is one of only two plastic cars in the entire set, the rest being extruded aluminum bodies from various manufacturers. Most od the cars for this project will recieve interiors of one sort or another, ranging from the basic IHC kits for the coaches to fully custom interiors for this car (a dome sleeper) and the tavern car. The silver and blue car behind it is another custom project, but one for myself. It's a Con-Cor dome-obs with a fully custom interior thats will go into service as my private car, because every railroad tycoon should have one!
C3PO it is great to see someone still doing custom work. Are you going to have hot coffee in your Private car? (I did! Its HO too!) Before I put the roof on, but had finished the interior, I dripped some hot coffee that went right into the car!! DRAT! (The cup tipped as I was looking at something farther over on the layout.) Now I remember when drinking coffee, that it pays to move away from the layout!
Probably not coffee, but undoubtably cat fur. I have two kittens that I can't keepoff thetrain table, so we kind of co-exist. At the moment I'm contemplating filling at least one and maybe all of those windows with naked women figures. Not Politically correct, but hey, this is may fantasy!
The work is wonderful...wish my skilllevel was at that level...I have the patience but not the talent!! Keep up the great work. John
Here are some pics of the finished interiors on this contract car. This is what I call a "semi-custom" interior project as it's made partially from a commercial interior. In this case, the double bedrooms from a Rivarossi 10-6 sleeper were sliced up to fit the windows of the Con-cor shell. I had one additional window at the back, so a wooden seat from an old Walthers interior kit was painted to almost match and put in there. The sections and the forward (nearest the camera) 3 double bedrooms are all scratchbuilt from wooden Walthers seats and sheet styrene. The subfloor is cut from .080 sheet styrene to bring it up to the correct height. The empty compartments are for the washrooms, but as they have no windows and can't be seen from the outside I didn't bother to build interiors for them. The forward windows have been cut out of the roof section and replaced with clear acetate windows from an old Front Range box. I actually find that Con-Cor boxes have the clearest windows, but I didn't have any to sacrifice tonight. The bulkheads are all quite low, at about the height of the top of the windows to accomodate the lowered floor of the dome section. On the actual cars, the floor of the main deck under the dome was also lowered to maintain clearence, but that was a bigger project than I had time for on this job. The low bulkheads aren't visible through the windows of the finished model. The second image is of the interior of the dome section. It's pieces of a Rivarossi Observation interior sliced up and fitted together. I chose this section because of the lounge detailing and the fact that it is quite low, creating an illusion of depth inside the dome. The interior details are sitting on a cradle made of .080 styrene that is glued to the inside of the "glass" section. THere are no stairs on this model. Total time for the interiors was one long evening. I started about 5 and was done by midnight, including all the painting. Don't be afraid to try this sort of project! One of the neat things about doing interiors is that it's very difficult to see them so almost anything looks good. A good place to start is the new IHC interior kits as they give you a good idea how the interior of passenger cars look and how things went together. thay are also easily customizable for different cars besides the IHCs. Once again, Don't be afraid to try projects like this! You CAN do it, just keep playing with it!
Beautiful work...I love detailing car interiors. When I was in HO my passenger cars all dated to the late 1800s...no commercial kits for those ! Not to fear...to the scrap box my boy! One "private" car had a bar, plush victorian seats, a pool table, victorian lamps and, of course, a large Navajo rug on the floor . I have to say you are right...you CAN do the projects with a little imagination and possibly some protypical photos for guidance. keep up the great work and keep posting photos ! John
CT HIPPO is working on the "contract job" for me. My fieancee Natalie knows about the project now so we can offically call it by it's Name the Natalie Special (or the NS). The colors are her favorite colors and we are naming each car after something or someone from Wales or here in the US. The Welsh Flad (my flag under my name on here) will be on the train somewhere.We will post pictures of the finished project later on. And CTHippo, thanks for all the hard work!! She's going to love it.
Very nicely done CTHIPPO! I have ridden in the Vista Dome cars going out to California. They make the trip really special! I haven't seen a passenger train for so long, I'm not sure they still have the Dome cars in service any more.
Yup, the proverbial cat is out of the bag. At the moment I have 4 cars of the NS done and the rest, plus two locomotives, are in process. I'll try to get some more pictures up whenever I manage to steal, uh...... borrow the digital comera again.
I have been requested by the Mrs that I take pictures from all Angles to give to her railbuff Grandfather. She says she is very excited to see the train that is named after her. I just can't wait to see it running with her at the throttle
Watash, With your spilled coffee, it was just like the prototype I'm sure. Lots of spilled coffee when they went a tad over the speed limit like they used to in the old days. I was with my Uncle when he had the Via hitting 100 miles an hour in an not 100 mile an hour speed zone. It was on the longest straight track in Canada- 17 miles - on the CN line heading towards Fort Wayne Wright in Alberta. I suspect spilt coffee then too.
Wow, hard to believe all these months later that it's almost done. Here are some pics of the motive power and and full consist. It now stretches 9 cars long with two locomotives. The lineup is: E7A F7B Full Baggage Baggage-tavern combine Dome coach Flat top coach Dome coach Diner Dome sleeper Roomette sleeper Private car (observation) This is the whole consist layed out on what will eventually be my passenger terminal. The train behind it is the premier POTB train, the Silver Fir from my freelance days. Here is the E7A, with a paint scheme inspired by the old NYC "Lightning stripe" scheme. THis is one of the two identical dome coaches. These began as Kasiner aluminum kits, but the plastic domes were rendered useless by age, so I fabricated new domes by slicing up Athearn dome cars and fitting the "glass" together. These cars will recieve interiors soon. THis is the Observation car, also in the Lightning stripe inspired scheme. THe interior arraingement is a 2 double bedroom, one suite design made from more of those wonderful Rivarossi 10-6 sleeper interiors. I had to buy a bunch of them to make the 22 roomette sleeper interior, and used the remaining parts throughtout the rest of the train. I'll get some more pictures up when it's finally finished. The biggest reamining headache is the decals as each car is individually named and as so all the decals will be letter by letter . Nice to finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, especially because I know it is an oncoming (and almost finished) train!
All I can say is WOW!!! Man that is some excellent work. Thanks for the great pics, keep em comin'!! John
