This week I have been working on converting a Japanese model Pacific into something resembling an MKT locomotive. I used a Micro Ace mechanism to pull a tender that I bashed out of Rivarossi, Bachmann and Kato parts.
Finished some freight cars in the last week! As I had another decal I made another North Stratford Railroad Company 40' Boxcar for the Ethan Allen Furniture Traffic. As the cars were bought on the used car market for this one I used a Youngstown Steel Door rather than the Superior Steel Door that I used on the first car. Car painted with Floquil Dark Green and lettered with Highball Graphics Decals. This is one of many Covered Hoppers that the Reading Railroad used in Sugar Traffic as noted by the blue line over the road number. I used an old AHM/Robbins Rails/ConCor pseudo 2893 CF Covered Hopper kit that actually has a larger CF capacity and painted with Scalecoat II MW Gray then lettered the car with Herald King Decals. Many of these cars had the buy Savings Bonds slogans applied to the car. This is an Atlas Pre-71 4650CF ACF Covered Hopper that was used in many various services including plastics and sugar lading. Car painted with Scalecoat II MW Gray and lettered with Herald King Decals. One nice thing is the spacing on the prototype cars of the READING was not always the same so some inaccuracies can be forgiven on the model. Thanks for looking! Rick J
Boy golly, those look just awful .. get 'em to the shop for a new paint job ... Great job , I really like the F . Well done indeed Mark! Did you use pics of proto 's or just wing it ?
I just "planted" my latest building. Southwestern Bell Central Transfer Office. Some of you probably remember Southwestern Bell...back in the old days. I had this building pretty well finished for another layout. I had to modify it a lot to get it to go here. Trackside. I added the chain link fence to hide some of the flawed scenery. My first attempt at one of these. The holes in the fence are really more H0 scale, but I just used what I had.
The "F"? Two C Liners, 2 GPs and an FB2...hmm don't see no "F" All the weathering was done from proto pictures of these units (or similar ones) from 1968-1974, my target time period. In that time frame the CPR Block-letting paint scheme was looking pretty tatty on all units with the grey coming through the tuscan and yellow and with the units in generally an unwashed state. The Action red scheme was still pretty new having been introduced in 1968 with the corporate rebrand (I think) and units in the area were repainted into it through 1974. Interestingly I came across a refrence that some C Liners were painted in Tuscan/Grey with Script-lettering as late as 1969 so in these cases even the "old paint" scheme was pretty new and what I was aiming for with 4104. thank you for the kind compliments. md
GP9 #1803 was caught in consist sandwiched between a pair of unpatched ex-CP&E units on an eastbound empty coal extra ready to depart Ravenswood for Troy up the Leading Creek Branch. SD9 #2126 and GP30 #3207 will probably be patched at the next shop visit. Hotel project from last week. Assembled this Proto 2000 B&O Mather Stock Car kit I've had for a few years packed away. The B&O returned these to their lease owner around 1961-62. I model 1968-69, but I liked the car enough to let it go. Swiped the stock wheels and trucks for another project a while back, so these Walthers sprung trucks, which have too much side-to-side slack, are temporary until I get more trucks and wheels ordered. I'll have more later on in the weekend I'm sure.
Nice weathering on the engines. That Proto Mather stock car is a very nice kit. It is surprising how late they remained in use.
Flash, I think the chain link fence looks good. Did you use tule (sp?). What did you use for the posts and top rails? I did this 5-6 years ago for my refinery module and used brass rod soldered. The solder showed lumpy, but that was my lack of soldering skills. Carl
A weekend or two ago, I showed pictures of the mockup test roof on my N pier nightclub, and noticed that it was WAY too high for the seawall at the right side of the picture. I figured I needed to lower it by 3/4 inch, but how do you cut 60 pilings evenly when they are all on a moderately delicate structure? Luckily th amount I needed to cut off was the same as the thickness of a piece of (nominal) 1x4 board. I stuck my pier in my scanner and shot a same-size scan of the bottoms of the pilings, and used a printout of that scan to drill piling size holes in the piece of 1x4. Then I stuck my pier down into the holes. The board set the depth for a cutoff with a razor saw, and it also held the polomngs so the sawing would not apply too much sideways force to break off the plings. It didn't come out quite as evenly as I would have liked, so I wrapped metal sheathing on the bottom 5 feet of the pilings that came out fractionally shorter to bring them all down the same level...at least close enough that when I finally make a resin water pour, the pilings will all seem to go down to the water.
A weekend or two ago, I showed pictures of the mockup test roof on my N pier nightclub, and noticed that it was WAY too high for the seawall at the right side of the picture. I figured I needed to lower it by 3/4 inch, but how do you cut 60 pilings evenly when they are all on a moderately delicate structure? Luckily th amount I needed to cut off was the same as the thickness of a piece of (nominal) 1x4 board. I stuck my pier in my scanner and shot a same-size scan of the bottoms of the pilings, and used a printout of that scan to drill piling size holes in the piece of 1x4. Then I stuck my pier down into the holes. The board set the depth for a cutoff with a razor saw, and it also held the polomngs so the sawing would not apply too much sideways force to break off the plings. It didn't come out quite as evenly as I would have liked, so I wrapped metal sheathing on the bottom 5 feet of the pilings that came out fractionally shorter to bring them all down the same level...at least close enough that when I finally make a resin water pour, the pilings will all seem to go down to the water.
That was a good idea! I remember when those used to come to me, sometimes. Sure is a good looking model. I don't know that I have seen a nightclub on a pier model before.
Well this week I'm working on my first big scratchbuild since 2003. A concrete grain elevator. Don't ask why, I just felt like building one. So far I have the eight silos mostly done. They're made from 2" schedule 40 PVC pipe, a bit of plaster and glue and some gray latex house paint. I sanded the silos before painting so they look to have a texture like concrete. Each one is 11 and 13/16 inches tall or eighty-six scale feet in HO. Each silo has a plaster plug in the top so holes can be easily drilled later to mount details.
Was thinking F3 but only typed the F ... and of course it is a FB2 Alco .... how could I have missed that engine ? hard for us new to the sport to recognised anything correctly with out someone pointing it out ....
I try ti avoid using anything that requires the use of razors or sharp blades. Due to lack of feeling in my hands I can get a really bad cut and not even realize it until I wonder where all the blood is coming from. Been there and done that.