ACF 70 Ton Square Hatch Covered Hopper from the 1940's. Here a couple prelim shots. The paintscheme is incorrect, but I'm still researching it: -Robert
Wow! I guess that is in laser cut wood? How have you done the walkways? Would be a good model to add etched brass ladders, walkways and steps In Z that is very fine work
Great news Charlie, I did happen to make Frisco decals this morning, including the tiny Frisco logo in white lettering after researching paintschemes for this car. The only thing I cannot tell from the black and white photo is what color the paint is. It looks like it may be brown, but I cannot tell, maybe mineral red? Yes, the whole car is 1/64" plywood, but etched brass roofwalks would be a very much needed improvement. The reason I made it is because I want some grain hoppers, and all of the several people who announced their covered grain hoppers, have yet to actually deliever any, so I choose this model, because it was the first covered hoppers produced. Being the first produced, they were used for everything from grain, flour, and sugar, to sand, plastic pellets, and powdered chemicals. In later years, after dedicated grain hoppers were produced, they served for more dirty jobs like sand and stuff. -Robert
I finally found the color of the Frisco version of this hopper... black with white lettering, or light gray with black lettering. I know some of the car numbers for the black version, and that's the one I have decals made for, but now I need to find numbers for the gray one. This is linked from the Frisco Modelers site:
does this mean Charlie is about to venture into Z scale Robert, These models look fantastic it is hard to believe they are Z scale.
Have you tried burning acrylic with your desktop machine yet? Might be a better material for the 'metal' prototype cars.
Actually Mike, I just got some new thin sign plastic in, and cut one and assembled it. The problem with plastic is it tends to melt on the fine detail cuts. Jim Manley has the plastic version now. I did however find a method yesterday to hide the wood grain. I sand the plywood with fine sandpaper, then leaving the sawdust in the grain, I sprayed the wood with dullcote, which filled the grain. Still working on that issue. Meanwhile, back to plastic... I did discover a real good use for the thin sigh plastic... Car Sides. Yup, I can make more accurate car sides for passenger cars than what the Marklin cars have. Need time to make my North Coast Limited train. -Robert
Robert- Most plastics have the melting problems that you discovered. I assume you are getting a 'lip' on the cutting side from plastic melting. Acrylic, however, is much better for laser cutting. It atomizes with the laser, leaving nice, clean cuts. It shouldn't cost much more either. Give it a shot!
That's what I'm using, cast acrylic sign plastic. It is .020" thick, which is the thinest acrylic I can find. It happens to be 2 ply, with a color ply and a white ply. It vaporizes well, however the small features I cut causes the plastic to distort in some places, like the thin ribs on the sides of the hopper above. I think I can get around the problem, but I need to invest more time in the power/speed profiles needed for such fine work. The other problem with this plastic, is gluing it. You must be extra careful not to get any of the solvent glue anywhere you don't want it, because it disolves the plastic so easy, that it's almost impossible to assemble a model without at least 1 or 2 mistakes showing. I need to find a solvent base acrylic cement that is thick like gel superglue is.
