Looking good Manny. They had pin pullers on both sides huh? Wish they still made them on both sides. Great modeling for sure..
Thanks Tom. Yeah, one of the very few turn of the century cars to have dual pin pullers. Most cars had single, left side pullers. Just finished putting on the second and final coat of paint on the cars. They look nice. I'll let the paint dry overnight in preparation for Gloss, and then decals will start probably Wednesday morning. I want to make sure that the paint and the coat are dry before decals, especially since the air is artificially dry due to the heat being on. Also checked my supply of lump coal from Woodland Scenics. We're good to go! Looks just like the Lignite mined around here.
Sneak peak....First side done. Lots of work. One car a day it looks like. Just finished this a while ago. One coat of Solvaset. Other side tomorrow...
Thanks Dan. That's just the first of four cars to do. I hope to have a Frisco 4-4-0 done and then a caboose.
Manny, this project is my favorite out all your other great projects. Once you built some wood kits it wasn't a far leap for you to design and build your own "kit". A true craftsman.
Progressing on the decals. Car 409 is done, and has a few more Solvaset's before she is Dullcoated. Car 400 is almost completed. Car 406 is yet to be started. Each car side takes about 1 1/2 - 3 hours to do, as the decal job is very intensive with small sections at one clip. Each side has 16 decals, and the end have one, so you are talking about 34 total decal pieces for one car. That is a lot, but man is it worth it. I'm really enjoying how these are turning out. Hopefully I can start weathering Friday evening/Saturday afternoon after my AutoCAD class.
Still coats of Solvaset await, and some paint touch-ups before Dullcoat, but here are the three gondola's. I'm pleased with how they have turned out thus far. Weights, coal loads, and weathering with Bragdon Powders still to come...
Cars are Dull-coated and sealed. Later this afternoon, I'll be adding weights, coal loads and weathering. They'll be completed. Stay tuned for further updates, and the closing build posts of this thread. Manny
Looking very good, Manny. I want to see your method for adding a coal load. I still need to add coal to my Frisco coal car. Are you going to be using a removable foam base maybe?
Thanks guys. Coal loads will be permanent. Since these are wood kits, there is no way to weight them but to put the weight in the car. The coal loads hide the weights. With Westerfield's later cars, he used a metallic flake filled resin, so that the gondola cars could be run empty. I'm thinking of how I can do the wood car kits. My idea so far is to use old flat steel plates from plastic kits. Lay them in the bottom of the car, and then have a false bottom over them. That would take a good amount of work, but it will need to be done, since I don't want to have all loaded gondolas. So far I have weathered the undersides with Bragdon Powers; Dark Rust and Black. The cars now have their Kadee Couplers and Arch Bar trucks attached. They've been weighted, and have their coal loads in. I'm presently applying the water/white glue mix. Slow and tedious as you can't use too much or it runs out the bottom of the car. Taking pictures along the way. I'll be posting them up shortly.
I humbly present to you, Kansas & Texas Coal Company, 30 Ft, 60,000 Lbs capacity, gondola number 409 More to come...
Looks great!!! I'm glad you posted photos of this cars construction, or I would I have created some crazy theory involving time machines and shrink rays to explain this level of awesome detail. In all seriousness it is a great looking model. You should probably take that to a model competion. You would be sure to win first place.
Sister cars 400 and 406. Water has washed some of the paint on the sides down... All three in line... Last car, No. 404, will be built shortly. I have to get supplies from Grandt Line. Thank you all for your thoughts, compliments, and support.
Hey Manny thats pretty cool how you show the prototype photo behind the model. So did you have the photo on your PC screen and set the model in front then take a pic, or how did you do that?? Man thats a neat touch, pretty classy my friend.
I set up two Labelle boxes on top of one another, then one in the front. I balance a photo of the car, and then place the car in front of the picture. I can adjust the car to a good angle. I then snap the picture from far away. Lighting isn't the best where I took the pictures. I need to get a photo shoot booth. I too like the proto/model photo. Works really well.
