D'oh! I was afraid of that. I've been stalled for awhile, and the shells are silently reprimanding every time I go in the basement. My excuses are: Summer is too short up here, so why go work in basement work, vacation, family My skills be lacking OK, I copied the decals and tried to cut a mask pattern, but I wasn't happy with how it was going, (Always on crooked) so I put it aside. I need to get back to it. The Tsunami install didn't fit very well under the shell, so I've tried to fix that, and the speaker I used seems to have a buzz, so I need to replace it. I know, lame. My 2-8-0 project is dragging, too... can't seem to find ladders, scratched the boiler, afraid of messing up drilling holes for details--analysis paralysis, right? I suppose the workshop Wednesday thread should help.
Gary, I only "bumped" the thread because I keep fprgetting the name and have to go look for it. I am trying to assemble parts and find a place to work on an F-3 project. I have not done any modeling in over 30 years, but your project has breathed a little spark into my tired worn out self, so thought I would try and work on something. My problem is that life seems to get in the way - and by the time of day that I have the time to work on something -- I am too tired to do it. Then I wind up spending the evening just looking at various forums at others work and dreaming "what if". Maybe with the coming winter and the slowing down of all the grandkids sports ... hopefully I will find some time to devote again to modeling.
Gary - From one F-unit lover to another! Love those Monon F3's. Those were the majority of the F3's the Monon rostered - for freight service. They did them up in the colors of Purdue University, old gold and black (Hail Purdue!). They also had a few more F3's they dedicated to passenger service; they did them up in the red and grey colors of Indiana University (Boo!). Later on they came to their senses and painted them in Purdue's colors also. All of Monon's F-units were F3A's, no B units, no later versions of the F's. Ken ps - Guess you can tell I went to Purdue! (graduate school). This past Saturday, we got our cherished "Old Oaken Bucket" back after a too long stay, 4 years, in Bloomington. It's back home now in West Lafayette. Purdue has won roughly two out of every three bucket games vs IU. Loved attending a Big Ten school. Heated rivals all, at least among the original ten. (14 members now!)
I hear you Sherrel, we don't have kids but I understand your time commitments. I hope you can make time for yourself and do some modeling. It's good therapy for me. I would prolly be more nuts than I am now if I didn't do some modeling once in a while.
Funny Tom, just last night my wife was making a Christmas wreath for the front door and yelled out "I hate craft projects". I am 100% the opposite if I don't get to work on models for a couple days I get grouchy. It is my little break from reality. I have 5 kids from 2-18 so time is scarce. 2 are fulltime athletes so we live at the school it seems like. Funny when I was single with no kids I complained about no free time. Looking back all I had was free time then.
OK, I thought I would work on my Stewart F3 this weekend. I wanted a better mount of the Tsunami and speaker, so I cut a piece of .040 styrene, trimmed the mounts, wired the trucks up, and mounted the speaker. Everything fit snug under the shell, and it sounded good, so I tried running around the layout...and it kept derailing. The front truck would derail every time it went around a curve, so I checked wheel gauge, truck movement, obstructions--all good. Finally I noticed the rear truck was loose--it wasn't sitting on the bolster pin. I had to pull everything apart and found this (sorry for bad cell picture): The truck is broken. (big triangular piece missing). It seems to be part # 37714R, made by Kato. I'm not having luck Googling it, but I'm curious if Kato-made Atlas GP7 trucks are the same thing as Kato-made Stewart F-unit trucks. There are some available on eBay...
E-mail sent. I couldn't find that part on their website, but maybe they have them available. It seemed to be the weekend of broken trucks. I got an old Walthers FM H10-44, advertised as NIB and runs good, and it ran poorly. I noticed some extra plastic: So I took it apart: The clip that holds the wiper on is broken. I repaired it, and cleaned the very dirty wheels, and now it runs great, but I'm wondering if I should contact the seller and let them know, or what...
