Canute

OK, like a lot of plastic kit building, there are multiple portions going on simultaneously. While I waited for the cement to set up on the side, I did a little work on the roof and ends. The supplied roof is for a 50 foot car, but this is a 40 foot car. I removed 3 panels in the middle, put the resulting roof sections on my Byrnes sander and trued the cut ends up. I also sanded off the raised portions of the roof nearest the end. These are the locations for the roof hatches. Removed roof section. I need to put it in the fixture to glue it up nice and straight. The sanded smooth location for the hatches. About 1966 or so, the railroads began removing roof mounted running boards from box cars and moving the brake wheels lower on the end. To add to the fun, the ends supplied are for a car with a high mounted brake wheel. So I have to plug all the little 0.010 holes with Evergreen styrene rod. White specks are the plugs. I'll mount the brake mechanism in the correct location later. Too early and I risk mangling the parts. And now I can start gluing the ribs to the HAT sections. Cleaned up the first side. Rib section in the assembly fixture. The yellowish section where the door will go is a bit of the paper the manufacturer used for the part layout. After the cement sets, I'll peel it off. Hope folks are enjoying this as much as I am building it.

Ah, a bent wing bird. Love 'em.

Denis & Craig, thanks for tagging along. Yeah, Denis, a lot of folks think it's a box car, but the hatches are the clue. Some roads in the Northeast and Midwest built similar cars to move grain. We still have covered hoppers moving grain and plastic pellets, but those cars are about 20 feet longer and 60% larger cubic capacity. Craig, talking to my southeastern RR buddies, Florida is ground zero for phosphate. NC has some mines, over towards Cape Hatteras.

Glad you're on here, Lou. It's a typical RR freight car with 2 colors, gray body and grungy brown/black underframe. Big change from the usual boxcar red body and grungy brown/black under-body. There are so many shades of gray. The weathering will be fun, since the phosphate sorta looks like cement. Dust around the hatches and doors dripping down the sides; maybe some lumps of the phosphate on the roof, near the loading hatches. I'm going to grit blast it with baking soda before I paint it. The trucks are made of acetal plastic and paint doesn't stick too well to bare engineering plastic, so we grit blast to give it some "tooth". The trucks will be the same color as the body. The grit blaster gun looks like something from Buck Rogers.

Well, folks, I have a car to show you some of the more modern model railroading construction methods. No resin, yet. May have some pieces later in the build. Right now it's styrene. This box car is actually a covered hopper. Some railroads in the US Southeast service phosphate mines. There are many uses in our daily lives, as dietary supplements, cleaning agents and other uses. You can see the hatch up on the roof, above the SEABOARD on the left end of the car. Some cars had 2 diagonally across the roof, some had 4, 2 on each end. This is a flat kit, meaning you have to build up the body from separate sides, ends, roof and underframe. Not quite like the old Athearn brand blue boxes of freight cars those of us of a certain age grew up with. This is one side of the car: From the top, there is a backing piece, with the series of holes, the side of the car, with some fine holes and the contours of the side, a HAT section and the rib section. Because these were laser cut, the maker used styrene covered with a sticky paper to lessen the laser burning. These will all go together in a layer cake fashion, with assembly done on a magnetic building board to ensure squareness. Cleanup of the styrene is tricky, because of the thinness of the HAT and rib sections. The second side is drying in the fixture, so I didn't take a picture, yet. The side piece with the fine holes for bolt details. You can see the shape of the bottom contours. The hat section and rib section. The braces on the outside of the car a called hat sections, due to the shape, with a thin but wide inner section and a square outer section. The laser cutting puts ridges on one side of the part. I found that if I sand the backside while it's all one sheet I'll do less damage to the hat and rib sections.

OC, nicely done. I feel you can see some details better in black and white.

Greg, this is the site I've been on: http://www.luft46.com/ Don't know if it's been updated lately, but it does have a lot of novel aircraft.

Greg, sounds like you've been looking at Luft '46 stuff; alternative Luftwaffe aircraft that mostly were just drawing board exercises. I'll be following this one.

Dave, there are Kevlar gloves available, too. I use one and since it's the "flexible holder", I have no dexterity issues. And it's not too heavy, either. Your first aid actions were spot on. I got a pretty good scratch from a highly incensed cat, years ago and my local ER glued the cut shut. I have a very fine line on my wrist to remind me not to get after a riled up pet.

There is an alcohol based stain from Hunterline, from Canada. Here is a link to their instructions and products: https://hunterline.com/p/weathering-instructions They have over 40 colors.

Yeah, it's a bird farm. Way cool. The only Langley models I know of are in resin.

Nice work on the Fleet, Craig. I had some older cousins who built those size airplanes. They thought I was a lesser modeler because I built plastic. Nowadays, I work most mediums, just no RC stuff. Unless I add in Digital Command Control (DCC) trains. That adds so much to the fun of running trains, especially if you're into sound ops.

Solvaset is pretty strong, since I think it was developed by Champ Decals back in the day. Champ decals were pretty thick, so strong was good. The newer decals we use don't need the strength to settle down. One tip if you get silvering under a decal it to let it dry completely, prick holes with a pin in the silvery area(s) and reapply some solution. Usually happens on wood boards on the lines between the boards, but it can happen on panel lines, too. As a last resort, slit the dry decal, but you risk seeing a line where you cut.

Denis, I'm not sure about gloss red. I'm sure red was applied to various handles and whatnot in the cab, but I suspect they got dirty pretty quick and took on that dull, oily look. The engine crew "oiled around" the loco every chance they got, to lubricate all the moving parts. Grabbing handles with oily gloves did the rest. Brass fittings would get a nice cleaning to enhance the "flash" in the cab and anywhere else on the engine. Number plates and mounting brackets were favorite shiny spots.

Pulling for you, OC. Like the guys said above, hate having a friend suffer. Thankfully, you seem to have it under control. I like following your work.

Denis, looking good. I like your pin striping, a very typical way of prettying up a loco in steam days. Passenger engines in those days got a lot of TLC, with flashy paint on the domes and a bit of an overall shine. A hard working freight engine would be pretty dusty/dirty, so more matte paint. And yes those chains would have hooks. Think of it like the safety chains around a trailer hitch with the link and pin coupling.

Denis, coming along nicely. Doing a great job. A few weathering tips for ya, too. Grease and oil would spill out of the journal box covers (the square looking things on the trucks) from the crew slopping lubricants into them to oil the bearings for the axles, so trickle some black and brown around them. The leaf springs should be a little rusted so appropriate dark reds and a little black grease. The steam dome will have some light colors from the water collecting below the steam pop valves. Dust from the area they traveled in would collect on the whole shebang, more so on the wheels.

Grilled veggies and a nice piece of beef. I'm in. The destroyer is turning out well, Greg. It is a dark camo scheme.

Current infrared (IR) missile technology is lightyears better than the 60's IR versions. F8 versus F16 would be fun for this FWS grad, but my money has to be on the Viper, even in a guns only "knifefight in a phonebooth". Unfortunately, the likelihood of a classic dogfight happening is rapidly shrinking.

Yeah, pretty much, Craig. And, the Super Crusader was very exotic looking.

Jim, that's for sure. Slog, the seat/cockpit turned out great. You'd be surprised how much of the black paint wears off, since the seat is a sometime work platform for a crewchief. Looking forward to see how you continue. Navy jets always looked beat, since the corrosive environment they lived in, needed a lot of grease and oil for protection. When we'd use Air Force jets in similar environments, they'd need a trip to the wash rack soon after coming home to remove the salt. Most newer jets have the parachute built into the seat. We had similar Martin Baker seats in the Phantom. Made you lean forward too much. TheF-15/16 seats have more of a lean back attitude, especially the F16.

I see model railroaders fall all over themselves, attempting to recreate the "box car red" of a certain actual railroad. There are so many nuances, so why kill yourself. Most shops painted the cars with what supplies they had on hand that day, very similar to what sailors did in painting their ships. They'd have a base paint, and add x amount of a tint color to achieve the "official" color. Field repaints of aircraft would probably be unique to the base they were at. How accurately was the paint mixed to the formula? I like your mottle Craig, and I'd be really impressed with the black and white striped Albatros. WWI fighters can be so colorful, compared to the dull schemes of today.

Looking good, OC. And hope you're feeling better.

Me thinks yon Captain wouldst need be take off his foot stockings to greatly assist in the accounting o' his stock o' seeds. "Struth!

You're a one man variety show, Denis. I love it. Same about Bowie, I like some. But, it's all rock n roll!