Foothill Model Works Flat Car Challenge

[lab-dad]

Going well!
Great step by step too.
I got some work done too, pics soon....

? Why not make your styrene jigs from wood ?

-Mj

[marc_reusser]

Thanks Marty,

Wood would prevent the glue issue, unfortunately for me though, at this scale, wood is too inaccurate unless I cut the pieces myself) and laborious to use for a jig.  The styrene really lets me build up the sizes/thicknesses I need on the fly, and they glue together or down onto the jig surface, completely flat and square.

Marc

[Chuck Doan]

Marc, are you typing really fast, or experimenting with the Tequila chipping method again? 

[marc_reusser]

Worse.....my wife was standing in front of me asking me to come give her a hand with something.

Wow, reading it over, it was pretty bad.

Marc

[TRAINS1941]

Marc

It's starting to really look like something now.  A great tutorial on how to do this I do hope you continue with the step by step as you go along to the finish.
This will be another great thread by one of the masters of modeling.

Jerry

[John McGuyer]

Marc

Thank you for the step by step. Since I'm doing somewhat similar things on the K27, I've been reading your posts over and over. One thing does baffle me, how do you keep your hands so clean? Mine are always covered with paint and glue while I'm building and my nails are destroyed from files and an occasional meeting with the Dremel tool.

John

[marc_reusser]

  ...John, I never thought about that, or noticed. I guess I'm just anal that way. ...and I have learned to keep my fingers clear of sharp and spinning objects....well at least most of the time .

All I can figure is that when spraying primer or airbrushing I almost always wear latex surgical type gloves....and these days usually also when working with chemicals. I also tend to wash my hands frequently, so as to not leave oils on the model surface...especially when painting and finishing.


Marc

[lab-dad]

Small update - the side walls and doors.

[TRAINS1941]

-MJ

Very nice job indeed.  I like the coloring is this going to be weathered more?

Jerry

[lab-dad]

I guess Marc and I are the only ones making progress......
No step by step here, just results.
-Mj

[Younger]

 I cut some temporary pieces of styrene and countersunk mounting holes, so they could be screwed into the truck mounting locations, to provide a steady support and protection for the underbody details while I was working on the topside.

I scribed grain into a long piece of basswood using my favorite wire brush, deburred with the scotchbrite pad, and cut thedeck pieces to length with a Chopper. Each piece was dunked in BIS Silverwood and drained on a paper towel. After installation, I will probably treat the topsides a little darker to show more weathering than the protected bottom side. I found Eileen's Tacky Glue to be a reasonable adhesive to join the wood to the painted styrene.

[marc_reusser]

Had some free time after dinner last night....spent most of it trying to clean my work-bench, but did have about an hour of modelling time.

The next major step was installing the slats for the decks. Having already located and attached the final slats that rest against the bulkheads on each half of the car, the remaining slats were evenly spaced using pieces of basswood strips; in this case "re-sized/planed"  'Mt. Albert'  S-scale 4x8's.

A note re. using stripwood as  a jig material: Before using all 4 sides of the pieces were carefully and "squarely" run across 320 sandpaper to remove any burrs, surface texture, and  to make sure there was no "compression splaying/deforming" at the ends of the strips where they had been cut; as these can all cause the strips to not sit parallel, square or evenly.

The styrene slats were then "snugly" and alternately inserted between the existing end/bulkhead slats. The entire assembly was then pushed flush and tight against a square "milling block". (Note that the wood spacers fall just short of the inside edge of the side-sill; this was done to prevent any possible wicking of the glue). Onto the fitted slats and spacers was then placed another "milling block" (not shown in the photo for clearer view) as a weight to hold the entire assembly flush and tight onto the car frame. Liquid cement was then applied to/between the slats at the side-sill.

Once dry, the entire assembly was turned 180-degrees, the spacer strips pushed towards the now affixed/glued side of the slats/frame, and the process repeated on the other side-sill. Once this side had also completely dried, the spacer slats were removed, and additional solvent was applied at the slats and all the intermediate sills.






Marc

[John McGuyer]

The rain is making us Californians stay home and build. My problem is that my little shop is across the street and I get drenched if I try to go over there.

Glad to see you are turning out good things.

John

[marc_reusser]

Busy with other stuff....and just slogging through the tedious part of this project.

Once all the slats were glued in place, and the bulkheads were completed, I sprayed all the assemblies with a light coat of Mr. Surfacer 1200.  I did this to check for any problems, as well as unify the colors and tone down the white styrene, for the next step; Drilling the rivet and bolt holes.
The prototypes of these cars were completely rivet and nut/bolt assembled. This presented  a bit of a challenge on the model, since only part of the car (all the sills, and the exterior of the bulk-heeds and stakes) is painted, the other part remains bare wood. In order to be able to weather the wood surfaces, and properly paint all the nuts and bolts their weathered metal finish, the NBW's were going to have to be added separately.......thus requiring a hole to be drilled for each one.

In the end there were over 300 holes, not including the side stakes and holes for other hardware (thats probably more perforations than toilet paper).  Each hole was drilled on with a .016 drill on a drill press with an X/Y table, and then reamed/re-drilled by hand to .018.





The end-sills, needle-beams, and bolsters then received "end graining" to represent the radial wood grain. This was done by carefully and very lightly touching the parts to the disk sander. Care needs to be taken so as to only make enough contact to "grain" the entire surface, without actually shortening/sanding it.



Marc

[TRAINS1941]

Marc

Thanks for explaining how your doing this very interesting indeed.  But I would be afraid if I grained the wood with a disk sander I wood have one nice pile of sawdust to show for it.

Jerry