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General Category => Modellers At Work => Topic started by: Tom Neeson on March 28, 2010, 10:58:28 PM

Title: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on March 28, 2010, 10:58:28 PM
Hi Guys,

    I'm building a box car with Evergreen styrene and Grandt detail parts. It's your standard issue D&RGW 3000 series box car. Here is a pic of the underframe.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on March 28, 2010, 11:01:36 PM
And here is a closeup of the center sill splice.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on March 28, 2010, 11:04:26 PM
And here is the frame flipped over. I'm a little further along, will post more pics soon.

Thanks for looking,
Tom
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Ray Dunakin on March 28, 2010, 11:04:38 PM
Looking good so far.

Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on March 28, 2010, 11:10:11 PM
Thanks Ray,

Nice to hear from another late night modeler,

Tom
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: marc_reusser on March 29, 2010, 12:26:22 AM
Really nice and clean work Tom. Really shows on areas like the sill splices, and the laps/ joints of the cross pieces.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Ken Hamilton on March 29, 2010, 04:17:01 AM
Wow....that center sill splice is a great touch.  Wonderful attention to detail, which
no doubt will be carried through on the top end.  Beautiful job so far.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: lab-dad on March 29, 2010, 06:01:19 AM
Really cool!
I love working with styrene.
I am curious though;
Why would they build a frame with a splice? I know there were timbers long enough.
-Marty
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Chuck Doan on March 29, 2010, 10:12:50 AM
Nice splice! I haven't seen anyone do that before.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on March 29, 2010, 05:42:19 PM
Thanks for the good words guys!

    I'm also building a train station (first model in 1:48 scale), have been at it for about 6 months and it's about 30% complete. Looking at it I figured it could be a good solid year before it is complete. So I thought I would build a boxcar as a quick diversion. Should only take a couple weeks, once I had all the materials, right? WRONG! Alot more work than I first thought.

Here is a shot of how I laid out the center sill splice, a template is attached to a piece of 0.020" x 0.187" styrene with removable double sided tape:
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on March 29, 2010, 05:51:38 PM
The part is trimmed out and glued to the core of the center sill, made up of two styrene strips.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on March 29, 2010, 06:01:00 PM
Then the opposing ends are trimmed in a similar fashion, glued on, top pieces added, wait for glue to dry, sand to blend it all together, drill holes, add NBWs, blah blah blah...

Here's another shot of the splice. Next up, needle beams and the floor. Thanks aqain for your comments!

Oh, and Marty, I really don't know the reasoning for the splice, but my guess would be that it could be removed if they needed to replace a coupler or bolster or something.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on March 29, 2010, 10:34:27 PM
O...M...G...

On closer inspection, my super cool splice is upside down and backwards...

shhh...don't tell nobody  :-[

Tom
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: lab-dad on March 30, 2010, 05:55:31 AM
Here i fixed it for you!
-Marty
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: finescalerr on March 30, 2010, 11:37:48 AM
Marty! To the corner! (And I don't mean a virtual Photoshop corner, either!) -- Russ
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: lucas gargoloff on April 02, 2010, 09:04:11 AM
This is what I call really scratch!! Keep showing your progress!
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on April 02, 2010, 06:16:52 PM
Hey thanks Lucas, your boxcar is looking sharp too! Mine will also be On30.

Tom
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on May 08, 2010, 11:02:08 PM
An update, adding the needle beams and truss rods.

I built up the needle beams from strips of styrene, to avoid having to cut square holes and make notches.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on May 08, 2010, 11:04:13 PM
Locating a needle beam, with queenposts added:
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on May 08, 2010, 11:07:02 PM
I made a jig to solder the turnbuckles to the truss rods, worked really well.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on May 08, 2010, 11:17:45 PM
Here are the truss rods set in place...and another pic with them bent to shape. Man, was I surprised at how much trouble it was to get the truss bent to proper shape, they are close, but not perfect.

I'm also getting concerned that the inner truss rods will have to be modified to allow for the trucks to swivel, I'd like to run this at less than 60" radius.

Thanks for looking, Tom
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: finescalerr on May 09, 2010, 02:00:54 AM
You left out the really hard part: How you bent the truss rods. In all other respects, substantially more than satisfactory. -- Russ
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: JohnP on May 09, 2010, 06:03:39 PM
Forget running this beauty, put the right trucks on it and display on the mantle sitting on a mirror. Very nice work.

Where did you get the nice turnbuckles?

John
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on May 09, 2010, 06:58:34 PM
Thanks Russ,
I bent the truss with some pliers and a template I drew. Problem is I drew the template based on the Tomalco dwgs, not the model, so they didn't fit too well. Then I spent a lot time straightening, bending, rebending, etc...lesson learned there.

Thank you John,
Yes, the thought crossed my mind to display it so the underframe could be seen, but I would like to run it. Especially since this is the first piece of rolling stock I've built in this scale.

The turnbuckles are old Grandt Line parts I got off ebay.

Tom
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on June 19, 2010, 07:14:31 PM
I started working on the car body before finishing the underframe, I was close to losing interest in this thing altogether. The body is built up of 0.040" thk styrene.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on June 19, 2010, 07:30:38 PM
Then the siding was added with 'HO' scale 2x6's, which work out pretty close to 'O' scale 1x3's. I couldn't figure out the exact correct size to use, but this looks right to me. Each board received a four step process:
1. Swipe with coarse sanding stick.
2. Bevel edges with an X-Acto blade.
3. Add texture with wire brush "Eurotool" from MicroMark. (Thanks Marc, I bought one seconds after you suggested it, works amazing)
4. Rubbed the piece with heavy brown paper, to remove the fuzzies. A great tip from Dallas M., works terrific on styrene too!!
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on June 19, 2010, 07:32:34 PM
And a close up of the texture on the boards. Next stop...Nail Holes!!!
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Malachi Constant on June 19, 2010, 07:59:04 PM
Looking good there Tom .... and kudos for not running the wire straight thru the turnbuckles ... I hate it when that happens!

Since you mentioned the scratch brush and ebay ... do a search for "scratch brush" and you'll find a set that includes the steel brush, a brass brush and a fiberglass brush ... and a refill for each ... and with shipping from the UK, the set was less than the single brush from Micro-Mark.

Reason I mention it is that having the softer brushes is also good for (a) clean-up after using the steel brush and (b) adding textures in softer material.

And, I'm a long-time fan of building in styrene, so glad to see a "real" boxcar being built in fake wood!  ;D

Cheers,
Dallas
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on June 20, 2010, 03:52:24 PM
Thank you Dallas!

I am really liking working with styrene, I had planned to build this and a few other cars out of wood, even bought the wood. But I'm finding the plastic easier to work with and actually looks better too.

Tom
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Malachi Constant on June 20, 2010, 05:17:35 PM
Tom --

I started scratchbuilding in styrene many years ago, cuz I was in N scale and (a) it was real hard to get decent stripwood in suitable sizes and (b) the fuzz was often bigger than the item being modeled! 

Recently built a fake gallows turntable using styrene ... "fake" cuz it just covers an Atlas TT mech ... and, of course, fake plastic wood.

One of the really cool features of working in styrene is that you can create all sorts of fancy joinery by laminating strips before distressing ... so dados, lap joints, etc, etc.

Here's the fake turntable finished:
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27937&whichpage=11

And this page shows how the gallows assembly was mortised into the deck assembly without any actual millwork ... just planning ahead and laminating pieces the right way:
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27937&whichpage=4

Just mentioned that, cuz sometimes you want something much stronger than a butt joint (yeah, I know, jokes to follow) ... and with styrene you can fake the millwork and get really strong joints, plus the advantages of the solvent assembly.

Looking forward to more fake boxcar assembly!  ;D :P
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Ray Dunakin on June 20, 2010, 05:32:47 PM
Looks very good so far! I too am a fan of styrene.
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on June 20, 2010, 06:04:25 PM
Thanks Ray!

Dallas, yes I agree, I built the needle beams out of something like 12 pieces of styrene, shown earlier in the thread. All of the sills are multiple pieces too.

Tom
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Malachi Constant on June 20, 2010, 06:27:48 PM
Heh, heh ... yeah, I know that ... I read that ... I admired that ... but it was more than 5 minutes ago and I completely forgot about all the impressive joinery.  Just had another look thru the thread and am impressed like I've never seen it before!   Now, what were we talking about?  ;D
Title: Re: 1:48 D&RGW Box Car
Post by: Tom Neeson on June 20, 2010, 09:28:42 PM
Quote from: Malachi Constant on June 20, 2010, 06:27:48 PM
 Now, what were we talking about?  ;D

Well, I was telling you that the key to making a perfect poached egg was to put a teaspoon of vinegar in the water as it comes to boil and then...wait...who are you?

Nudge