Tackling a Craftsman kit...

So, after watching a video a few weeks ago by one of the members here, in building a B.T.S. laser cut craftsman kit, I went to go look at their web site, and found some cars that I really wanted on my layout... their "War Between the States" series. They are perfect for a "Hollywood studio's wild west" look.

So this is the kit I'm tackling for now... it will be used as a horse car on a passenger train... a few horses in it, and a "cowboy" with a shotgun sitting on some crates for security...

 

The kit looks nice, and looks pretty easy to build... feels like it's a good jumping off point for learning to build a craftsman kit. I've done some scratch building in the past (though, my efforts were a bit wonky... I mean, the building I built was PERFECT... if it were't for the fact that I got my measurements wrong, and ended up with something closer to S scale than HO) so this is all pre-measured... so I should be good to go, right?

 

My layout is a movie studio, so no "link and pin", but rather, I got some Kadee #148s for it with coupler boxes... and those who saw it, I was looking for some trucks that would look good... I decided to try some Wiseman Grasse River Wood Beam Arch Bar Trucks... I ordered direct (well, from Wiseman's eBay store) and at first (having never built cast trucks before) I thought they were the wrong size... I removed the flash, and sanded where needed, and put them together, and the Intermountain Wheels that came with them were WAY too long! I was rather upset by this...

 

I even sent them an angry email, along with the photo... "Are they SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE THIS!?!?!?!?"

After hitting send, I got to thinking... instead of reaming them out... what if I ream out the trucks? I did... it worked, and before I got a chance to send an apology, they had emailed me back. They said "No, they are not... you need to ream out the trucks with a small drill bit... don't worry, if you mess it up, let us know, and we will replace it!"

Talk about great customer service... they had every right to tell me to nadd off, but were kind, and helpful instead! So awesome.

Anyway... I reamed the journals, careful not to go to deep (last thing I needed was to have a wheel touch the sides because the hole is too deep, and short everything out) and after assembly, but before painting, I tested both trucks on the layout to make sure there are no shorts (pushing them with my finger through curves, turnouts, applying pressure to both sides to check for slop)

I finished up by painting them... (brown for the wood, and a forest green for the metal, followed by a nice India ink wash) I think I'm in love with these trucks now!

Here they are, painted and dried.

 

 

I think these are going to work beautifully!

I'm done for the evening, but will hopefully be getting started on building the car a bit later this week.

And that's what's on my workbench.

Does this count as weathering?

Mine's a pretty random little project, but for want of anything more substantial to do while I wait for my Silverliner kits to arrive, I thought I'd have a go at 'weathering' a VW Polo. 

I owned a grungy old Polo years ago when I lived in England and the thing I remember most clearly is the rampant paint oxidation. Well, that and its tendency to stall in the middle of roundabouts. 

That is BEAUTIFUL!

The weathering is absolutely PERFECT!

"Scratchbuilding" a bridge

Great weathering on the car!!!! Well done. Currently on the work bench, i am building a road bridge using some repurposed parts from a Vollmer truss-bridge kit and Wills parts in order to build the piers... The bridge itself used to be a scratchbuilt railroad bridge which i converted to a 4 lane road one (shorter, wider, at an angle, different deck).

mess on the workbench

After some time we got some progress going on ...(...crickets sounding...since i delayed construction). Each 4 column pier (i built 2) is around 30 pieces.

Test fitting the bridge onto the layout, held in place just by gravity, nothing is glued, so excuse the skewness of the piers.

And now it is back on the workbench for further work... but just before that, i managed to take a photo of a local passenger train passing under it... more to follow in a complete blog post in the near future...

More bridge

The Rix Highway Overpass is a simple kit and a good start, but it has no abutments.  So it's off to the scrap styrene box.  Usually the slopes under this type of bridge are rock or concrete panels.

Test fit.

What isn't?

My workbench is a bit crowded right now...

Making and planting trees  so

Making and planting trees  so far.

Phil

Nicely weathered auto.  I

Nicely weathered auto.  I also vote for an instructional tutorial on your technique for the oxidized look.

Basement is on my "bench"

Basement is on my "bench"; er at least until that gets major head way won't be working on fun train stuff for while.  Finally got the wall outlets mostly in:

Once the basement is ready, then bench-work will be on my "bench".  I guess you guys who have space in your life for work on a bench would be a luxury to some of us.  

Oxidized Car- Please Show Us Your Method!

sir_8a  I'll jump on the bandwagon of folks asking you to do a thread or article for Joe on how you achieved that awesome oxidized paint on your VW.  Always eager to learn a new weathering process.

Thanks, Craig

Auto weathering

Thanks for the comments guys - and some nice looking bridges there!

I'm happy to share what I did here, but it's the first time I've tried it and I swear it was more good luck than good management...

It started as a Herpa minikit. I airbrushed the car dark green to begin with, and really didn't like it, which is what prompted me to weather it in the first place, coming from a 'nothing to lose now' position. Gave it a Vallejo Air clear satin coat over the green.

For the oxidation, I started with the grey outlines using a small 000 brush. Used a light grey, thinned I'd guess about 50 to 70%. Sorry I cant be more specific, but I was just taking some grey on the tip of the brush, dipping it in thinners and testing on some scrap styrene till it looked right. You don't really want a fully opaque grey, just a film of grey over the green. I went back and retouched the original green inside the grey outlines in a couple of places.

To finish it off, I slightly lightened the base green colour, and drybrushed / stippled some on the more horizontal surfaces to get a bit of subtle tonal variation in the green and suggest some paint fade. I think the key here is just go really slow, and if it's not looking right you can lighten or darken the base colour and keep drybrushing until the effect looks good. Not sure why but I found it looked better if I kept the lighter colour outside the oxidised areas. 

That's pretty much it. I didn't seal it with a clear coat as the satin and drybrushing give nice sheen variations. Honestly, it seems like beginners luck, and if I tried it again tomorrow, it might well turn out horribly. Hope that helps though!

Cheers

Tim

Like the bridge

Like the bridge installation!

It's funny, weathering freight cars is usually considered necessary and a good thing for realism; cars?  Less so.  My 2005 Prius is beginning to show some signs like the example in the earlier photo.

Thanks Tim!

Tim- appreciate the summary and gives me enough to work with as a concept of how to approach the oxidizing.  Hopefully my beginners luck will be as good as yours was!

Best, Craig

Sir_8a

I  really liked your little car. Nice job.   To totally derail a train forum here is one I recently finished you might enjoy. Funny, kind of along the same lines.

Thanks, Steve

Mattresses & Atlanta

Steve- that's awesome, what scale is it?  When I lived in Atlanta, the joke was that if you needed a mattress or ladder just drive around 285 and you'll find one on the shoulder. Unbelievable how many would be poorly tied and blow off.  Just like Tim's VW, your's is a great weathering job and I love the mattress touch.

Craig

Thanks Craig

  HAHAHA That's funny.  For years I worked remodeling section 8 apartments. I saw some some incredible things hauled on top of cars.   Glad you like it. The mattress is from Sculpy.  The mini spare is a regular tire from a 1/32  kit so it was about the right size.   Thanks again, Steve

Nice one Steve

Thanks Tim

glad you posted yours.  I would have never shown mine here otherwise. 

My continuing decent into madness...

Almost done with all the tie plates on a P87 stores ultimate #6 turnout kit(This is standard HO, you can get both at the P87 stores).   Getting ready to afix the inside stock rail.   Since this will be curved, you put the inside stock rail on it and then curve it where you want, and then glue it to a thin piece of plastic on the bottom to hold it in place so you don't have to finish building it on the layout.   The missing ties are going to be filled with PC ties to solder it together, as I'm not quite confident in the holding power of just pliobond(had a bad experience on the last layout with it on central valley ties...although my prep work and hurriedness was probably to blame).   Just waiting on my order of PC switch ties to come in from Fasttracks.

on my bench

Hi Warflight! I've been away for a while. Life is busy! At any rate, I ma re-detailing a steam locomotive to more closely represent a specific NYC prototype. The model started out as a new Broadway Limited USRA 4-6-2 Pacific. I am re-detailing and repainting the model. Here is a pic.

WOW!

As always, Jim... it's amazing!

Typical work desk

Contemplating a possible backdate on the layout.  From  mid 1990's to mid 1980's

1914 Diamond T Truck

Working on the "old faithful" coal delivery truck for Clifford's Coal and Oil.  I have terrible luck using CA with metal kits, so I'm using Walthers Goo.  Works well, but takes a little longer to set up to full strength.

From my experience CA does

From my experience CA does NOT bond well with metal.