The beginning...

In the beginning was the mail... the kit comes in a shrinkwrapped  box shipped in a padded envelope. Loose parts smaller than the body shell and load are in plastic bags. 

3 D printed parts?

Hi Jeff, are the printed parts a material that you can use styrene glue to attach or will they need a different adhesive?  The must be planning a limited run of the parts if they are printing them all instead of making a mold? .....DaveB

Starting... and mis-stepping.

Step one is to cut the underframe and brake parts off the sprue and glue them together:

The next steps involves the end braces - and this is where Jeff apparently forgot to read... because one was supposed to go on the underframe, and it did, and the other was supposed to go into the body. But I put it on the underframe, wondering at the time why there wasn't any way to align it... and I also forgot to put part #74274, a bell-crank sort of thing between the brakewheel and master cylinder, on the underframe at this point. I was able to weave it in through the cage later. 

Hey Jeff

Great idea to document this build. Gonna be fun to follow along!

Seems an odd time, but couplers...

The next step was to put the couplers on, which seemed a little odd. With things a bit off-balance due to the end supports, I might have moved this up to the first step. Although perhaps Bowser figured the trip pins would get in the way. In any case, I mounted Kadee #158s here. And I clipped the trip pins.

To make this kit work, Bowser had to mill out the bottoms of the hoppers for the new ballast gates - 

The next step is to connect the underframe to the body, which was made a little more difficult by my goof with the A end frame. 

Hooking it together...

The underframe and the body didn't quite go together perfectly - the bolsters didn't want to fit inside the sides of the body. Instead they tried to extend below by a fraction of an inch. So... clamps. 

 Happily I was successful and after taking an hour or so away for it to dry hard, I was able to remove the clamps and the bolsters were seated properly. So the trucks go on. I used the stock trucks, but InterMountain 33" wheels. And the brake wheel goes on too. 

A weighty situation and the first 3D parts.

So the last part of the standard build is to put the weights in. Normally I expect the weights to fit against the slope sheets, but in this case, as far as I could tell, they just fit down into the hopper bays, and are then secured by gluing the weight retainers over them. The retainers are rectangular - they only fit snugly against the sides if turned the right direction. 

I pushed the one on the right down later.

This is also where the we use the first of the 3D printed parts - the end roof parts.

 The 3D printed parts were pretty clean. This was about the only thing I had to clean up, some support material along one edge. 

Ordinary Testors liquid plastic glue secured the roof parts to the body.

Ballast gates

The rest of the model consists of installing the 3D-printed ballast gates. Unlike the roof pieces, these did not appear to stick sufficiently with Testors, so a bit of Zap CA was used to secure them to the body. Shots are a little fuzzy because I cropped a zoom photo. 

Final notes

This kit built into a nice little model. Although with this photo it looks like I may need to go back and rework the roof parts.  The model, without any load added, weighs 2.7oz. The NMRA RP-20.1 weight for this model is 3.375oz, making it about 2/3rd of an ounce light. That's an easy number to make up either with a load or under one. 

The couplers matched my Kadee height gauge. 

As can be seen, I need to go back and sand the gate on the B end. Plastic cement, CA and my finger is a bad combination.

Roadname and data only models are coming.Currently undecs are what they have.

Nice tutorial

Thank You

Thank you Jeff,

A few months ago built 2 E & B decorated covered kits.  Not easy kits .

Also built Bowser kit #56100.

Was thinking about building kit #55600 as B.C.E. ballast car,  but this has really gave me insight to rethink and already just now checked Bowser website for info of your kit.

My old kits cost $10.00 each and they are listing this one for around $25.

Thank you for this tutorial.

Boudreaux,  shop foreman,  B. C. E.  R.R.

CRDX had some of these

Glue

Jeff I've built two so far and Scalecoat Probond will work with the 3D printed parts. ---   Ken 

I do a lot of 3d printing. I

I do a lot of 3d printing. I have been using a 50/50 mix of Acetone and MEK to cement the parts together.

Greg

Nice Build

Nice build project. Update w/ pics once weathered. Here is a similar build I did a few years ago using Athearn PS-2 Covered Hopper.

Thanks.

Brian S.

Old Hobby Mag.

Man, JeffShults.

As I am cheap and cheat,  will be looking over some of my hobby Mag. issues from Model Railroader,  RMC, Railroad Modeler and some other early publications for  articles and plans to build from scratch.

Have plenty of old kits to start,  But really like your Ballast car.

You keep building and I will keep viewing.

Thank you,

Boudreaux,  B.C.E.  R.R. 

It's Not Gumbo unless it has Okra,  The way I make it!!