Scratched 34' boxcar

[Specter3]

Never tried anything like this before. Just kind of winged it this time to even see if I could turn out something even slightly recognizable. Looks decent in white. Will see what paint does. I need 34' and under cars for my 1920 rendition of the New Haven. The Bachmann cars are fetching crazy prices on the bay so I figured on trying to slap one together. Now I am kind of excited to see it in paint. If it really turns out ok, I will come up with some fixtures to be able to turn out more than one at a time, more accurately.

[garethashenden]

Looks good! Have you considered the FNS kits? They're 36'

[Specter3]

Yes I have seen them and have a couple. But I want to have a variety of rolling stock that shows up in these old pics. It is really obvious the big differences in size in these pictures. The shorter 30-34 foot cars really set off the time frame.





You don't need many for the end of WW1 period I am shooting, for but you need some. Back up 10 years and you need a ton. Very generic looking cars that are distinguished in a lot of cases only by decoration and truck selection. Especially in N scale. There are differences, but for railroad modelling versus rolling stock modelling one could be pretty happy with two or three generic cars I think.

[Iain]

Looks pretty good.  Maybe for variation, change things like ladders out for grab ladders and other things of that nature.

[Specter3]

Slightly shorter 32' car in progress.

[Specter3]

Primer looks like crap.

[jimmo]

Primer looks like crap.

One of the primer's job is to unveil the model's subtle flaws. I'm seeing some issues that appear to go way beyond the primer...

[Specter3]

Well since they are literally slapped together in minutes, there are huge issues. But as proof that it is possible it works for me. I need to figure out how to cut the large pieces square and repeatably. Another more pressing issue is a total lack of available decals. If there were sheets of dimensional data for the 1900-1920 period one could piece together the railroad names from alphabet sheets. I would cetainly spend a bit on some tooling rather than chasing old bachmann cars.

[pjm20]

I need to figure out how to cut the large pieces square and repeatably.

The Chopper?

[garethashenden]

It looks to me as if the bolsters aren't spaced properly. One is closer to the end than the other.

As for decals, this guy has some early B&M decals and he could probably do others if asked. http://www.petescustomdecals.com/index.html

[Specter3]

Bolster is eyeballed. Like I said I put these together in about 15 min each.    Pete has some nice decals. I will email him and see if he will do a sheet of data for 34-36' cars. If he can pull the data pieces from a couple different existing sets it should be fairly easy for him. Plus hopefully one could do more than one car for $10. Without decals the best looking models will not look right. I figure with a mitre box and some jigs for cutting sides, ends, and roofs, one could turn out some acceptable 1900 to MDC/Fine N scale period boxcars. But until decals are sourced, I will probably just start making some jigs for sides and ends.

[central.vermont]

as to decals have you looked into Clover House? They do dry transfers and have a wide variety of turn of the century cars.

Jon

[Chris333]

You can use a small square to make the cuts. On scribed siding I try to cut the back of the sheet. You can dress the cut edges with a brass wire brush to remove the fuzzy edges.

[Specter3]

Jon

I have seen Clover House and their dry transfers, but I have never used that type of product before. Just hesitant to use a new method. Plus they specifically say 1 car per sheet of transfers. In using Microscale decals I get 4-6 cars out of every sheet. Spreads cost out pretty well. Plus blunders are not that expensive. Mess up a single piece of a sheet of transfers and you just doubled the lettering cost for that car. I know I am being a little cheep but that is my nature.

Chris, thanks for the tip on cutting the siding. I will have to try that.

[SandyEggoJake]

Looking nice, but what are you using for car floors?  They seem high for the 1920s era which is what I model.  (more Civil war-ish) 

For mine, I use the metal MTL underframes which you can get from them direct for like $2 bucks each.  Makes a solid platform that couples well to other cars, has an OK ride height, and allows a build with the weight held low for optimal tracking.  Their 34' also has features which allow easy attachment of scratch built truss rods (or you can buy PE truss rods that fit these frames from Fine-N-Scale).  Then you can focus on the box and details itself.