ONR Polar Bear Express (was just the canoe car - now the whole train)

[craigolio1]

Work has begun on the flat cars for this project. I had originally planned to build three. As shown previously I have the two 89ft cars and a kitbash 56ft. There’s often another flat car in the train shown here:



It’s an orphan 40ft car. I’m not sure why it’s still hanging around. Surely the ONR could have found another 56ft car to use but instead this old beater is in just about every train. I was chatting with @CNR5529 about this car and how I didn’t think I would bother.  Him being the enabler that he is, he produced a pretty close match from his scrap box and now I’m modelling this car as well.



Conveniently the model even has a removable deck which is perfect because most of these cars have expanded metal grating on the decks. Shown on the 40ft car here:



So on the subject of the metal decking, I’ll get into my next bit of modelling. I’ve made metal grills out of various materials in the past. On hand right now I have stainless screen salvaged from reusable coffee filters, hash pipe screen, and then some very fine mesh from plastic teabags. You would have seen this on @CNR5529 recent caboose storm doors shown here:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=49819.0

The idea was to laminate the various materials I have to some styrene and then cut to fit. I wanted to see how they looked after painting so I made a test piece and primed it first:




Left is coffee filter, middle is hash pipe screen, and right is teabag. I promise to be more careful with glue on the actual models. In my opinion the coffee filter produces the nicest looking mesh for this use.



How ever as you can see there is a different texture to the lighter gauge mesh in the middle so I’m thinking of using one of the others there.  I’m leaning towards the teabag as it has a visible weave. The hash pipe screen is so fine it just looks like it has a sheen when viewed from a bit of a distance. I’m looking for something with a bit more texture.

I used spray contact adhesive to attach the coffee filter to some .020” styrene and the. Cut it into strips. This is the result (this was before I decided to use a different texture for the middle panels):



I’ve also noticed that there are tracks that allow the tie downs to be positioned appropriately for what ever type
If vehicle that’s being transported that day. I’ll likely just use some thin styrene strip to represent these.

[craigolio1]

On the locomotive front I’ve decided to pull the trigger on the F unit. I think I mentioned before that I have a thing for F units and strangely, I only have one in my collection. The one in this train actually says Polar Bear Express on the nose. How can I not model this locomotive?

For this model I could have started with an Intermountain FP7 but it would have required many modifications to properly represent this locomotive. When I built my VIA Rail FP9 I used a Kaslo Shops resin FP9 shell kit, available through Central Hobbies in Vancouver, BC.

https://www.central-hobbies.com/products/kasloshops.html#NLoco

This kit was made exclusively for Central Hobbies by Kaslo Shops. It was probably released about 20 years ago, at a time when the only decent F unit on the market was the original Kato F7. The four kits that Central Hobbies offers allow the modeller to build pretty much any version of a Canadian or American FP7/9. As I mentioned before I could have started with with an IM model but since these kits come with pretty much every detail needed I opted to use one for the second time. It will be installed on an Atlas GP38 chassis.

Pictured here are the contents of the kit:



It includes a resin body, a selection of resin parts, a fret of stainless steel etched parts, and instructions.

This photo shows the parts I’ve selected for my model. As you can see the kit provides a variety of winter hatches, dynamic and non-dynamic brake inserts, single and dual headlight options, various side panel inserts, laser cut glass, etc etc. It’s a very well designed kit. It’s almost a shame to paint it as it blends everything together.






Basic assembly of the shell components are complete. I need to modify the one side for some new vertical vents next.



I carved the rough holes for the vents and also applied most of the stainless body panels.



Finally I started on the new vents with some stacks of .010x.030 styrene. 



Craig.

[CNR5529]

Him being the enabler that he is,

What kind of friend would I be if I didn't fuel the addiction... Also, if the grates get glued down with the same level of care as on your demo strip, just claim its mud from the boggy muskeg. 

That FP7 will look awesome!

[craigolio1]

It’s been a crazy summer but I’ve still found some time for modelling.

I finished the grills for the side of the FP7.







And added all of the rest of the details, including ditch lights, grab irons, bell, lift rings etc.







Some parts that would have made masking very difficult were left off but other than that this model is pretty much ready for paint. The next step is to fit it to the Atlas GP40 chassis.

For the flat cars, I revisited the decks. On the prototype there are three rows of metal mesh decking separated by channels that the tie downs attach to. I wanted to replicate this and did so using stryrene channel. I also wanted to show the difference in the type of decking used, as it appears to me that the treads the vehicles drive on are different than the centre part. I used plastic tea bag mesh for the centre portions, and fine metal coffee filter for the outside portions. I also changed the method I used to mount the mesh from CA to two sided carpet tape. This resulted in a much better looking attachment and the mesh isn’t going anywhere.





That’s all for now. Thanks for checking in.

Craig.

[Nick Lorusso]

Craig,
This is looking and turning out to being a nice train.

[craigolio1]

Craig,
This is looking and turning out to being a nice train.

Thank you. Wait until it’s done. It’s a real ugly duckling - which makes it even more fun to model.

[cv_acr]

FWIW, I think the deck shot of 100500 shows the same sort of rectangular expanded grating, just oriented in different directions on that particular car.

Some of the 53' cars have different decking arrangements with solid plates under the wheels, and I haven't taken a close look at photos of the 85-89' cars.

[craigolio1]

Agreed. Unfortunately I can’t find anything that closely represents the rectangular grating so I went with mesh that in my opinion just looks best from a normal viewing distance. More of trying to capture the flavour kind of thing.

And as far as “for what it’s worth goes, it’s worth a lot. Any input is appreciated. I miss details all the time and it possible it’s nice to correct them BEFORE the model is done. Haha.

There’s a 56ft car, 100503 that has a wood deck with steel plates where the trailer wheels would have rested. They had kind of a tractor tire tread / chevrons kind of look to them. That’s the next car on the list. I’m starting with a kitbashed Concor car that has a wood deck. Not sure how I’m going to make those yet. Etching would be best but I’m not investing in that for this project.

Craig.

[cv_acr]

Yeah if I was doing this in HO scale i'd use etched material from Plano, but it doesn't look like they have generic sheets for scratchbuilding in N

[craigolio1]

Yeah if I was doing this in HO scale i'd use etched material from Plano, but it doesn't look like they have generic sheets for scratchbuilding in N

Unfortunately not. I have etched mesh from a couple of manufacturers but none of them look as good as the mech I’m using here. Either so big it’s like chain link fence. Or so small it looks like peg board.

[peteski]

Unfortunately not. I have etched mesh from a couple of manufacturers but none of them look as good as the mech I’m using here. Either so big it’s like chain link fence. Or so small it looks like peg board.

If the mesh is supposed to represent diamond pattern, then in N scale that pattern would be as fine as that pegboard you mentioned.  All the diamond pattern surfaces I have ever seen modeled in N scale were grossly oversize.  Speaking of that pegboard, who makes that fine pattern (it is probably the closest one to scale)?

[craigolio1]

If the mesh is supposed to represent diamond pattern, then in N scale that pattern would be as fine as that pegboard you mentioned.  All the diamond pattern surfaces I have ever seen modeled in N scale were grossly oversize.  Speaking of that pegboard, who makes that fine pattern (it is probably the closest one to scale)?

The ones that I’m after for those models would be a rectangular grate of about 2”x1”. The coffee filter screen gives that are through look but still with structure.

Sylvan makes and etched diamond screen that looks more like the expanded steel screen but it’s huge for N scale.

K&S, I believe, is the company that made the “peg board”.

[peteski]

Ok, thanks for the explanation.
Special Shapes Co. (Now K&S) had several photoetched sheets of square patterns.  Some were really fine.  I think those are still available from K&S.

[craigolio1]

It’s been a while but I’m back at the Polar bear express.

Primarily I’m working on the FP7 here but since I had the paint out I figured I may as well shoot some of the other models that needed the same colours.

Here are the baggage car, lounge car and flat cars…. More on them once I get into them.

[craigolio1]

And now where the real progress has happened…..

Once the model was detailed, parts were set aside into groups of colours. Some of the etched parts and grab irons were left off in order to make masking easier. This was quite a complicated paint job as far as masks go as it’s 5 colours.

First I shot it with Rustoleum White Primer, and then I masked it for the yellow. I didn’t want to have more than one layer of paint on the primer so unmasked each area to achieve this.



Next I shot the yellow. For this project I started using the same Rapido paints I did on the canoe car. These paints are the most difficult I’ve ever worked with. The yellow especially. Supposedly they are airbrush ready. Yeahhhh, no. Too thick. It was suggested I thin with distilled water so I did, but they go from too thick to too thin in a matter of drops. Too thick and it WILL shoot but I was getting a lot of clogging issues even with my widest airbrush tip. This held me back on the FP7 for quite a while. It’s easy enough to muscle through a flat car. They get beat up and look like sh!@ anyway. But I wanted the locos to look good.

I emailed Rapido and they suggested using their retarder to help prevent the clogging/drying tip, so I grabbed some of that and got to work shooting the yellow. Well that was a fail. With the retarder for some reason the paint pulled away from the edge of the mask and looked a bit mottled on the flat surfaces.  So I made the rookie mistake of just adding more layers of paint. The result was a thick crap paint job and to add insult to injury it peeled when I pulled the mask. Probably cause it was so thick.




More to come….. my thumbs are tired.